charging

Photovoltaic solar panels are quickly becoming the accepted ultimate accessory for any self-respecting electric car owner. So much so that Ford recently announced that it has negotiated special discount pricing on SunPower solar panels, meaning 2012 Ford Focus Electric owners could get an array...

It's almost the size of a misshapen softball, but it may be the charging combo you will have to use for quick charging on future electric cars. The U.S. Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) is in the process of expanding its J-1772 standard for an electric-car coupler from the current round...

Back in the 1990s, when it seemed like electric vehicles were gaining traction with consumers, Costco did something unusual: the big-box retailer installed charging stations at many of its California locations. Now, however, those stations are being removed, and electric car fans aren't happy...

Which electric car charging station is the best? And just how are public charging stations getting used? These are just two of the questions Portland State University and Portland General Electric Co. are hoping to answer with a two-year research project into electric car charging stations and...

Next year, Toyota will be launching a trio of plug-in vehicles - the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid, the 2012 Toyota RAV4EV and the 2012 Scion IQ. To coincide with that launch, Toyota has announced it will be selling a branded electric-car charging station, made by electronics manufacturing firm...

If you’ve been following the story of what happened when popular British entertainment show Top Gear took a 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Peugeot iOn (nee Mitsubishi i) for a drive to the rural eastern U.K. city of Lincoln, you’ll know that Nissan wasn’t exactly happy with the way its...

It's the episode electric car enthusiasts have been itching to see- and now the guys at BBC motoring show Top Gear have tested two electric cars to see whether they make any sense for the car buying public. Now we already know that Top Gear hasn't had the greatest history with electric cars. First...

Cracker Barrel did it at all its Tennessee stores, and Best Buy is doing it at stores all around the country. Now pharmaceuticals giant Walgreens is getting in on the action as well. If you hadn’t guessed, we’re talking about installing electric car charging stations, a trend that's...

What happens when your electric car runs out of charge? It’s a question we regularly get asked by readers and its one that for a while, there’s only been one real solution. Just like a gasoline car, you need to make sure you have enough fuel to make your trip. But everyone makes...

Last week we told you how the City of New York had just taken ownership of 50, 2011 Chevrolet Volts in an attempt to green up everything from the NYPD to official departments few will have heard of. Now Seattle has followed suit, with the announcement that the city will be buying 35 all-electric...

Consumers and automakers both know that range anxiety is a huge barrier standing between shoppers and electric vehicles. But soon, EV owners will have yet another tool in their anti-anxiety toolkit, and it comes from a partnership between GPS heavyweight TomTom and charging station manufacturer...

If you’re thinking of buying a 2011 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, then you’re probably already aware that its 16 kilowatt-hour battery pack is much smaller than the battery packs normally found in pure electric cars. As a consequence, it is even possible to charge the Volt’s...

Electrical supply firm Leviton Manufacturing announced yesterday that it was now accepting orders for its $1,049 EVB22-3PM Level 2 charging station. Designed to provide up to 3.8 kilowatts to charge electric cars like the 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the Leviton unit can be installed...

It's been known among electric-car advocates for years that so-called "range anxiety" is somewhat overblown. That's despite, we might add, advertisements by a large U.S. company that sells a range-extended plug-in car that highlight its ability to let you drive it across the country on the spur of...

The 2011 Nissan Leaf, the world's first modern battery-electric car built in volume by a major automaker, is starting to hit its stride. Now the evolution of the Leaf is getting clearer, as Nissan officials confirmed changes and updates to the car for the 2012 and 2013 model years. More than 4,000...

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, said the philosopher Santayana. And there seems to be a very real chance that Europe is heading toward a variety of multiple and incompatible electric-car charging standards. That's a path the U.S. rejected a decade ago. And it's one that...

Portland was chosen as one of the first markets for both the 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevrolet Volt—and at least for the Leaf, the density of charging stations and the presence of that CHAdeMO quick-charger probably had something to do with it.

If you own an electric car you’ll also be familiar with the wide variety of charging stations on the market today. If you’ll forgive us for saying so, very few of them are design classics. There’s a good reason too - charging stations are nothing more than appliances, built...

While Nissan killed the Altima Hybrid, its sole U.S. hybrid vehicle, for 2012, the company has made a number of important upgrades to its Leaf battery electric car. For 2012, the Nissan Leaf will include as standard heated front and rear seats, plus heated steering wheel and outside mirrors...

If you’re in the market for an Electric car you’ll know that besides the obvious financial burden of paying for the car itself you probably want to budget a few thousand dollars extra to account for the installation of a dedicated electric car charging station in your home. At the...