compliance car
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The big news in plug-in car sales for March was Tesla's statement that it delivered "more than 4,750" Model S electric cars from January through March. That news early Monday not only sent stock in Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] soaring, it also cued up an interesting three-way horse race. Those sales put the Model S on a par with the Volt, ahead of the Leaf, and add roughly another third or so to the total number of plug-in cars from established makers that were delivered for the quarter. Would Chevrolet manage to deliver more than 2,000 Volt range-extended electric cars to outsell the Model S?...
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Feb Plug-In Electric Car Sales: Leaf Supply Low, Volt Recovers
U.S. sales of plug-in electric cars continued at a reduced level, as seems to happen every winter. The best-selling electric car, the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car, logged deliveries of 1,626 units, compared to 1,140 last month. That's a better number than the 1,023 Volts sold in...
John Voelcker -
Ford Focus Electric Won't Sell Well, Says Ford
Some makers are investing in battery electric cars and doing their darnedest to make them market successes--think Nissan or Tesla, for example. Ford does not appear to be one of those companies. Since the second month that its plug-in hybrid C-Max Energi went on the market, its monthly sales have...
John Voelcker -
Honda Fit EV Electric-Car Leasing Expands To Northeast
Honda has confirmed the five East Coast locations in which its 2013 Honda Fit EV will be leased, joining the West Coast markets of California and Oregon. The electric Fit will be available at selected locations in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New York, and New Jersey later this month. The...
Antony Ingram -
Consumer Reports Likes Fiat 500e: Still A Compliance Car, Sadly
Some electric cars aren't as good as we hoped--Coda Sedan, cough--while others are better than we expected. That latter group includes the 2013 Honda Fit EV and, now, according to Consumer Reports, the 2014 Fiat 500e. The battery electric conversion of Fiat's perky little 500 hatchback is powerful...
John Voelcker -
2013 Fiat 500e: 108 MPGe Highway, Class-Leading Range
It's the electric car Chrysler and Fiat don't really want to make, but that isn't to say the 2013 Fiat 500e is a half-hearted attempt. On numbers alone, quite the opposite. Chrysler has announced the 500e's EPA efficiency figures, and both range and highway efficiency are class-leading. Official...
Antony Ingram -
Later this morning, Fiat will unveil no fewer than four new models of its 500 minicar. Among them will be the 500e, a limited production electric conversion of the hatchback that it really doesn't want to build--as company officials have said repeatedly. The 2013 Fiat 500e is a compliance car meant solely to satisfy California's zero-emission vehicle requirement. It will be sold only in California, at least initially--not even in Italy, the spiritual home of the 500, or anywhere else in Europe. An 83-kilowatt (111-horsepower) electric motor drives the front wheels through a single-speed...
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2014 Chevy Spark EV Prototype Electric Car: First Drive
As GM's first battery electric car since the EV1 of the 1990s, there's more riding on the 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV electric minicar than its size would indicate. The company maintains the electric Spark is not just a compliance car, but a fully developed product to be sold not only in California...
John Voelcker -
2014 Chevrolet Spark EV Electric Car To Debut At LA Auto Show
It was announced more than a year ago, then test vehicles were shown in March, and now finally the car itself will be unveiled this month. The 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV, the electric conversion of Chevy's smallest vehicle sold in the U.S., will debut two weeks from today at the Los Angeles Auto Show...
John Voelcker -
Ford Focus Electric A Compliance Car? Ford Swears It's Not
There are two kinds of electric cars on sale in the U.S. these days. The first kind--the ones you should pay attention to--are the volume electric cars. Their makers want to sell as many as they can. The second kind are the "compliance cars," built solely to meet California regulations that require...
John Voelcker -
Chevrolet Spark EV Electric Car For Korea As Well As U.S.
While it was announced a year ago, the Chevrolet Spark EV electric car still hasn't formally been shown by General Motors. That may change at a "GM Electrification" event to be held in the San Francisco Bay Area next month. The only nugget of news we've heard lately is that the Spark EV will be...
John Voelcker -
Want To Get A 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV? Here's How
It might be a compliance car, built by Toyota for the sole purpose of meeting California’s regulations for zero-emission vehicles, but the 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV is one of the most highly-anticipated plug-in cars of 2012. The anticipation is with good reason. Combining the practicality of a...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
It's hard to miss a Mercedes-Benz compact hatchback when it's wrapped in a shiny blue-chrome finish. That was the attention-grabbing color the luxury German maker used at the recent Paris Auto Show to distinguish its two electric models, the 2014 SLS AMG Electric Drive all-electric supercar and the new B Class Electric Drive concept. The all-electric compact hatchback comes with a powertrain designed and built by Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA], and the version shown in Paris is very close to the production car that'll go on sale in Europe next year, probably as a 2014 model. It'll be offered in the...
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Battery Electric 2013 Fiat 500 To Be Called 500E: Report
The 2012 Fiat 500 minicar started out as one model: a three-door hatchback. That was followed by a cabriolet (500C) with a roll-back cloth roof, and then the turbocharged 500 Abarth sporty model. Next up in the lineup may be the electric Fiat 500, which Car and Driver says will be dubbed the 500E...
John Voelcker -
2013 Honda Fit EV: Video From First Drive Of All-Electric Car
Yesterday, Honda delivered its first Fit EV electric car to private buyers--or, more accurately, private lease customers, since the car isn't available for outright sale. Only 1,100 lucky lessors in a small handful of states will ever get behind the wheel of a 2013 Honda Fit EV, because for Honda...
John Voelcker -
2013 Honda Fit EV: First Drive Of Honda's All-Electric Car
The 2013 Honda Fit EV is a fun and well-executed little all-electric hatchback. It's quick, handles decently, gets the highest EPA efficiency rating of any vehicle on the market (118 MPGe), and its rated range of 82 miles is longer than that of the somewhat larger Nissan Leaf. Too bad you have very...
John Voelcker -
Honda Fit EV Has Highest EPA Efficiency Rating Of Any Car
The 2013 Honda Fit EV has earned the highest EPA efficiency rating granted to any vehicle offered in the U.S.: 118 miles-per-gallon-equivalent. That's higher than the 2012 Mitsubishi i minicar, the previous record-holder at 112 MPGe, and considerably higher than the Nissan Leaf and Ford Focus...
John Voelcker -
Chrysler Admits: Electric Fiat 500 Is Compliance Car We Don't Want To Make
Three weeks ago, we listed five upcoming electric cars that we felt were strictly "compliance cars"--or vehicles carmakers offer not because they want to, but because they must do so to comply with California zero-emission vehicle rules. Now Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has admitted that his...
John Voelcker -
If reader response is any guide, there's a lot of interest in the 2012 Ford Focus Electric--which logged 12 sales last December and January but hasn't been heard from since. Now, it appears that the first retail customer has taken delivery of Ford's new all-electric compact hatchback. Very, very quietly. According to the MyFocusElectric.com forum, a buyer from Charlotte, North Carolina, was so eager to get a Focus Electric that he drove to Long Island, outside New York City, to take delivery. Ford is initially selling Focus Electrics only in California and New York, but engineer Whit Gallman...
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Electric Cars: Some Are Real, Most Are Only 'Compliance Cars'--We Name Names
Since last year, you've likely heard a lot about electric cars. You'll hear much more in the years to come. But whether you're a fan or a foe, understand this: A few of the battery-electric cars you've heard about are "real"--meaning their makers want to sell as many as they can. But quite a few of...
John Voelcker