Electric

Think back to the late 1990s. While the EV1 was making waves smoothly whirring down the freeways and highways of Arizona and California, an altogether more rugged fleet of electric utility trucks were living a less obviously electric lifestyle. Enter GM’s S10 Pickup and Ford’s Electric...

One of the biggest drawbacks to electric car ownership today is the time it takes to recharge the car when the batteries are depleted. So it comes as no surprise that the time it takes a car to charge from empty is a big selling point. A few weeks ago, Ford seemingly pulled ahead of its rivals...

Imagine a future where your electric car could talk to your home and chose the best time to charge itself based on use predictions, electricity costs and home energy demands. Except it is no-longer the future. Announced today as part of a joint venture between ECOtality, Inc., and Cisco Systems...

Recall notices are now a standard part of the automotive landscape. Last year's recall of almost 10 million Toyota and Lexus models only highlighted the fact that most vehicles get called back to dealers for minor upgrades or inspections to fix or avert potential defects. Despite their much smaller...

Riding high on a bout of good press of its Chevy Volt, GM is putting $7 million into its next big bet on electric cars: cheaper, higher-energy batteries. In his state of the union address yesterday, President Obama called for the U.S. to be the first country to put one million electric cars on the...

This coming Saturday, January 29, Mercedez-Benz will be celebrating its 125th birthday. One-hundred-and-twenty-five years after Carl Benz received the first patent for his Motorwagen, the German automaker will open its latest exhibition: New Start-The Road to Emission-Free Mobility. Sadly, however...

by Chelsea Sexton Slanted, anti-EV reporting is hardly a new thing, and I suspect we're in for a lot more of it in 2011 as plug-in vehicles hit showrooms. But the recent BBC "Mini Adventure," a 484-mile journey from London to Edinburgh in a Mini E, has caught fire like nothing I've seen in a while...

Hot on the heels of President Barack Obama’s pledge of support for expanding U.S. production and sales of plug-in electric cars in his State of the Union address earlier this week, comes more support for the zero emission vehicles from a pair of Michigan Democrats. Brothers Rep. Sander M...

And the entry of electric cars into the U.S. market continues apace. The first 2011 Nissan Leaf was delivered in San Francisco on December 12, and the first 2011 Chevy Volt came three days later in New Jersey. Now, Smart has delivered the first example of its own electric car, the 2011 Smart ForTwo...

Initial deliveries of the 2011 Nissan Leaf battery electric car have been fitful, compared to hundreds of Chevy Volts sold each week. But Nissan's first modern mass-produced battery electric car continues to rack up accomplishments (and the company says it will be at full production by March)...

Customization has been a part of car ownership ever since Henry Ford told customers they could have any color “as long as it’s black.” But while lightning bolt graphics and a kick-ass sound system may be part of your electric car dream, a new set of pimped out shoes could put your...

His party may be under increasing pressure from the Tea Party movement as it fights conservative attempts to stifle everything from healthcare reform to government spending, but President Obama is still keen to push the electric car revolution. Speaking at last night’s State of the Union...

Last night, in his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama reiterated his support for expanding U.S. production and sales of plug-in cars that run on grid power. Today, according to the Detroit News, a slew of policy changes will be unveiled by Vice President Joe Biden to advance that...

Every good spy film has a smattering of illicit love, sexy cars and covert operations. Suspending disbelief, such films make for good entertainment. But for one former Renault employee the real world has taken a turn towards the covert world of James Bond or 24 with accusations that he had an...

If you’re one of the many thousands of would-be Nissan LEAF customers that have had their orders delayed due to a surprising lack of cars then you’ll be pleased to hear that Nissan has a plan to remedy the backlog. So far, around 3,000 LEAFs have been built at Nissan’s Oppama...

The all-electric Tesla Roadster is probably the world's best advertisement for electric cars. While crude, cramped, and expensive, its 0-to-60-mph time of 3.9 seconds will make a convert out of any electric skeptic. But thus far, Tesla Motors has built only 1,500 Roadsters, and the car was always...

We first heard about Mazda’s plans to develop a battery-powered electric version of its Mazda2 hatchback back in 2009, with the automaker finally starting real-world trials of prototypes last year. Now Mazda has announced that its electric Mazda2 (a Demio in Japan) is scheduled to commence...

Coda Automotive, the electric-car startup that last fall delayed the launch of its all-electric Sedan, announced this afternoon that it had hired Phil Murtaugh as its new CEO. It also revealed that it plans to launch its Coda Sedan electric car into the domestic Chinese market once the car has been...

Range is one of those recurring talking points with electric cars, used by EV critics whenever they want a cheap shot. Keen to make sure safety doesn't become another, the manufacturers are fighting back by proving their electric cars can be just as safe as their gasoline counterparts. Mitsubishi...

Driving a Tesla Roadster is an unforgettable experience. To be fair, perhaps driving any car with acceleration from 0 to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds is unforgettable. But the fact that all the Tesla's torque comes from 6,831 lithium-ion laptop cells powering an electric motor--and the relative...