Electric
-
Later this year Mitsubishi’s battery-powered i-MiEV will finally go on sale in the U.S., having already gone on sale in Europe and Japan and making an appearence at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show last November. However, it’s hard to get excited over Mitsubishi’s zero-emission minicar with the likes of the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt already in showrooms, but new information revealed by Mitsubishi is sure to get any green car fan’s heart pumping. As part of its “Jump 2013” mid-term business plan, Mitsubishi has confirmed that it will launch eight new...
-
Guest Post: Cool Factor Must Woo New Buyers To Electric CarsResearching and writing for GreenCarReports, we've come to respect the insights of Oliver Hazimeh, Director and Head of the Global E-Mobility Practice at global management consulting firm PRTM. This invited post, written by Hazimeh and Principal Aaron Tweadey, offers thoughts on how carmakers can...
John Voelcker -
Mitsubishi Switches On: 6 More Plug-in Electric Cars by 2015In case you didn’t know, Mitsubishi is in the midst of a dramatic corporate change of direction. While it may be more known for its pickup trucks, SUVs and rally cars, the automaker is planning to build on the success of its 2011 i-Miev electric car by unveiling at least six more plug-in...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Smart Goes Topless: Electric Roadster To Appear At Geneva?Smart's current range, just like its sole product, the ForTwo, is short and sweet. The lineup consists of the Pure and Passion specifications, and convertible versions of each. A Ford Fiesta rival is expected in the fall, based on the new Nissan March/Micra subcompact. And although it's not...
Antony Ingram -
Electric Car Pioneers Want Simple Sockets, Not EVSE Charging StationsLess than two months after the first 2011 Nissan LEAFs and 2011 Chevrolet Volts arrived in the eager hands of their new owners, there is an increasingly large group of owners worldwide who are wanting to ditch the confines of dedicated electric vehicle charge points and plug in where-ever they can...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Tesla Model S Oozes Class in First Official Road VideoIt was announced nearly 3 years ago and we’ll not see it on the roads for another year, but Tesla’s Model S has made another important step towards production: the obligatory drive-by road video. As our John Voelcker reported yesterday over at GreenCarReports, the all-electric...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Hot on the heels of its appearance at last week's Detroit Auto Show as a body-in-white, the 2012 Tesla Model S sedan also clearly moves under its own power. Tesla Motors just posted a beautiful, scenic video on the company's blog showing about 90 seconds worth of a Model S "alpha" prototype swooping through some achingly beautiful scenery, with picket fences, long sweeping curves, and rugged terrain in the background. The video, neatly edited together from a number of shots, includes background vineyards, narrow country roads, and what look like horse farms. (Bonus points to anyone reading...
-
Renault Spy Scandal Update: Prosecutor Begins Inquiries2011 has been touted as the year when electric cars will well and truly break into the public consciousness. Unfortunately for Renault, the story making all the headlines so far hasn't been the launch of one of its upcoming Z.E. models, but the news of industrial espionage and selling technical...
Antony Ingram -
DBM Energy’s Electric Audi Destroyed in Fire, Cause UnknownThe converted Audi A2 electric car which hit the headlines back in October last year by apparently driving 375 miles on a single charge has been destroyed in a warehouse fire in Berlin. While the German police investigate the cause of the fire, no official statements have been made about the fire...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Big Crash, Small Electric Car: 2012 Mitsubishi 'i' Barrier TestIt's both true and not-so-true: Small cars are dangerous in a crash. It's true, in that the laws of physics indicate a heavier object will have more momentum than a lighter object when they collide, meaning the small one gets displaced. But it's not so true if you're looking at absolute levels of...
John Voelcker -
2012 Mitsubishi i To Go On Sale Across EuropeThe U.S. EV market will become wider next year with the appearance of the 2012 Mitsubishi "i" electric car, itself wider than those available across international markets. Early reports suggested the American market wouldn't take well to the original's Japanese kei-car dimensions and relatively low...
Antony Ingram -
Life After Top Gear: “The Stig” Goes Electric, Joins EV CupWhat happens when the masked marvel of the highly popular and highly anti-electric car BBC Show Top Gear leaves? He starts racing electric cars, of course. Since his fiery departure from the prime-time entertainment show after he unveiled his identity, racing driver and stuntman Ben Collins has...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Electric car charging company Ecotality announced today it has partnered with Sprint to its electric car charging stations. The partnership will make stations searchable on GPS and will enable billing services and the ability to track data on charging habits. This is one of many examples in recent months of cellular carriers moving into the smart grid with increasing vigor. In the past few months, Sprint announced its 4G network will be used by Grid Net’s smart grid platform. Verizon showed off home energy and monitoring “smart home” services at CES and is rolling out a...
-
Do High Electricity Tariffs Make CA Electric Cars Costly?California might be considered the U.S. spiritual home of the electric car, but according to a new study by Purdue University in indiana the cost of charging electric cars in California may be higher than anywhere else in the U.S. Or is it? According to the university’s Wally Tyner, the James...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Want To Waft In Eco-Friendly Fashion? Electric Rolls-Royce May Be On The WayIf Bentley is all about seamless low-end torque from V-8 engines (or the odd W-12), then Rolls-Royce is about 'wafting'. That's the word used to describe the experience of riding in an utterly silent, totally effortless conveyance that sets one above the common man. Which might, if you think about...
John Voelcker -
Five Questions: Peter Rawlinson, Tesla Motors Chief EngineerIf Tesla Motors had a single message to convey at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show, it was this: We're a real car company. Rather than show a completed prototype of its Model S all-electric luxury sports sedan, scheduled to launch by the end of 2012, the company showed the car's shell. That allowed other...
John Voelcker -
Why The 2011 Chevy Volt Won North American Car of the YearEarlier this week the judges in the North American Car of the Year announced that the 2011 Chevrolet Volt had won the coveted NACOTY prize. At the press conference kicking off the start of the 2011 Detroit Auto Show, the NACTOY team announced that the 50 or so automotive journalists representing a...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2011 Detroit Auto Show: Electric Car Round-UpBetween the wreck of a Volvo and a $300k Mercedes supercar, the 2011 Detroit Auto show is giving the electric car fan plenty of variety, so if you're planning to visit the show between now and closing time on January 23, here are the electric vehicles you should make the time to see and the EV...
Antony Ingram -
Last year Li-Ion Motors were crowned winners of the Progressive Insurance X-Prize Alternative Side-by-Side category with their suitably unusual Wave II electric car. Amidst all the controversy surrounding the X-Prize results and allegations of misconduct and fraud, court cases and even a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, Li-Ion decided to keep a low profile, remaining quiet about their plans to bring the strangely styled two-seat vehicle to market. But at the 2011 Detroit auto show, Li-Ion Motors remained upbeat about its future, with a stand exhibiting both the Wave II...
-
Washington State Pioneers Electric-Car Scenic Tourism RouteThe Pacific Northwest is a remarkably scenic corner of the continental United States. The striking coastal ranges of Washington and Oregon offer dramatic vistas, temperature (if often damp) weather, and dozens of outdoor activities within a few hours' drive. Now those drives can be done in electric...
John Voelcker -
Range Anxiety? Brit Proves Electric Cars Can Go The DistanceYesterday we covered the unexpected electric car challenge from a Tesla fan to the BBC journalist driving the 400+ mile trip from London to Edinburgh in a prototype 2009 MINI E David Peilow, a regular at TeslaMotorsClub.Com, took some time off from his work to prove that not all electric cars were...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Video: 2012 Ford Focus Electric Live Unveiling At 2011 Detroit Auto ShowFord’s Volt and Leaf rival has been revealed, making its world debut last week at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and then reappearing again this week at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show. We are, of course, talking about the 2012 Ford Focus Electric, the Blue Oval’s first...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Tesla Fan Drives Epic Electric Car Trip To Prove BBC WrongThe British Broadcasting Corporation, considered to be the center-pin of television and radio in the U.K., has always had a cautious view of the benefits of electric vehicles, often choosing to illustrate the limited range of electric cars in articles rather than the positive benefits. In typical...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Battery Wars: General Motors Licenses American Argonne TechA long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... Actually, no--fairly recently and not so far from home, the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory patented a battery technology known as nickel manganese cobalt (NMC). Discovering and patenting new battery technology in an era so...
Antony Ingram