Electric
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General Motors is quietly conducting research into Lithium-Air batteries, the next Holy Grail of electric vehicle technology, according to a Friday article in The New York Times. GM acknowledges that while the battery technology has some way to go before it is used in commercial electric cars, the leap in capacity these batteries could offer could yield ranges per charge rivaling that of a conventional petroleum fueled car. For many years now lithium has played a part in high-density batteries from laptops through to electric cars, but Lithium air batteries have remained less common. Lithium...
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What Wacky Forms of Electric Tourist Transport Can YOU Invent?It must be Friday, when the silly stuff comes up. According to Japan Times, in the Kansai region of Japan, four companies have got together to produce a new vehicle which they hope will capture the hearts and minds of eco-minded visitors needing a way to get around the ancient cities of Kyoto and...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Hawaii: Island Paradise for Electric Vehicles As Well As PeopleYou'd be forgiven for thinking Hawaii is the center of the electric vehicle universe. Wednesday, Nissan announced it would be one of the first markets for the 2011 Leaf electric vehicle. Then yesterday South Korean manufacturer CT&T signed a deal with the state's governor, Linda Lingle, to...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Electric Vehicle Range, In the Real World: What You Need to KnowAt the moment, drivers of cars from the 2011 Mitsubishi i-MiEV to the 2010 Mini E are struggling to achieve the official mileage-range figures. So far, only Tesla's 2010 Roadster seems to be able to deliver on its range promises, and that's just when driven conservatively. Why are we hearing so...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
OK, We Get It: Adam Carolla Likes, and Hates, Electric CarsAs if legitimate news outlets didn't have enough trouble covering electric vehicles sensibly, now we get the comedians weighing in. Late-night talk-show host and stereotypical grumpy guy Adam Carolla recently lit into electric cars, in an interview with Gizmodo's Jason Chen in which he was invited...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevy Volt Marketing Theme Emerges: An EV for Road TripsGM has been talking about the 2011 Chevrolet Volt for three and a half years now. After absorbing an enormous amount of Volt propaganda, we've learned that subtle shifts in message can be important. A conference call yesterday revealed what we suspect will become a main marketing message for the...
John Voelcker -
Former President Bill Clinton recently visited social network digg.com for a special Earth Day interview that touched on electric-vehicle policy and legislation. He answered user questions about many ecological and environmental topics--including third-world development and global warming--as well as future transport solutions for the globe. When the discussion moved to electric cars, Clinton urged that the move to electric vehicles should happen as rapidly as possible. But he also warned about hurdles that must be overcome first. Citing the success of last summer's Cash for Clunkers...
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Covering Electric Cars: Is It Really THAT Hard For the Media?If you pay attention to the so-called mainstream media, you could be forgiven for thinking that electric vehicles are alien technology, rather than cars with plugs. Though happy to cover natural disasters; governmental coups, and the latest celebrity gossip, pretty much any reporter seems...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2011 Chevy Volt To Offer 'Mountain Mode' For Hill ClimbingThe 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car will offer a capability that General Motors hasn't previously discussed: a "Mountain Mode" that the driver can select if he knows that he will be climbing a long hill. GM's executive director of powertrain engineering Larry Nitz revealed the new...
John Voelcker -
Aptera Grits Its Teeth, Glosses Over Auto X-Prize 2e Handling IssueOptimism is a useful thing for a startup company, maybe even a requirement. But the April newsletter from Aptera Motors, which is struggling to launch its ultra-aerodynamic three-wheeled electric vehicle in the face of delays and funding constraints, smooths over some crucial handling issues with...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Nissan Says: We'll Make Money On Selling Leaf Electric CarsIt's almost an article of faith in the auto industry that electric cars will require huge subsidies in their initial years. Certainly Toyota is widely assumed to have put tens of billions of dollars into its hybrid-electric vehicle program before it started to cover its costs. Never shy of taking a...
John Voelcker -
Chinese Electric Carmaker BYD Loves LA Too, For U.S. OfficesWhile Chinese car company BYD exhibited its E6 all-electric crossover at the Detroit Auto Show last January, they've otherwise been fairly quite of late. Now comes word that the company has chosen downtown Los Angeles as the location for its U.S. headquarters. Friday, California governor Arnold...
John Voelcker -
Rumors are flying that Nissan is preparing a subcompact electric vehicle to compete directly with cars like the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, and it may even be made in China. The rumors are unconfirmed: word of mouth from inside a partner company of Nissan. But given the number of pre-launch reservations for the 2011 Nissan Leaf EV--combined with Nissan's long history of EV development--a new, smaller EV could be just what Nissan needs to become the market leader. Nissan have been making electric cars for many years. Their first EV was produced between 1947 and 1950 and called the Tama; it was...
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GE, Nissan Join Forces To Ready the Grid For Electric CarsThis story, written by Camille Ricketts, was originally posted on VentureBeat's GreenBeat, an editorial partner of AllCarsElectric. Nissan continues to beat the electric car drum. Last week, it started taking reservations for its all-electric Leaf, and beat its own expectations with more than 6,600...
John Voelcker -
New For Your Convenience: All Cars Electric Delivered By E-MailWe appreciate our readers, each and every one of you. And we want to make it as easy as possible for you to access AllCarElectric.com. So when our reader Peter Mac, in Spain, wrote to us this morning to ask if he could have ACE delivered via e-mail, rather than using an RSS reader, we said, "Sure!"...
John Voelcker -
2010 Beijing Motor Show: SAIC Roewe E1 Electric Mini-CarSadly, we weren't able to cover the Beijing Motor Show, which opened last week. It's too bad, too, because China is on track to become the world's largest single car market, its fuel efficiency regulations are far tougher than those of the U.S., and its industrial policy for the auto sector focuses...
John Voelcker -
Better Place Launches Battery-Swap Test In Four Tokyo TaxisThis past Monday, the electric-vehicle infrastructure provider Better Place held a press conference in Tokyo at the site of its first completed battery-swap station to be put into regular usage, in the Ropongi Hills area. Together with Nihon Kotsu, Tokyo's largest taxi company, the company will...
John Voelcker -
Fisker Funds Keep Coming: Delaware Adds To DoE's $529 MillionLast fall, Fisker Automotive was awarded $529 million in low-interest loans by the Department of Energy, and the company has continued to rake in cash since then. In January, for instance, Fisker raised an additional $115 million in private capital. Last week, the DoE and Fisker announced that the...
John Voelcker -
Yesterday, we published a piece called Five Myths About Electric Cars, Courtesy of Think, whose CEO Richard Canny sent them to us. Today we have five more, to finish off his list of 10 myths. Below is the second half of Canny's list (which is why it begins with # 6), along with our assessment of Think's rebuttal to each one. The Think City is a purpose-built electric car designed for urban use . It is capable of highway speeds and has a range of more than 100 miles, emission free, on a single charge. It's now built in Finland; U.S. sales will begin later this year. NOTE: We did a little...
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Opel Ampera, GM's Other Extended-Range EV, In Pre-ProductionWe write a lot about the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle here. It's a radical new car, GM's first electric car since the late EV1, and it'll be in dealerships in just six months. But GM has another electric car coming next year as well. It's the 2012 Opel Ampera. Ummmm, what's...
John Voelcker -
Five Myths About Electric Cars, Courtesy of ThinkLast Thursday was the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, and the CEO of one electric-car maker took the occasion to speak out on some of the popular myths around the manufacturing and use of electric vehicles. Richard Canny, who runs the recently refinanced Think, published a list of "top 10 EV myths...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevrolet Volt MPV5 Concept To Be Unveiled in BeijingTomorrow at the Beijing Motor Show, General Motors will unveil its a concept car that likely shows what will be its second unique model of the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle. It's called the Chevrolet Volt MPV5 concept; "MPV" stands for Multi-Purpose Vehicle, which is what Asian and...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevrolet Volt Electric Car To Reach Dealers In OctoberThe three-year drumbeat of anticipation for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car has just gotten slightly louder. General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre announced yesterday that the car will arrive at selected Chevy dealers in October, a month earlier than expected. The first pre-production...
John Voelcker -
Surprise! Yes, Fuel Efficiency (Still) Matters to Car BuyersWhat a shock! Who'd ever have thought it? Will wonders never cease? Yes, yet another survey shows that fuel efficiency matters to car and truck buyers. And that more than half say their next vehicle will get better gas mileage than their current ride. Fuel efficiency: It matters Capital One Auto...
John Voelcker