Electric

It must be something taxi-ish in the air. Last week, London got its first all-electric black cab to test (with rear wheels that steer, to boot), and now today Volkswagen has unveiled its own concept for an electrically powered taxi. The Volkswagen Milano Taxi concept is a compact minivan with many...

One of the nice things about being part of a larger network is access to other sites' content. In this case, we're pleased to be able to point ACE readers toward a drive report of a prototype 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid from our sister site GreenCarReports.com. The 2012 Prius Plug-In will be...

It's been one of the most-asked questions about the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car: So what kind of gas mileage will it get? Despite confusion around Chevy's claim of 230 miles per gallon, what people wanted to know was simple: After the battery is depleted, when the car's...

We happened to be in London earlier this week, where it's hard to avoid the sight of the ubiquitous "London Taxi," a distinctive vehicle purpose-built to meet a specific set of regulations involving tiny turning circles, top-hat headroom, and other arcana. That hasn't stopped a consortium of...

In some ways, urban parcel delivery is the ideal duty cycle for electric trucks. Daily routes are usually under 100 miles, and all trucks return to a central location at night--ideal for recharging. Federal Express, which has a large fleet of green and alternative vehicles, is now putting its first...

This morning's deal bringing Daimler AG into the Renault-Nissan alliance has lots of interesting details--but first and foremost, it could be what Smart needs to survive in the long term. Today in Brussels, the CEOs of the companies involved--Renault-Nissan's Carlos Ghosn and Daimler AG's Dieter...

Last month was was a pretty great one for mainstream automakers planning to deliver plug-in vehicles. Publicity a-plenty, state and Federal grants announced, pricing revealed. The message from Detroit and Japan is clear: If you like it then you shoulda put a plug on it ... But with so many of the...

The 2011 Chevrolet Volt took another step last week in its long and highly publicized gestation, with the first complete vehicle rolling off the production line at GM's Detroit Hamtramck assembly plant. On Wenesday, March 31, the first model of the mass-produced electric car built in North America...

Pricing for the 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car, eagerly awaited for many months, has now been set for both Japanese and U.S. markets.

Nissan's ambitious plans to build and sell its 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car around the world will not include populous India, at least not initially. According to Indian Autos Blog, the CEO and managing director of Nissan Motors India said the company had no plans to introduce the Leaf to the...

Much mystery surrounded the electric versions of the Fiat 500 that have appeared at auto shows over the last year. Now, Chrysler has cleared up a bit of the confusion: It will build an electric Fiat 500 for the U.S. market, with a powertrain developed by engineers at its Michigan headquarters, at a...

On Friday, Aptera held its first online Town Hall Meeting--a chat among eager followers and some of the Aptera marketing team. Their intent, according to the opening spiel,  was to "reduce some of the mystery around the company and open our supporters and depositors up to some of the great things...

Nissan has upped the ante on its bid to become the world's leading electric-car maker, by announcing a third global factory for production of their 2011 Leaf electric car. The small northern U.K. city of Sunderland will become the third site across three continents to be tooled up to build the...

We're now well and truly on the road to plug-in vehicle nirvana, with the 2011 Nissan Leaf, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, and various other plug-in and electric vehicles due to hit the market within the next couple of years. But there now seem to be hundreds of car companies, enthusiastic business...

The nice thing about buying advanced-technology cars is that many of them, at one point or another, come with financial incentives meant to encourage fuel efficiency. Even if the car in question is a 2010 Tesla Roadster, the $109,000 two-seat all-electric convertible that blasts from 0 to 60 mph in...

On numerous occasions in the recent past, reports have stated that lithium-ion and batteries made with this material would be in short supply for the near future.  The reasoning behind the shortage is simple, battery makers simply don't have the capacity right now to churn out these batteries at a...

Maybe it's just the translation. But auto writers often chuckle at announcements from German manufacturers that come across as just a touch bombastic. Latest case in point: Volkswagen's long-term plans for vehicle electrification, released at the Geneva Motor Show this week. Key excerpt...

A recent article in the Oakland Tribune highlights the high failure rate of independent car dealerships selling only electric vehicles. Frankly, we're not at all surprised. We worried readers might find a subtext that the slew of EV-only dealerships that have closed--in Berkeley, Concord, Davis...

While no journalist has yet driven a 2011 Fisker Karma with just nine months left before launch, the company will show the plug-in extended-range electric luxury sports sedan's aluminum space frame at this week's Geneva Motor Show. Designed to distribute elements of the car's plug-in hybrid...

When the auto market fell apart last year, the era of cheap car leases came to an abrupt end. And only recently have manufacturers tiptoed cautiously back into offering lease payments for some models, rather than selling them outright. The latest maker to join the lease parade is Tesla Motors...