Electric Cars

A 2013 Tesla Model S is compared to a 1956 Citroen DS-19

Last year's U.S. sales of plug-in electric cars were the highest on record, but now the traditional winter sales slump has set in with a bang. Electric car sales usually dip during the coldest months, and last January was the lowest sales month of the year--but this January's results apparently...

Last June, the National Automobile Dealers Association launched a publicity campaign to convince car buyers why it's in their own best interests that dealers make it illegal to buy a car from Tesla Motors. The campaign is called "Get the Facts," and it now includes a handful of animated videos...

One of the benefits of battery-electric cars is that they have far fewer moving parts than gasoline vehicles, so they require less servicing. Or as the old saying goes, "Nothing but tires and wiper blades"--which is a bit reductive, but pretty close to the truth if you add in occasional brake-fluid...

A third-party app could let drivers control their Tesla Model S electric cars from an Apple Watch.

As U.S. taxpayers start to grapple with their income-tax filings, due April 15, tens of thousands of taxpayers will benefit from a Federal income-tax credit of $2,500 to $7,500 offered to buyers of plug-in electric cars. Enacted in 2009, it was intended to spur the early sales of such cars whose...

There’s been a lot of confusion recently about the official EPA-certified ranges of certain electric cars. That all-important number goes on the window sticker, and is typically used for advertising and marketing purposes. In November, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk announced, with great fanfare...

The proposed 2016 budget includes some measures meant to boost electric-car adoption.

Plug-in electric car sales during 2014 rose above the 100,000 level, to total roughly 118,500. Last year's total represents a 27-percent gain over calendar year 2013. It's the third annual increase in full-year sales in the U.S. since modern electric cars first went on sale in December 2010; the...

A rule requiring pedestrian-alert noises for electric cars and hybrids is delayed until 2018.

Eighteen months ago, in the kind of flashy, highly-publicized event it's so good at, Tesla Motors said it would launch battery swapping for its Model S electric car. CEO Elon Musk presided over a demonstration in which the underfloor battery pack of a Model S was apparently removed and replaced in...

A German company makes an electric surfboard with a top speed of 34 mph.

Thank heavens for the Interwebs, which have now surfaced a video of a Tesla Model X electric SUV being tested in the San Francisco Bay Area. There's just over 60 seconds of footage of what's clearly a Model X, with camouflage patterns covering the details of its bodywork. DON'T MISS: Tesla Model S...

It's pretty clear by now that the German luxury automakers, at first startled and shocked by the all-electric Tesla Model S, plan to fight back. But the latest report out of Germany--and it's still nothing more than a rumor--is the most indicative of how seriously one of them takes the competition...

Last week at the DC Auto Show, BMW, Volkswagen, and ChargePoint jointly announced they would install about 100 DC fast chargers for electric cars. Their goal is to create “Express Charging Corridors,” on both the East and West coasts, by the end of this year. The most intriguing news...

On February 11, electric-car maker Tesla Motors will release its 2014 earnings and hold a conference call for financial analysts to discuss them. If recent patterns hold, the company won't disclose a number of the important operating metrics that reveal how well it's doing. In fact, over the last...

It's been more than six years since fabled investor Warren Buffet bought 10 percent of BYD Autos, one of the few independent Chinese automakers. At that time, the company had big plans to become China's largest producer of plug-in electric vehicles--and then export them to the U.S. DON'T MISS: BYD...

Reader Jen Danzinger explains what it's really like to drive a very small battery-electric car year-round in the Midwest. In the years following my participation in the Progressive Automotive X-Prize, I have watched with keen interest as major car companies introduced electric vehicles into their...

Many Tesla fans and electric-car drivers now know about the Model S P85D, Tesla's all-wheel-drive electric car that's arguably the fastest four-door sedan on the market. What most of them likely don't know is just what the car's ultimate performance mode, called "Insane," actually feels like. DON'T...

One of the biggest concerns among electric-car advocates is GM's ability to create and sustain a smart, coherent, clever, and explanatory marketing campaign for its new 2016 Chevrolet Volt. The plug-in hybrid with a 50-mile range will arrive on the market in the second half of this year, but Chevy...