Electric Cars

The Chevrolet Spark EV has been on the market for only a year, but already it's being updated. And in this case, the update is major: The 2015 Chevy Spark EV will have an entirely new battery pack. General Motors announced yesterday that it will bring assembly of the electric Spark's battery...

Smith Electric Vehicles plans to restart production, and will partner with a Hong Kong-based maker of lithium-ion batteries.

BMW plans to produce up to 9,000 tons of material per year at its Washington-state plant.

The Tesla Model S electric luxury sedan can be described many ways, and its owners generally use glowing superlatives in doing so. But we've never seen it called an "intergalactic spaceboat of light and wonder" before. Nor an "Electric CruiseBeast," for that matter. ALSO SEE: Next-Generation Tesla...

In the search for better electric-car batteries, lots of lab research has to happen before anything can be announced. Today, a company called Power Japan Plus came out of stealth mode to unveil a new battery chemistry, with both electrodes--anode and cathode--made of carbon. The new cell, known as...

Tesla's third-generation car, currently planned for volume production in late 2017, is now officially nameless again. According to Fortune, the company has abandoned its trademark application for the name "Model E," which had been widely assumed to apply to the new vehicle. DON'T MISS: Tesla's Next...

The Nissan Leaf is by far the highest-volume electric car ever built, with 110,000-plus on the roads now. And three and a half years after its launch, Nissan is pushing hard to boost its sales all over the world. But what about the next Nissan Leaf, one designed with several years of battery...

Several news reports over the weekend noted that Tesla's contract to supply Toyota with electric powertrains for its RAV4 EV crossover would end next year. In the words of Tesla's latest quarterly report, cited by Bloomberg in a Saturday news story, “Toyota is expected to end the current RAV4...

When new products arrive, they're often tested for safety to ensure they're suitable for a given market. You wouldn't want a child's toy to have sharp edges, for example--so manufacturers adhere to certain requirements for toys, and some are tested to ensure they comply. Electric cars are a new...

A mother and daughter work side by side to install Chevy Volt battery packs at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck plant.

Proterra says its 700-mile test is a record for miles driven by an electric bus in one day.

A little slice of India will soon be moving into Michigan, with the announcement that Mahindra will produce an electric two-wheeler at a factory in Ann Arbor. India's Mahindra Group is investing in a 37,000 square-foot facility to produce the GenZe electric scooter. ALSO SEE: Do The BMW i3 And i8...

While electric vehicles are gaining popularity in the automotive world, the aviation industry is also looking into ways to clean up its act. French firm Airbus is best known for its large passenger jets--including the double-deck Airbus A380--but its latest project is rather smaller. The E-FAN is a...

With the 2014 BMW i3 battery-electric car now being delivered to its first buyers, and the range-extended i3 REx version to follow within several weeks, BMW is at last in the business of selling electric cars in volume. And that, argues one financial analyst, may pose the most direct threat yet to...

The BMW ActiveE lease program is over, but the cars will live on with the DriveNow car-sharing service.

Despite hefty incentives, electric vehicle sales have remained stagnant in the United Kingdom. While sales doubled in 2013 compared to 2012, matching the global trend, just 2,500 vehicles found homes last year. That's less than the Nissan Leaf sells in some single months in the U.S. The UK...

It's hard to keep track of all the future battery technology candidates, but lithium-air battery technology is among the most widely-researched. Its biggest draw is the potential to store three times the energy in batteries the same size and weight of today's electric vehicles--providing huge...

Another hydrogen fueling station opened in southern California yesterday, this one at California State University, Los Angeles. The university's Hydrogen Research and Fueling Facility is a part of its program in sustainable energy and transportation technology, and is the largest hydrogen station...

Texas plans to offer rebates to buyers of new electric cars, plug-in hybrids, and natural-gas vehicles.

Tesla Motors released its first-quarter earnings this afternoon, logging revenue of $713 million on deliveries of 6,457 Model S electric cars. That's essentially the number it had said it would sell in the quarter, but the total is slightly down from the record 6,892 sold in the prior quarter. It...