Electric Cars

An electric Volkswagen Beetle and a derelict CitiCar join the ranks of automotive reality-show stars.

Last month, Tesla Motors reported deliveries of a record 6,892 Model S vehicles during the fourth quarter of 2013. Giddy investors promptly sent Tesla shares zooming higher. But many of those cars--Tesla isn't saying how many--were delivered to Europe. And if you look closely, there are signs that...

Who says electric cars aren't working in China? Certainly not Kandi, whose electric car-sharing service--that hires out electric vehicles from vending-machine like buildings--is proving profitable and moving into other Chinese cities. Kandi's service started off in the Chinese city of Hangzhou...

The Smart Fortwo is a car that heavily divides opinion. In the U.S, it's been less than successful. Sales have been much better in Europe, but even so other manufacturers have hardly rushed out to release competitors for the two-seat city car. Until now, that is. We revealed initial details of...

Imagine you're a carmaker, and you found you could build a type of vehicle that customers all absolutely adored. Not just liked. Not just said, "Yeah, it's fine, it does what I need"--but out-and-out loved, cherished, talked about incessantly, and recommended to everyone they met, all the time...

Today, Georgia is among the best places in the country to buy an electric vehicle. Its electric-vehicle tax credit of $5,000 is among the highest offered by any state, and makes buying a battery-electric vehicle much more affordable. But advocates for the bill are now appealing to Georgia...

When it comes to selling green cars, showing buyers that they're saving money can more important than showing them that they're saving the planet.

When electric-car maker Tesla Motors released more information about its planned "gigafactory" to produce lithium-ion battery cells in the U.S., it revealed the four states it's considering as plant locations. They are Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas, all of which are shown as candidate...

With awareness of the 2014 BMW i3 battery-electric car starting to rise--it will arrive at dealers in late April or early May--it's sometimes easy to forget that BMW has a second plug-in car following close behind. And unlike the i3, whose looks are controversial, there's very little debate over...

One of the major incentives for buying a plug-in electric car in California is the coveted sticker allowing single-occupant travel in the carpool lanes on the state's crowded freeways. Now, the supply of stickers for plug-in hybrids that can travel on battery power alone but also have an engine as...

There are now more than a dozen plug-in electric cars for sale in the U.S., but not all electric cars are created equal. And a pair of recent articles about service challenges experienced by owners of the Toyota RAV4 EV underscores that buyers should be fully aware of the context in which their...

The assets of the bankrupt Fisker Automotive are now in the process of being transferred to winning bidder Wanxiang America, but already the new owners have started to discuss their plans for the automaker. The latest news nugget is that Wanxiang hopes to restart production of the Karma...

The 210,000 plug-in electric vehicles sold around the world last year used a lot of lithium-ion batteries. But if startup automaker Tesla Motors has its way, it will soon need as many lithium-ion cells (of the 18650 format it uses) as are now built worldwide. That's why the company plans to release...

The Tesla Model S was named Best Overall car, while the Toyota Prius once again took Best Green Car honors.

Residents of condominiums and other multiple dwellings who drive plug-in electric cars are fast becoming a challenge for the managers and boards that run those buildings. Early this month, a $450 charging cable was destroyed by a vandal in a Venice, Florida, condominium parking garage while it was...

Honda has announced through its EV sales division that the Fit EV model year production will end early, with production of the last of the 2014 Fit EVs this fall. [UPDATE: Honda North America subsequently clarified that Fit EV production will end on schedule this fall, not "early." Honda added that...

Nissan is very quietly gathering additional electric-car "intelligence" about satisfaction, details, and features from Tesla Model S owners.

As expected, the 2014 BMW i3 electric car has been awarded its "white sticker," the coveted permission to drive in High-Occupancy Vehicle lanes with only one occupant on California's crowded freeways. The range-extended version of the i3, however, has not yet appeared on the list--and there remains...

Modern electric cars are nice enough, but ask them to climb a snowy bank or forge through a forest and we suspect you'd quickly find their limitations. For truly tough conditions, you need something a little more adaptable--but there's no reason you should sacrifice electric propulsion to do so...

Owning a plug-in electric car, as buyers learn, is a process of educating the public at large. Mostly, people are curious when they see a car plugged in to recharge. But occasionally, uglier emotions come into play. That's apparently what happened to Matthew Cummings and Jennifer Brown. The couple...