Electric Cars

A recent 1,200-mile East Coast road trip in my 2013 Tesla Model S electric car proved to be something of a turning point in my view of the car. Fitted with the smaller 60-kilowatt-hour battery pack, my car's EPA range of 208 miles was not quite enough to make it between Superchargers--Tesla's...

Back in 2009, the MINI E electric car was BMW's very first attempt at building a battery-electric vehicle. The fleet of several hundred electric MINIs was leased out to volunteer test drivers in the U.S., Europe, China, and the U.K. to let the company gather data on how drivers used plug-in cars in...

With legislation defeated, Ohio car dealers are turning to the courts to block Tesla's company-owned stores.

Authorities are currently investigating the causes of a fire in a garage in Southern California that contained a Tesla Model S. While the actual cause of the fire remains undetermined, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] and the Orange County Fire Authority are publicly disputing possible causes, thought to...

Recent patent filings from Samsung include important electric-car technologies.

Nissan is still making all the right noises over one of 2013's most exciting concept vehicles, the BladeGlider electric sports car. Despite looking like nothing else on the roads and very much the sort of car that's often forgotten about once its auto show debut has passed, the company still says...

The 2014 Cadillac ELR is now shipping to dealers.

Just in time for the holiday-feast season, we now have published charts that detail the effect of cold weather on the battery range of Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt electric cars. Think "range shrinkage". The data comes courtesy of FleetCarma, the Canadian company whose app MyCarma tracks vehicle...

The on-again--then off-again, then on-again, then off-again, then on-again--Audi R8 e-tron all-electric sports car may in fact hit showrooms next year after all. And it's all due to what Audi suggests are unspecified advances in battery technology. The Australian site Drive (via Motor Authority)...

An ex-Apple executive says Tesla Motors' dealer model could be the future of car sales.

FAW-Volkswgaen's new electric car will use Protean in-wheel motors.

A race track is not the typical environment for an electric city car with narrow tires and upright styling. Nevertheless, that's exactly where the 2014 BMW i3 finds itself in BMW's latest video, displaying its handling prowess on a closed circuit. It's a place few actual i3 owners will ever...

It's been said before but bears repeating: One of the best ways to get people interested in electric cars is to get "butts in seats"--getting potential customers behind the wheel to experience the cars and see just how good they are to drive. It's not always easy to do, though. Some people don't...

The modern wave of electric cars has brought with it many benefits, but also a few downsides. Aside from obvious factors like the issue of range anxiety for some users or spending a little more to buy a plug-in car in the first place, one of the biggest problems faced by actual electric car users...

It's one facet of the American myth: Get in your car, drive away from wherever you are, take the road trip. Think crossing the country to find the California Dream. Think Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Think buddy movies. MORE: Tesla Model S Road Trip: 1,200 West Coast Electric-Car Miles More...

People tend to recall bad or frustrating experiences more acutely than good ones. Which is likely why a staple of plug-in car forums is the bad-treatment-at-a-car-dealership story. Anecdotes abound about Chevrolet and Nissan dealers who tried to pull Volt and Leaf buyers away from plug-in electrics...

After reading George Parrott's article yesterday about his effortless 1,200-mile West Coast road trip along Tesla's Supercharger Highway, I have only one thing to say. "George, you lucky bastard." You see, I too recently made a 1,200-mile journey in my Tesla Model S. And it wasn't quite so...

Carbon fiber is not a cheap material. If it was, we'd all be driving around in cars made from it--rather than it being limited to a few supercars and high-end sports cars. And the BMW i3, of course. The expense of its carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) chassis might lead you to assume repairing...

600 miles in a day in the all-electric Tesla Model S

Japan's geological instability poses a real energy problem for the country--as witnessed during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and subsequent Fukushima nuclear disaster. Generating power and transmitting it to homes and businesses can be difficult following an earthquake or Tsunami, which is why...