Electric Cars
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Companies that convert regular gasoline cars to electric, or add a plug-in option to regular hybrids, are nothing new. The same can't be said for companies taking electric cars and turning them into range-extended electric vehicles with small gasoline engines--but that's exactly what Hyperdrive, from the North East of England, is developing. The idea is sound, based on the reasons cars like the Chevrolet Volt exist in the first place: range anxiety. Most electric cars are still limited by their range for many drivers. Cars like the Volt get around this by using a gasoline engine as a...
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Plug-in Electric Car Sales In Canada, July 2013: Tesla On Top?July marked the 237th anniversary of the American Republic, and the 146th birthday of Canadian Confederation. While it could also have marked another month for the Chevy Volt as the best-selling Canadian plug-in electric vehicle, when the vehicle registration data comes out, we may see the Tesla...
Matthew Klippenstein -
2013 Tesla Model S: New Options, Packages, And PricesIt's still fairly early days for the Tesla Model S, and while the car is finding fans across the globe, it's still seeing various updates and option packages that early buyers didn't have access to. Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] has recently announced a new line of option packages and pricing for...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Chevrolet Volt Price Cut By $5,000, To $34,995The 2014 Chevrolet Volt electric car will carry a base price of $34,995, a cut of $5,000 from the 2013 model. That price includes an $810 destination fee, but not any optional equipment. Chevrolet has "made great strides in reducing costs as we gain experience with electric vehicles and their...
John Voelcker -
Hey, Electric-Car Fans: Are You 'The Electric Generation'?Marketing plug-in electric cars isn't all that easy. There are many different reasons people buy electric cars, and for the mass market, the high prices against gasoline cars of the same size can lead to sticker shock. So among the many efforts to put a little muscle behind explaining why plug-in...
John Voelcker -
Cars Bursting Into Flames All Over China--And They're Not ElectricDiscovering fire is undoubtedly a high point in mankind's history, but it's easy to overlook its benefits when it's consuming something you own. We'll forgive you if your thoughts turned towards electric cars at this stage. After all, the last few years have seen a few high-profile electric car...
Antony Ingram -
Over the next few months, the Chevrolet Volt will get just that little bit more American--as its battery cells are now produced in the U.S. Korean battery maker LG Chem opened a plant in Holland, Michigan two years ago, and production of lithium-ion cells for Chevy's range-extended plug-in Volt is now finally underway. It could be a few months before Volts with Michigan-made batteries start hitting dealer lots, according to M Live--as the batteries being produced need a "settling in" period before use. That means the first Holland-built batteries will ship in late September or early October...
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Solar Power Initiative By DoE Could Make Grid Electricity Cleaner, CheaperSome of our electric car-owning readers already reap the benefits of solar energy with roof-mounted panels, but on a grid level solar still has a long way to go. The U.S. Department of Energy wants to change that, revealing targets that would mean one third of the Western U.S. energy demands could...
Antony Ingram -
Ford Plug-In Drivers Do 60% Of Miles On Electricity (Just Like Volt)Ford plug-in hybrid drivers are really making the most of the electric range of their vehicles--with nearly 60 percent of trips done entirely gas-free. That's according to Ford itself, using aggregated data from the MyFord Mobile app. The most interesting thing is that as many Ford plug-in owners...
Antony Ingram -
Tesla's Musk Promises Deep Dive Into Electric-Car EmissionsThe environmental impact of plug-in electric cars is a hot topic right now, and a fiercely debated one at that. A couple of weeks ago, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk pledged to dive into it himself. Musk tweeted, "Am seeing many poorly argued attacks on 'true' CO2 impact of electric cars. Will rewrite...
John Voelcker -
Plug-In Electric Car Sales For July: Leaf Up, Volt Down (FINAL UPDATE)Sales of plug-in electric cars continued at a relatively steady pace in July, keeping the sector on track for something near 100,000 sales by the end of the year. While last month's half-year total wasn't quite enough to double the 2012 total of 53,000 electric cars, sales are now running at an...
John Voelcker -
Via Motors Latest To Try Electric Vehicle-To-Home Backup Power TechJapanese companies have explored the concept of electric vehicles powering houses for some time, but with events like last year's Hurricane Sandy fresh in peoples' minds, some U.S. organizations are investigating it too. One of these is the Department of Defense. Another is Via Motors, the Bob...
Antony Ingram -
$40,000 will get you plenty of electric cars these days, including the recently-unveiled 2014 BMW i3. They can be fun on the right road, and it's great knowing you aren't using any gas... but there have to be bigger electric thrills elsewhere, right? The GreenWing eSpyder could be what you need to deliver those thrills. It's an aircraft, very much electric, and will set you back just $39,990--but you'll have a whole extra physical dimension to play with. It's somewhere between a light aircraft and microlight in style, with the cockpit hanging below a single backbone housing the tailplane...
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Land Rover's Electric Defender Proves Its Worth At UK's Eden ProjectLand Rover's iconic Defender has proved itself many thousands of times over by now on everything from farms to off-road endurance rallies to the battlefield. Its latest task is a little more relaxed than those duties, but then the powertrain is a little different too. Land Rover's first electric...
Antony Ingram -
One Former Fisker Dealer Vanishes Into History (Photos)Remember Fisker Automotive, the startup carmaker that sold the $106,000 luxury range-extended electric sport sedan called the Karma? Hang onto your memories, because the physical traces of Fisker's existence are vanishing quickly. These photos show what's happening to the dealership that was...
John Voelcker -
Across The Country In 5 Days--On An Electric MotorcycleLittle fuels a passion for travel like a cross-country trip. Perhaps "fuels" is the wrong word though, as it's not unusual to see people attempt U.S. crossings using electrons these days. Terry Hershner has done just that, though not in the air-conditioned luxury of a Tesla Model S. Instead, his...
Antony Ingram -
2014 BMW i3 Range Extender: Heavier, Less Electric Range, Less PerformanceElectric or range-extended electric? It's a choice that normally means selecting between entirely different cars, but when the 2014 BMW i3 debuts in the U.S. next Spring customers will be able to choose both options in the same car. The range-extended option marks out the i3 as a competitor for...
Antony Ingram -
Why Silicon Valley Venture Firm Kleiner Perkins Bet On Fisker, Not TeslaVenture capitalists fund a lot of startup companies, and most of them don't pan out. So famed venture firm Kleiner Perkins' stake in Fisker Automotive--which is still trying to sell itself, but hasn't built a car for 12 months--could be viewed as just another failed investment. On the other hand...
John Voelcker -
There can be few tougher tests for a car than as a taxi in New York City. Tough roads and even tougher traffic makes the city a workout for any vehicle, but one cabby is enjoying the Nissan Leaf he's driving as part of the city's electric vehicle trials. In fact, driver Uppkar Singh Thind described himself as "over the moon" to the New York Post, as one of just six people picked to drive the electric cab when it was launched back in April. Thind paid only $1 for the car as part of the trial, which will last just one year before the car goes back to Nissan. Not everyone gets a Nissan Leaf for...
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How We Became An All-Plug-In Electric Car HouseholdSince November 2006, our family has always owned at least one plug-in car and one powered by gasoline. For almost two years, our fleet has been a Nissan Leaf electric hatchback, and a used 2008 Toyota Prius. After two years and nearly 42,000 miles of driving the Leaf, however, our once high-tech...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Tesla In China: Promised Land, Huge Risks...Or Both?Despite its pollution problems, China has never shown much interest in the electric car and sales have been a mere fraction of a fraction of the country's huge new car market. Not that Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] CEO Elon Musk is put off by unfavorable odds, as he pushes towards Tesla sales in China...
Antony Ingram -
Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi To Install Charging Stations In JapanSeveral Japanese automakers have announced a joint project to install charging stations across their home country. Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi will work with each other and existing charging companies to drastically increase the number of regular and quick chargers across Japan, paving the...
Antony Ingram -
2014 BMW i3 Electric Car: Full Details And Images ReleasedWe won't see them in the States until early next year, but today the 2014 BMW i3 electric car was revealed in production form to the world at large. Some images had already leaked, and BMW had previously released some specifications and also information on the i3's connectivity and navigation...
John Voelcker -
Why Walk? Electric Toyota Winglet Gives Those Legs A RestJapanese automakers may have cultivated a reputation for occasionally churning out dull, forgettable vehicles, but they certainly make up for it in other ways. Take Nissan, for example. Its bread and butter may be the Versa, but it's also given us the Juke, and the supercar-slaying GT-R. Honda...
Antony Ingram