Electric Cars

Right now, we seem to get news about Tesla Motors or Fisker Automotive almost every day. Some is good, some isn't. Yesterday, Green Car Reports editor John Voelcker sat down with High Gear Media's social-media manager, Joel Feder, to discuss the two companies in a Google+ Hangout on Air. The live...

It's now clear: Volume deliveries of the second version of the 2013 Tesla Model S began this month. That would be the version fitted with the middle of three battery-pack sizes, with a stated energy capacity of 60 kilowatt-hours. The news does not come from Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA], a company that...

We get asked a lot whether winter weather makes electric cars impractical. Short answer: No. We even rounded up some of the best electric-cars-in-winter stories last month. But it's a fact of physics that a plug-in electric car will have a longer range in temperate Southern California than in the...

Ask the average person how far an electric car will go on a charge, and they'll probably say "around 100 miles". In reality, most electric cars have an EPA range lower than that--the Tesla Model S an honorable exception--but driving conditions can have a large effect on just how far they'll go...

Troubled automaker Fisker is bringing in the experts to help it manage day-to-day operations, while the company looks for a partner or buyer. According to Bloomberg, Fisker Automotive has hired Huron Consulting Group Inc. to help it conserve cash. Constant troubles and low sales over the past few...

The turn of last century must have been a fascinating period to live in. Within the last quarter century or so, the car itself had been invented by Karl Benz. Virtually every automotive advancement changed the direction of the automobile, and--perhaps more significantly than anything else--nobody...

Imagine if you were being charged tens of dollars to drive into the center of your home city each day. Around Europe, many drivers already face such a charge. London is one such city, and residents have been paying to enter the center of the capital since 2003. Low-emission vehicles have commonly...

The decision has been hanging in the balance for some time now, but Chinese auto parts maker Wanxiang Group has finally won approval to buy bankrupt battery maker A123 Systems. Wanxiang Group fought off bids from American company Johnson Controls to buy A123, which supplies electric car batteries...

The market for electric cars is a dynamic beast, different companies offering different options and usage varying all around the world. As with the U.S, European drivers now have access to a small selection of genuinely usable electric vehicles, from the Nissan Leaf, through the Chevrolet Volt and...

He has his eyes on space, and is changing the world of automobiles with his Tesla electric cars--but now Elon Musk is offering a hand to Boeing, too. The Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] CEO tweeted Saturday that he was in talks with the chief engineer of Boeing's Dreamliner 787 aircraft, currently...

The clock continues to tick for Fisker Automotive, which hasn't built any cars for roughly six months now. The company's new CEO, Tony Posawatz, has said Fisker is seeking a partner--some might say savior--that it can work with to help launch the Fisker Atlantic mid-size sedan it unveiled at last...

To put it mildly, the Tesla Model S has been a resounding success. The New York Times has called the all-electric luxury sport sedan a game-changer, comparable to the Model T Ford. It's won virtually every 2012 "Car of the Year" honor, including the only unanimous Motor Trend award in the...

Usable, practical and competent the Nissan Leaf may be, but few would describe it as an exciting vehicle. Perhaps NISMO, Nissan's Japanese tuning arm and creator of hot versions of the firm's many performance cars, will change that when a tweaked version begins production in the summer. Sadly, U.S...

If you've ever visited a European city, you'll be familiar with the speedy footwork required to dodge the army of angry-sounding two-stroke scooters every time you cross the street. Replacing all those with silent-running electric scooters is terrifying in many ways, though the cut in noise and...

Let's hope that the Tesla Model S fares better than the Fisker Karma did. That's the first thought that sprang to mind when we heard the news that Consumer Reports had bought its very own Model S all-electric sport sedan to test. The respected consumer testing magazine notoriously savaged the...

We've clearly not seen the back of tempting electric car leasing deals. One Mitsubishi dealer is offering the "i" electric car for as little as $69 per month for example, and Ford is now offering hefty discounts on its Focus Electric. Lease buyers can get up to $10,750 off the cost of a three-year...

You may never have heard of Europe's most important electric car. It's the Renault Zoe, an all-electric subcompact that won't be sold in the United States. It comes from French Renault, a company that shares technology with Japan's Nissan--which introduced the Leaf compact electric hatchback here...

The Chevrolet Volt is by far the best-selling plug-in car in the United States. Last year, it represented almost 45 percent of all plug-in electric cars sold during 2012. But how's it doing outside the U.S., compared to the Nissan Leaf--which is sold globally in North America, Asia, and Europe?...

Picture the scene: There's a power cut. It goes dark. Your TV, refrigerator and computer all shut down. How long will it last? Who knows? Power outages are normally brief affairs, but in disasters like 2012's Superstorm Sandy, people could be left without power for days. A potential solution...

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is recalling 14,700 Mitsubishi i, or i-MiEV electric cars over a brake fault. The global recall will fix a component of the brake booster system. In normal operation, an electric pump sends air to the brake booster, which applies extra force to that generated by the driver...