Electric Cars
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Swedish carmaker Saab endeared itself to many throughout its history, with a reputation for unique design and technological innovation across several decades. That made watching its slow death last year excruciating for fans of the marque, and as the company closed its doors, the future for Saab and its home town of Trollhättan in Sweden looked bleak. Thanks to Chinese-owned National Electric Vehicles Sweden (NEVS), the future once again looks bright--and greener than ever. NEVS has finalized acquisition of the Saab automobile bankruptcy estates, meaning Saab is once again in the hands...
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2013 Chevrolet Volt: The Ideal Retirement Car?Imagine the following scenario: you and your partner are rapidly approaching retirement, looking to downsize your car, and trying to plan for your financial future. You’re ready to buy a new car, but you want something that’s relatively green and cheap to run. Could the 2013 Chevrolet...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Nissan Leaf Joins Drivers’ Ed, Passes No-Gas StudentDo you remember learning to drive? The chances are, like us, you learned to drive in a gasoline car, even if you drive an electric car today. Last month however, Norwegian Solveig Marie Ødegård became the first person in the world to learn to drive and pass her test in an all-electric...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Want A Racy New Electric Car? Why Not Print One? (Video)3-D printing is perhaps one of the most exciting new technological developments of recent years. It could completely revolutionize the way products are made, allowing them to be printed at source in any color or shape you can think of. Areion's 3-D printed race car has been constructed using...
Antony Ingram -
Elon Musk: Solar Really Is The Future For Electric CarsElectric cars are only as green as the means by which they get their power. While producing zero local emissions and propelled using efficient electric motors, ideally that electricity would be from a renewable source, rather than by burning fossil fuels or even using nuclear. That's not always...
Antony Ingram -
Lada Joins Electric Car Ranks, But Is It A Leaf-Beater?...Remember the Yugo? It was a small, cheap econobox, based on 1970s Fiat underpinnings and imported to the U.S. from its home country of Serbia. They actually sold over 100,000 in the U.S. between 1985 and 1992, but the model is derided as slow, unreliable and thoroughly undesirable. The image of...
Antony Ingram -
Ask most Americans to name the cities with the most public charging stations for electric cars per head of population, and they’ll likely mention Los Angeles and perhaps San Francisco. According to PlugShare (via good.is), however, Portland, Oregon and Dallas, Texas top the list. PlugShare, the social network devoted to finding and sharing public charging stations, came to its conclusion after conducting a national census of the number of public charging stations in each major city in the U.S. It then calculated the number of publicly accessible charging stations per 100,000 residents...
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August Set To Be Best Month Yet For Chevy Volt SalesAt the start of each month we report sales figures on each electric car currently on sale in the U.S. Over the last few years, the highest electric sales have been a two-horse race between the 2012 Nissan Leaf and 2012 Chevrolet Volt. And for several months now, the Volt has been leading. That...
Antony Ingram -
Could Range-Extended Cars Save The Rotary Engine? Mazda Says YesWhile the Wankel rotary engine, Mazda’s power plant of choice for many years, has a fantastic power to weight ratio, it isn’t exactly what you’d call a green engine. As a consequence, since the Mazda RX-8 ended its production in June this year, you won’t find a rotary engine...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Landlords Vs Tenants With Electric Cars: Study Proposes SolutionsIf you live in an apartment or condo, you’ll know that gaining permission to charge an electric car in your shared parking lot isn’t always that easy. Often, miscommunication, legal worries and plain old ignorance come into play, preventing plug-in owners from charging their car, but...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Five Official Nissan Leaf Accessories You Can’t Buy In The U.S.As with many other cars sold around the world, there are small differences between the 2012 Nissan Leaf sold in the U.S. and the 2012 Nissan Leaf found in other countries. While Leaf owners in other countries may end up paying more for their cars, they often get more features included as standard...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
NXR Electric Car To Replace Infamous G-WizIf there's a more vilified electric car than the Reva G-Wiz, we're not aware of it. The Indian electric quadricycle has been the butt of jokes for years, with everything from its poor performance, circus clown car looks and concerns over safety coming in for criticism. Nothing lasts forever, and...
Antony Ingram -
Whether you drive gas, electric or anything else, there are dozens of different factors that affect your car's efficiency. That's why, even though Tesla Motors claims a range of 265 miles for its 85 kWh Model S, we've been eager to see how far it can go in realistic day-to-day driving. Thanks to Motor Trend, we now know. The magazine borrowed Tesla CEO Elon Musk's own Model S and ran it through a series of tests, culminating in a drive down I-15 and then up the Pacific Coast Highway to measure its range. Starting with a full charge from the California Speedway, where the team logged...
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Formula E Electric Racing: Inaugural Season Set For 2014Just over a year ago, we told you about a call for entrants to formally apply to take part in a potential all-electric race car series called Formula E. Yesterday, the Federation Internatonale de l’Automobile confirmed the race series would go ahead, with the inaugural race season now...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Keeping An Eye On Your Electric Car? You’re Not The Only OneIf you drive an electric car, the chances are you’ve experienced at some point the fear that your car will run out of charge before you reach your destination, otherwise known as range anxiety. But what about the fear that the battery pack in your new electric car will suffer rapid...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2013 Chevy Volt Production To Halt For 4 Weeks From Mid-SeptemberYesterday, Automotive News (subscription required) reported the news that the Detroit Hamtramck facility, where the 2013 Chevrolet Volt is made, is to pause production of the plug-in hybrid for four weeks. The second time General Motors has temporarily halted production of the plug-in car, the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2013 Nissan Leaf Electric Car To Use New, Cheaper Battery Cells: UPDATEDAs it enters its third model year, the Nissan Leaf electric car is expected to get a number of updates and improvements for 2013. Now, it appears one of them is a change in the lithium-ion cells used in its battery pack. A new report on Japan's Daily Yomiuri Online news site says that the 2013...
John Voelcker -
2013 Nissan Leaf Edges Closer To Production In Smyrna, TNLater this year, Nissan will start producing the 2013 all-electric Leaf at its Smyrna facility in Tennessee. The first time the car has been made outside of Japan, the 2013 models will be made alongside some of Nissan’s other popular cars, including the 2013 Pathfinder, Altima, Maxima, Rogue...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
We've all experienced taxi drivers who think they're race car drivers, but Sabine Schmitz actually is. German racer and TV personality Sabine only recently hung up her 'Ring Taxi' driving gloves, a job that involved taking paying customers for the ride of their lives around the infamous Nürburgring Nordschleife, in a tire-smoking BMW M5. Her recent ride was a little quieter however--an electric Furtive eGT from French maker Exagon Motors. The Furtive eGT is nothing new, having appeared at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. As the video above suggests though, the car is slightly more than a...
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2015 Audi A4 To Get E-Tron Version, Electric AWD Quattro TooThe current Audi A4, the German luxury brand's best-selling car in the U.S., has been with us since the 2009 model year. When it's replaced for the 2014 model year, the model line will include not only a sedan and a wagon but also a pair of hybrids--one that plugs in--and a brand-new Quattro...
John Voelcker -
2012 Tesla Model S 'First-Rate Car': AutoNation CEOWhile many are in agreement that lower prices will be a major catalyst for tempting people into electric cars, some things are worth paying that little bit extra for. Could the 2012 Tesla Model S be one of those things? For Mike Jackson, CEO of auto retail company Autonation, then the answer is...
Antony Ingram -
Fox Anchor Hates Volt, Loves Infiniti LE, Claims It Was His IdeaIf you’re a regular here at GreenCarReports, you’ll already be familiar with a Mr. Neil Cavuto, presenter and Senior Vice President of Business News at Fox. He is, in his own words, a vocal electric car skeptic. But something unusual happened during a recent segment on Fox: the 53-year...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Tesla Model S: Early Buyers Get 1 Year Of Data FreeIf you've got a brand new 2012 Tesla Model S sitting in your garage--or you're soon to have one delivered--then life is probably pretty sweet right now. Not that it can't be improved, of course. Drivers of Model S cars in Signature trim, denoting the first models delivered, also get a year's worth...
Antony Ingram -
Driving An Electric Car? You'll See So Much More Stuff!If you were to pick a vehicle in which to do a road trip, an electric car may not be your first choice. Particularly one as small as the 2013 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive. For some, the frequent stops to recharge would get tiring, and the ForTwo isn't a natural highway car even when burning...
Antony Ingram