Electric Cars

A common misconception about electric cars is that they're a fairly recent phenomenon. Anyone who ever lusted over GM's EV1 will tell you that isn't the case, and Jay Leno might inform you otherwise too, no doubt parading a line of early 20th Century electric cars past you as he does so. But even...

You'd think a company awarded $115 million by the Department of Energy to build electric-car charging stations would make them accessible to every single driver, wouldn't you? Apparently, you'd be wrong. At least, that is, in the case of Ecotality's Blink network. Any plug-in driver arriving at a...

Last week, Nissan gave an official response to the handful of Arizona drivers of its 2011 Leaf electric car that had experienced the first signs of battery capacity loss. A week on, with more reports from owners claiming a lost battery capacity bar and in two instances, two capacity bars, Nissan...

How expensive are electric car battery packs? It’s a topic of much discussion among electric car fans, and a closely guarded secret within the auto industry, but now an industry analyst has suggested that improved technology and economies of scale has lowed electric car battery pack costs to...

Last year we told you about a Missouri coachbuilder with the grand plan: turn a humble 2012 Nissan Leaf into a stretch limousine. Now, some ten months after we first brought you the story, we can bring you evidence that the Imperial Coach Builders of Springfield, MO made good its promise with what...

Despite unveiling what it says will be a revolutionary new vehicle battery last week, Massachusetts-based firm A123 Systems is fighting skepticism that it will become the “next Solyndra,” the California solar company that went bankrupt in August 2011 after receiving a $550 million loan...

One of the most frequent criticisms we hear of electric and plug-in hybrid cars is that they’re just too expensive. Take the 2012 Nissan Leaf, for example. Before government and state incentives, a base-level Leaf SV will set you back $35,200. Live in the right area however, and incentives...

Electric-car sales are actually doing better than sales of hybrid-electric vehicles were at the same stage of their launch, though you'd never know it from much of the media. But the prevalent "electric-car-sales-are-disastrous" meme has caused carmakers to couch their predictions much more...

When we first heard that French automaker Renault was producing a tiny, two-seat electric car with a top speed of 52mph called the Twizy, we have to admit to laughing. A lot. But after driving a production Renault Twizy in Ibiza earlier this year, our impression of the plucky go-kart changed. Could...

A few weeks ago while borrowing a 2012 Ford Focus Electric, Forbes writer Todd Woody experienced what he described as Electric Car Road Rage: fear and anger associated with unsuccessfully trying to charge an electric car. It happened while he was at a cafe in downtown Berkeley, California, when the...

Unlike other carmakers--including BMW with its ActiveE program--Audi has chosen to use only in-house drivers to test the fleet of electric A3 e-tron prototypes it has brought to the U.S. So we're pleased to be among the few media outlets to drive an Audi A3 e-tron, one of just 17 such cars in North...

It’s all very well reading about the electric exploits of hill-climbing all-electric race cars and the 0-60 times of purpose-built electric drag cars, but sometimes there’s no substitute for experiencing the joy of electric motorsport first hand. In a little over two weeks, that’s...

If children are the future, then how do we get them driving clean, green electric cars? It’s a question we’ve thought a lot about, but Toyota thinks it has come up with a solution, with a new three-seat electric concept car that your kids can drive. As Automotive News (subscription...

According to our own reckoning, Ford hasn’t really sold that many 2012 Ford Focus Electric cars to non fleet customers. For those who have made the purchase however, the automaker has announced its smartphone iPhone app and website are now live, letting customers remotely interact with their...

If we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times: range-anxiety is one of the biggest hurdles facing electric car manufacturers. If consumers don't believe that an electric car is going to get them from Point A to Point B (without a time-consuming battery recharge), vehicle sales will stall...

Tesla’s long-awaited Model S is just days from officially hitting the market, although at least one of the electric sedans has already been delivered to a customer. With development on the Model S finally complete, we can now focus on what’s next in the pipeline for Tesla. We know that...

Earlier this week, Daimler started production of the 2013 Smart ForTwo electric drive at its Hamback, facility in France. The third-generation all-electric Smart ForTwo, the 2013 model is the first electric Smart that will be sold as well as leased. Unlike previous versions, which we felt were...

If you’re looking to buy an electric car, you’re probably familiar with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Fuel Economy website, which lists the gas mileage of every car on sale today along with the miles per gallon equivalent rating for every plug-in car. Unfortunately, the...

Since buying my Better Place Renault Fluence ZE in Israel, I'm frequently asked about the price. I bought the car because I liked the way it drove and thought it would save me money. I had been looking for a new car, but had no intention of buying a green model as such. I was quickly satisfied that...

Just as those buying an electric car have a choice of several different models to chose from, there are many different charging stations that individuals, businesses and local government can chose to provide convenient electric car charging. But in Syracuse New York, a non-profit organization is...