Electric Cars
-
Electric-car advocates spend a lot of time touting the advantages of driving on plug-in power rather than burning gasoline. Sometimes, it can be a lonely battle. But now the U.S. Department of Energy has weighed in on the side of electric cars, with a conclusion that may startle some: It's more important to promote the adoption of cars that plug into the grid, and hence reduce dependence on oil for transport, than to clean up the electric grid by promoting renewable energy. The report calls reliance on oil--much of it imported--"the greatest immediate threat to economic and national...
-
Ford Looks To Develop Electric Cars For Chinese MarketLately it’s become obvious that China -- not the U.S. -- is the place to be if you’re an automaker wanting to develop electric cars. Daimler already has an electric vehicle partnership with chinese company BYD, and more recently General Motors announced it would start developing...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Swiss Firm Develops Portable Rapid Electric Car Charging StationAs electric cars become more and more popular, there are an increasingly large number of firms selling electric car charging equipment, from wall-mounted domestic charging stations through to large, commercial rapid charging stations for parking lots, shopping malls and gas stations. Now...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Metropolia Electric RaceAbout Sets Nürburgring Electric Car RecordThe Finnish-built Metropolia Electric RaceAbout has cut 25 seconds off its Nordschleife lap time, setting a new record for road-legal electric cars in the process.
Kurt Ernst -
European Carmakers Propose Single Electric-Car Charging PlugWithin a few years, it may be possible to drive an electric car from northern Germany to the south of Spain after all. Worries over the possibility of incompatible European electric-car charging standards are starting to abate, after a proposal by several European automakers for a single European...
John Voelcker -
Why Would Bob Lutz Join An Electric Car Conversion Company?Bob Lutz may have taken a part-time advisory post with GM 16 months after officially retiring from his post there, but now he has a second job too. The former Vice Chairman of General Motors--and the man credited as the driving force behind the Chevrolet Volt--now seems to be working at electric...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Last year Tron: Legacy, the remake of the 1982 classic film Tron hit cinemas around the world. Following the story of Sam Flynn as he tries to find his lost father who disappeared twenty years earlier, Tron: Legacy received mixed reviews from fans and critics alike. But while the reboot of the pioneering Disney classic may not have been to everyone’s tastes some elements of Tron: Legacy have proven very popular among fans, causing Parker Brothers Choppers to recreate its Light Cycle as a full-sized, working, electric motorcycle. According to Autobloggreen, the all-electric replica has a...
-
Tennessee Gas Station First To Offer Rapid Electric Car Charging?Over the past few months we’ve seen an increase in the number of rapid charging stations getting installed in areas where the 2011 Nissan Leaf is being sold. So far, we’ve seen rapid charging stations get installed everywhere from Walgreens to Cracker Barrel and Washington state’s...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Solid State Electric Car Batteries Still 10 Years AwaySolid state batteries could be seen as everything we're looking for from an electric car battery, improving on all the fundamental characteristics needed for electric mobility. Unfortunately, we probably won't be seeing them any time soon. The latest estimations reported by Automotive News...
Antony Ingram -
Tesla Promotes DOE Loans, Asks For More MoneyElectric automaker Tesla Motors posted a blog post on its website earlier this week detailing how the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Program had helped it expand and prepare not just one but many electric cars for the market. The blog post was designed...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Chelsea Sexton Meets Pikes Peak Champion, Takes HER For A SpinFormer EV-1 saleswoman, electric-vehicle advocate and electric car celebrity Chelsea Sexton recently learnt that despite what some may say, size isn’t everything. Sexton, who works tirelessly within the auto industry to help electric cars make it to market got a little reward recently for her...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Yes, The 2012 Volt Uses Gasoline (When You Need To Pee)Remember Apple’s popular Mac Vs PC adverts, in which John Hodgman’s haggard PC was constantly bettered by Justin Long’s smug Mac? After a while, Microsoft -- the firm to which the Get A Mac campaigns were so obviously targeted against -- chose play off Apple’s criticisms and...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Brammo Motorcycles -- the Oregon-based electric motorcycle company -- has concentrated for several years on bringing electric motorcycles to the masses with its Enertia commuter motorcycle and more recently, its Empluse sports bike. But now the company has embraced the high-adrenaline world of dirt bikes with the acquisition of a European chain of activity centers devoted to off-road electric motorcycles that it plans to introduce to the U.S. Announced yesterday in an official press release, CEO and founder of Brammo Craig Bramscher said that Brammo had successfully completed the acquisition...
-
Can An Electric Car Cut Solar Panel Payback Time? Yes, But...If you’re a homeowner with a suitable home and enough money to invest in a set of photovoltaic solar panels for your roof, you can easily power your home cheaply and cleanly. But while some states offer Feed In Tariff (FIT) schemes to let you sell back any excess power your solar panels...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Why Toyota Will Sell 2012 Prius Plug-Ins: It's The Sticker, StupidDespite wrangling among electric-car fans over whether the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid's 9 to 14 miles of electric range are sufficient, one factor will make the car a success, at least in California: the valued sticker that gives drivers solo access to the HOV lane.
John Voelcker -
Electronauts Only Need Apply For 2012 BMW ActiveE Electric CarOver the years automakers have used a huge array of techniques to entice members of the public to become test drivers in their electric car test programs. Often however, high lease fees combined with the requirement that lesses give back the prototype or limited run electric car at the end of the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
What Part Of 'No' Does Electric-Car Maker Li-Ion Motors Not Get?A little over a year ago, a relatively unknown electric automaker called Li-Ion Motors Corp. won the $2.5 million Alternative Side-By-Side Class in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize. Since then, Li-Ion Motors has been putting out regular press releases and information about its two...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Woman Buys Two, 2012 Chevy Volts, Gives One AwayWhen the second ever 2011 Chevrolet Volt made rolled off the production line at General Motor’s Detroit Hamtamck facility last year, it was destined to be auctioned off in order to help raise funds for the public school system in Detroit. In that particular auction, a brand-new Chevrolet Volt...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
State and local agencies are strapped for cash, and one source of income may be the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes on congested freeways. In Southern California, local officials plan to convert "carpool lanes" to toll lanes with variable pricing, allowing drivers to pay up to $10 for the privilege of zipping along a less-congested left lane while nonpaying drivers sit stuck in traffic just a few feet away. But the plans have riled electric-car drivers, who presently can travel in the HOV lanes with just a single occupant as part of a longstanding California program to cut air pollution by...
-
Coda Secures More Funding, Continues March Towards 2012 Sedan ProductionCalifornian electric automaker Coda Automotive might have recently opened its first showroom and signed a deal to open a final assembly plant in Benicia, California where it plans to install the electric drivetrain in its 2012 Coda Sedans -- but it has only just closed an eight-month funding round...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Video: Irish Cannonball Run 2011 Nissan Leaf Home And DryA few weeks back we brought you news that a team entered into the famous Cannonball Run, this year held in Ireland, would be doing the trip in a 2011 Nissan Leaf. We missed the end of their journey as the excitement of the Frankfurt Show got in the way, but we're pleased to report the ESB ecars...
Antony Ingram -
Electric Car Charging: Coming To Central Parking Garage Near YouCentral Parking, a nationwide parking garage company responsible for 1.1 million parking spots -- and its Tennessee-based subsidiary USA Parking Systems -- will soon host electric car charging facilities at 2,220 of its parking garages. Under an agreement signed earlier this week, the Car Charging...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Gordon Murray Announces New Teewave AR.1 Electric Sports CarGordon Murray may need little introduction among gearheads following his work on the McLaren F1 supercar back in the 1990s, but his most recent projects, the T.25 and T.27 minicars, certainly raised a few eyebrows. Sports car fans need not have feared however, as today Gordon Murray Design (GMD)...
Antony Ingram -
GM To Develop Electric Cars In China With SAIC, Longtime PartnerMaybe you can beat 'em and join 'em at the same time? That may be what General Motors is hoping with its announcement this morning that it would develop electric cars with its longtime Chinese partner SAIC. In Shanghai this morning, GM CEO Dan Akerson and SAIC Motor Corp. chairman Hu Maoyuan signed...
John Voelcker