Electric Cars

It was the film that many electric car advocates cite as the reason they drive electric, but now electric car “who done it?” documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? has a sequel: Revenge of the Electric Car. And as the film’s director Chris Paine tells us on the ROTEC website...

Some things about the 2011 Chevrolet Volt we liked, and there were a few that puzzled us. But GM's innovative range-extended electric car also has its share of annoyances. We found several features irritating, or (to be more diplomatic) perhaps not-quite-entirely-thought-through yet. That's...

Every new car has a few teething problems, but a few reports of Nissan's all-electric Leaf running out of charge prematurely hasn't helped the age-old stereotype that electric cars will leave their owners stranded without power. But are these incidents as rare as the reports suggest and what...

The 2011 Chevrolet Volt is a remarkable achievement for General Motors, but it does have a few features and behaviors that make us scratch our heads. After living with the car for five days and more than 700 miles, here are five questions we'd love to get answers to. (GM PR: You know where we live...

We're going to have a lot of 2011 Chevrolet Volt coverage this week, as we round up our impressions on the five days and hundreds of miles we've racked up on GM's first extended-range electric vehicle. We'll do a full drive report later on, but first, a few quick hits about the things we like in...

Nissan has announced that as a consequence of Friday's devastating 9.0 earthquake and Tsunami in Japan production at all of its factories will remain halted until it has fully assessed the damage sustained to its factories, equipment and parts suppliers. Although Nissan's factories have been spared...

As gas prices rise, electric cars look better and better. But any chances manufacturers had the last time gas hit $4 a gallon were extinguished thanks to the 2008 recession, which made electric vehicles’ high upfront costs unpalatable. Now it looks like they’ll have a second chance to...

Nissan may have got heat recently for its long, drawn out and significantly delayed rollout of the 2011 Nissan Leaf, but it isn’t the only company struggling to fulfil its own sales figures for 2011. Over the past two years there have been a whole barrage of cars which were promised to the...

The last we heard of Pininfarina and its Bluecar electric vehicle was that the company was looking to start production but a lack of financial support meant the project was never able to pass the concept stage. That was almost two years ago, however. Fast forward to today and we have news that...

In the connected world of modern electric vehicles your car probably already knows where the nearest charging point is. But what happens if you’re planning a long trip and want to acquaint yourself with the area around a charging point before you go? Enter Google and its online map tools...

An open policy of reverse engineering, doors that fall off and shady sales practices are hardly the things you’d expect of an automaker trying to make it into the U.S. market. But as newly surfaced diplomatic cables published on Internet whistle-blowing site WikiLeaks show, the battery firm...

Is it a car? Is it a scooter? No: It's a Twizy, which could be considered a combination of the two. If you're following the world of electric cars with a keen eye then you'll no doubt be aware that French manufacturer Renault is taking electric vehicles quite seriously, just like its Japanese...

In the past few years we’ve seen electric charge stations pop up everywhere from gas stations to electronics stores and banks. But now electric car owners in the Pacific Northwest have a new place to charge: the grocery store. Enter Fred Meyer Store. Based in Portland Oregon, the firm has...

Yesterday Tesla Motors Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Ownership Experience George Blankenship wrote an update on the upcoming Model S electric sedan on the company blog. Alongside an update on the alpha testing of Tesla’s much anticipated seven seat sedan, Blankenship outlined the...

It may be the first full scale, all-electric production car from a major automaker to be sold in the U.S. but Nissan hasn’t exactly been quick to get it into the hands of customers. That should change however with the announcement that the Japanese factory responsible for making the five-seat...

We all know cars like the 2011 Nissan Leaf feature smart GPS systems capable of locating the nearest official electric car charging stations, but what happens when you combine the power of a social network with the need to plug your electric car in? Enter PlugShare, a new crowd-sourced way to find...

Tucked away in a little corner just off Hall 6 at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, something weird and frightening lurked. Hiding behind the shiny stands of Kia and Smart and sitting in what looked like a poorly-carpeted entrance foyer, a collection of electric motoring misfits vied for the attention of...

During the Detroit Auto Show in January, we visited the Think electric-car assembly plant in Elkhart, Indiana. It's not necessarily a place you'd expect to find electric cars being put together, but the rows of electric two-seat hatchbacks in blue, red, and black turned out to be surprisingly...

To battery swap or fast-charge? That’s the question facing automakers worldwide as they decide on the best standard to adopt to charge the latest generation of electric cars. But just like the early days of video cassettes, a standard war is waging in which there can only be one winner. And...

You just never know what you'll hear at conferences. You might, for instance, hear Nissan America's director of product planning, Mark Perry, casually mention that the Nissan Leaf electric car now permits Level II 240-Volt charging at 3.3 kilowatts--"and we'll raise that in a year or so." In other...