Electric Cars

  • Nissan Leaf Carwings feature

    Ten years ago the concept of social media was in its infancy. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s geeky founder, wasn’t even at university and the best chance you had of playing at being a farmer was to head down to your local city farm. So what happens when you combine the always-connected idea of the smart phone and social media to create a platform designed to take eco-driving to a new level? Nissan knows, thanks to its 2011 LEAF Utilizing the ‘always-on’ CARWINGS connection of the 2011 Nissan LEAF, drivers of the five-seat electric car can now pit their driving skills...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt home charging
    Five Tips to Save Money on Your Home Electric Car Charge Point

    Let’s face it: the end of the holiday season is financially tough. After spending what may seem like a small fortune on gifts for your family and friends the last thing you want to do is spend money on a costly electric charging point for your plug-in car. Of course, it is technically...

  • First 2011 Nissan Leaf delivered to buyer, San Francisco, Dec 2010, photo by Eugene Lee
    CA Electric Car Rebate Will Run Out Mid 2011, Advocate Warns

    California has always been kind to drivers of alternative fuelled vehicles with special privileges in High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, reduced parking and even additional purchase tax credits. However, the $5,000 Californian state rebate for those purchasing electric vehicles may soon run out...

  • Eiffel Tower and green cars
    Paris To Test Banning Gas-Guzzlers (Yes, SUVs!) In City Core

    Why are many European carmakers now planning to build electric vehicles? Because many European cities are widely expected to ban high-emissions vehicles from their city cores over the next decade--perhaps even vehicles with any emissions at all. Now, Paris may be the first city to experiment with...

  • Tesla Motors, Palo Alto, California
    Tesla Motors Stock Drops 16 Percent, Analysts Pile On Worries

    As VentureBeat suggested on Thursday, the entry of new shares onto the market today has caused Tesla’s stock to drop. The stock is trading down 16 percent today now that the 180-day post-IPO lockup period has ended and insiders are free to sell their shares. The stock is trading at $25.30...

  • question mark on road: image via Flickr/ milos milosevic
    Will Charging Infrastructure Be Speed Bump For Electric Cars?

    This year — and next — will be a busy one for arrival of electric cars. The Ford Focus Electric and Coda’s sedan are slated for launch by 2011. The Nissan Leaf is slowly making its way to buyers in the U.S. and Europe, the Wheego Whip and LiFe are on sale in New York, and the...

  • MINI Snow Globe

    Don't you just love a good song over the holidays? We've taken an established favorite and given it the plug-in car treatement. Gone are the birds, noisy drummers and milking maids. In their place we've put some of the most importante cars we've talked about this year, as well as some fun side stories too. Enjoy! On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me A wall-mounted EVSE! On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me. Two Nissan Leafs, And a wall-mounted EVSE! On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me Three Chevy Volts, Two Nissan Leafs, And a wall-mounted...

  • Quentin Wilson Talks About i-Miev
    Quentin Willson: “The 2010 Mitsubishi i Has Changed My Life”

    History has a way of repeating itself. Just as the many tearful original EV1 lease drivers bade farewell to the electric car in the mock funeral that started Chris Paine’s docufilm Who Killed The Electric Car, a select group of electric car lease drivers in the U.K. gave a suitably British...

  • John Duncan takes delivery of one of the first 2011 Nissan LEAF EVs, near Portland OR, 12/15/2010
    Will 2011 Nissan LEAF Sales Suffer Due To Delayed Roll-Out?

    Uh-ho, Nissan. You’ve come out with one of the best five-seat all-electric production cars we’ve ever seen and your pre-order figures are impressive. But as your rival Chevrolet is eagerly rolling out 2011 Range-Extended Volts we’re starting to hear more and more stories that your...

  • Chevrolet Sail Electric Concept Vehicle
    Chevrolet Sail Electric Concept Vehicle, Developed In China

    Whilst the U.S. and Europe get the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and 2012 Opel and Vauxhall Ampera, it seems all the full battery-electric vehicles are going to the Far East, and they're keeping fairly quiet about it. A few months back we revealed GM's plans to test an electric version of the Chevrolet Cruze...

  • Jay Leno
    Jay Leno Takes Delivery Of Volt, Offers Up A Soundbite

    Never one to miss the opportunity for a pithy quote, petrolhead extraordinaire Jay Leno has come up trumps again whilst taking delivery of his new 2011 Chevrolet Volt. "Electricity is like sex. People lie about it," quipped Leno, referring to how owners are occasionally inclined to add a few more...

  • GM EV1
    OK, EV1 Fans, Here's Your Chance To Vote For The Electric Car!

    The General Motors EV1 still exerts a strange fascination for electric-car fans and civilians alike. Its sleek, aerodynamic shape and pioneering all-electric drive (despite an initial range of only about 70 miles) make it an important vehicle in U.S. automotive history. Fascination has only grown...

  • Renault Fluence ZE production electric sedan

    As 2010 draws to a close, we now have shipments of the 2011 Nissan LEAF and the 2011 Chevy Volt to customers around the United States. With the advent of these vehicles, is there still a business case for Better Place? To refresh your memory, Better Place is the venture between Shai Agassi and Renault-Nissan that proposes to sell electric cars without batteries, then lease the batteries to consumers and allow replacement for longer journeys through regional infrastructures of battery quick-swap stations. Nearly three years ago, Shai Agassi and Renault-Nissan announced their intent to launch...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf
    Nissan: Most Drivers Will Top Leaf Electric Car's 73-Mile EPA Range

    Last week at one of the first 2011 Nissan Leaf deliveries we spoke briefly with Mark Perry, Nissan's director of product planning and strategy, about the Leaf's driving range, and whether the recently released EPA driving range of 73 miles—the range that will be printed on every U.S. window...

  • BMW Megacity Vehicle official teaser
    BMW Green Vehicles, Including Megacity Electric, Named 'i'

    The BMW "MegaCity" carbon-fiber all-electric car, scheduled for launch in 2013, may be the most radical BMW in decades. BMW had confirmed that this first production electric car to wear the BMW badge would be the first of a sub-brand within the make, much as its "M" series of performance editions...

  • Bluebird Electric land speed record car, 1998
    175mph (And More) In An Electric Car. Range? Don't Ask...

    What'll she do, mister? With electric cars, the response would more often than not usually be relating to the range. With Don Wales' Electric Bluebird, the answer might instead be 150 miles per hour. Maybe even 175 miles per hour. If the name Bluebird is familiar to you, then you'll probably...

  • 2012 Honda Fit EV
    Toshiba Li-Ion Batteries To Appear In Honda's Electric Car

    Following years of claims they weren't interested in developing a battery-electric vehicle, Honda backtracked earlier this year and decided that they would produce one, with the 2012 Honda Fit EV concept finally revealed at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show last month. Now, Honda has announced that...

  • 2011 Think City 2+2
    2011 Think City Becomes 2+2 in Europe, Still Overpriced

    We can’t think of many times when an automaker suddenly doubles the number of seats in a car without making the car bigger. But that’s just what the Norwegian car maker Think has done with its diminutive city car. Originally designed as a 2 seat city car, the all-electric A segment car...

  • 2011 Smart electric drive  -  first drive

    For the past few years, we’ve witnessed the success of low-volume, high-priced, highway-capable electric vehicles in the Tesla Roadster. We’ve also just recently seen the advent of medium-volume, medium -priced highway-capable electric cars like the 2011 Chevy Volt and 2011 Nissan LEAF. Other manufacturers have offered electric minicars--the Think City, 2010 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive, 2012 Mitsubishi "i", the Mini E, etc.--but all of these are priced higher than the Nissan LEAF, with its lease cost of just $349 per month (the purchase option most buyers will choose). We’ve...

  • Green Vehicles Triac electric car
    Triac Electric Car - Three Wheels, 100 Miles And $25,000

    With the focus naturally going towards some of the big electric car launches we've had this year or established players like Tesla Motors, it's all too easy to forget that there are a wealth of smaller companies out there producing their own, unique take on electric transport. One such company is...

  • 2011 Nissan LEAF iPhone App
    Waiting for Your 2011 Nissan Leaf? Here, Have an iPhone App

    We know. You’ve put the deposit down, agonized over the charge station installation and felt a pang of jealousy when you discovered your 2011 Nissan LEAF won’t arrive for another four months. But while all hopes that Santa is bringing that new electric car may be lost you can at least...

  • tesla model s prototype 005
    2012 Tesla Model S All-Electric Sedan: Progress and Schedule

    It's been a while since we checked in on the car that will likely make or break Silicon Valley electric-car startup Tesla Motors: the Model S, a five-door midsize sports luxury sedan it hopes to launch somewhere toward the end of 2012. Tesla hasn't said much about the Model S lately, but a number...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    And We're Off! Electric Cars Are Here; Now They Need a Charge

    It’s official: Electric cars for the mass consumer crowd have arrived. The first all-electric Nissan Leaf was sold last week to a man in California, and more are trickling in. And the first Chevrolet Volts (pictured) — GM’s model that can go up to 50 miles on battery power before...

  • McDonald's Sign
    Want Electrons With That? McDonald's To Charge Electric Cars

    As many industry analysts will tell you, the switch to plug-in cars by the general public requires an increased support network of public charging stations. But while we’ve seen charging stations popping up at shopping malls, electronics retailers and even banks the fast food industry...

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