Electric Cars

Ask a non EV owner what life is like with an electric car and you’re likely to hear tales of range anxiety, slow motoring and constant recharging. But as the results of BMW’s Mini E trial in the U.K. show, drivers of BMW’s two-seat, all-electric mini have, horror of horrors, been...

How expensive is an electric car to charge? It’s a question we get asked a lot by our readers, keen to know just what the impact of electric car ownership will have on their pocket books. With gasoline cars it’s really easy to keep track of fuel costs. Filling up at the gas station is a...

Back in the pre-Internet dominated world of journalism, news stories were passed down from tip-offs, official press releases and the wires service. But in the twenty-first century, things are done a little differently. And occasionally, we see something pass by on Twitter that makes us perk up and...

As we pointed out last week, it’s not always best to be first to release a new generation of technology, especially when the competition is so fierce. Playing the game between being the first and the best is a tough one for automakers everywhere. While Mitsubishi, Chevrolet and Nissan are all...

Joining the rebates already available in states like California, Georgia and Oregon, Tennessee has now announced it will offer a $2,500 tax rebate to the first 1,000 EV buyers in the state. The annoucement will be great news for residents with deposits down for the 2011 Nissan Leaf, Tennessee being...

Coulomb Technologies, a leader in roadside charging stations and infrastructure, announced a $15 million third round of funding, which it will use to further develop its network of electric vehicle charging stations. The company has inked partnerships with Leviton and Siemens, which will add their...

Marketing missteps in naming cars quickly become legendary. There's the urban myth that the Chevrolet Nova failed in South America because in Spanish, no va means "won't go." (It's not true.) But now it turns out that Audi may have committed a blunder in naming its line of electric cars e-Tron...

What, exactly, is a Townpod? We'll have to wait another three weeks to find out for sure, but from this teaser and the sparse contents of the press release, it looks like Nissan's take on an all-electric city vehicle. The unveiling will come at the end of the month at the 2010 Paris Auto Show...

With the focus on big EV launches from Japan and the United States, South Korea has now joined the fray, with their largest car company, Hyundai, launching the BlueOn. The BlueOn is Hyundai and South Korea's first pure electric car. Based on the i10, the new subcompact EV carries a 16.4...

Hyundai took the wraps off its first-ever electric vehicle today in Seoul, showing a hatchback called the BlueOn based on the subcompact i10 model it sells in Asia and Europe. As in its 2011 Sonata Hybrid model, which will launch late this year in the U.S. market, the lithium-ion cells in its...

It’s not always best to be first. When Mitsubishi was the first major manufacturer to announce an all-electric version of it’s sub-compact i City Car back in 2006 the company had a major head-start on the competition. But with the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Coda...

If nothing else, electric cars arouse the passions of their supporters. Take the note we got from reader Ryan, who wrote: I googled "electric car update" and found your site ... saw the Nissan Leaf (100 miles per charge), Chevrolet Volt (40 miles), Tesla Roadster ... sounds great! But nothing on...

Coda announced today their plans to roll out their all-electric sedan in Hawaii in the third quarter of 2011, positioning the car to battle the Nissan Leaf in a market that suffers from some of the highest gas prices in the country. In May, Nissan singled out Hawaii as a target market –- the...

If you think that manufacturers have a hard time making EVs appeal to consumers who have got used to over a hundred years of fossil fuels, then feel grateful you aren't in Carlos Ghosn's shoes. The Renault and Nissan chief is visiting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the hope of establishing a...

Automakers have had it tough over the past few years. An economic downturn, consumers looking for ever-fuel efficient vehicles and everyone clambering to make it to marketplace first. But just what do automakers need to keep in mind when advertising their first electric vehicle. We assume that any...

As electric cars start to increase in power and range, so do the stresses and requirements placed on their oh so vital batteries. Most automakers have chosen to stick with lithium-ion batteries to power their new generation of electric vehicles and one of the crucial factors determining the...

Does the 2011 Nissan Leaf leave you feeling uninspired? Does the 2011 Chevrolet Volt appear too aggressive? Is the 2011 Tesla Roadster just too sporty? Do you long for classic looks, big wheels and great all-round visibility? This weekend an electric car will be sold at an Indianan auction house...

Picture the scene: You arrive home after a long day at work. The lights are on, the dinner is waiting for you in the oven and the kids are watching TV. Before leaving the garage, you plug in your 2011 Nissan Leaf and switch the charger on. And the whole neighborhood goes dark. Your EV was the straw...

It’s not a secret that Hawaii is keen to become the most electric car-friendly state in the whole of the U.S. And now two more electric car companies are laying a claim to the electric vehicle market in the island state. Earlier this week at the Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit and Expo, the...

Epic Electric Vehicles is a little known company based in the U.S. that manufactures all sorts of electric modes of transport including boats, ATVs and now street-legal roadsters. The company’s latest effort is the new Torq three-wheeler, which kind of looks like an edgier, stripped down...