Electric Cars

Ford will introduce two electric vehicles, both scheduled for release next year.  Ford's expectations for these vehicles, the Focus BEV and the Transit Connect EV, are high and they anticipate strong sales for both offerings.  Along with the Fusion Hybrid, the company's decision to offer...

News of the deadly plane crash involving Tesla employees is certainly a sad point for the company, but on a brighter note, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was awarded as the Automotive Executive Innovator of the Year. In response to receiving the award Musk said, "This award is a tremendous honor, in...

According to research conducted by Renault, potential EV buyers have certain expectations for electric cars.  Specifically, when questioned about noise survey respondents stated that they expect, "silence, peace of mind and comfortable riding, a windy sound quality, a fluid driving experience like...

As we have stated before, the race to bring electric vehicles to market is on and virtually all manufacturers have plans for EVs soon.  Some are ahead of the game, think Nissan, others may be behind and playing catch up.  Daimler AG is one company that appears to be on the fast track to EVs. ...

Automotive suppliers are face with the daunting task of delegating resources to electric vehicle components.  Some suppliers believe that EVs will be a success and have vested a considerable amount of money into product development, others believe EVs will be short lived and have decided to...

It’s 11:00 on a sunny Thursday morning at a Toyota dealership in a suburb of Detroit, and it’s eerily quiet. It’s been ten days since Toyota recalled 133,000 Priuses in the United States for a software issue that affects braking, but there aren’t any Priuses waiting for upgrades. In fact...

UPDATE (February 18): The three Tesla Motors employees killed yesterday in the crash of a small airplane at the Palo Alto Airport have now been identified, according to local news reports. They were: Doug Bourn, a senior electric engineer and the presumed pilot of the plane; Andrew Ingram, an...

Teaser images are an amazing method taken by automakers to get interest and discussion rolling.  From just a small glimpse of a vehicle, discussion, speculation, and arguments pursue and the company has successfully generated the hype that they were looking to create.  Something as simple as this...

The Ford Transit Connect EV was unveiled days ago at the Chicago Auto Show.  We posted a recent story detailing the specs of the vehicle that were just release by Ford.  Now it's time for the first drive. Ford allowed brief test drives of the Transit Connect EV outside of the Chicago Auto Show. ...

Right now the automotive industry is changing rapidly.  In the electric vehicle category it really appears to be the case that everyone is in.  Joining the other automakers who have already announced upcoming EVs is Opel.  Opel's recent release of their updated business plan shows that green...

Better Place had made news on many occasions for some outlandish claims and also for demonstrating technology that most people think may never work.  However, the mere fact that they continue to make headlines means that the company is important to the electric vehicle community and should not be...

Memorandums of Understanding are popping up everywhere.  Referred to as a MoU, these agreements set forth the groundwork and lay out guidelines for adoption of electric vehicles.  Nissan is the king of the MoU as they appear to have signed one with virtually everyone, but Mitsubishi is not far...

Sometimes finding out about vehicles that automakers are working on for future release is much more involved then attending an auto show or reading a press release.  Sometimes, journalists go digging through patent filings and turn up the results they are looking for.  Apparently that is just...

With Toyota constantly adding more and more hybrid models each year, the inevitable question has popped up.  When will the Scion brand see its first hybrid model?  The answer for now appears to be never. According to Jack Hollis, vice president of Scion Motor Sales U.S.A, who spokes recently with...

The Ford Transit Connect EV will be one of the company's first electric drive vehicles.  It is expected to come to market near the end of the year.  Up until a few days ago, little was known about specific data of the Transit EV.  Now that has all changed. With the Transit Connect EV scheduled...

The largest car rental agency on the planet, Hertz, has given its approval to the concept of all-electric cars. Hertz announced today that it would make Leaf models available at selected rental locations in the U.S. and Europe, starting next year. With its 100-mile range, the five-seat Leaf would...

 The Nissan Leaf is perhaps the most anticipated electric vehicle ever.  Nissan's approach and promise of providing a reasonably priced, five seat EV for the masses has drawn considerable attention.  The vehicle's expected performance numbers are well within standards of typical expectations for...

Recently we posted findings on this site from a report posted by the National Research Council.  The reports were met with great criticism for many reasons including obvious faults in calculating the future costs of lithium-ion battery.  The NRC reports stated excessively high costs for li-ion...

Yesterday we drove the 2011 Ford Transit Connect Electric, and later today we'll have a drive report for you. But if you'd rather not wait until November or December for to buy Ford's first-ever electric vehicle, perhaps you'd consider a slightly used electric car on eBay? This 1918 Rauch and Lang...

LG Chem. is quickly becoming one of the world's largest suppliers of lithium-ion batteries for advanced vehicles.  Now they can add Changan Automobile to the growing list of automakers that they supply batteries to.  The list includes General Motors and Hyundai right now, but the company is also...