Electric Cars

The grand opening event kicks off on this morning at the Tesla store located at 551 W 25th St. in the Chelsea Art District of Manhattan. To commemorate it, Tesla offered a sneak peek and media preview of the 2010 Roadster as well as limited test drives of the new Roadster on Tuesday. As the new...

Back in 1998, a little known group called Renew America Roadtrip headed out on an adventure that was unheard of at the time. They drove cross country in a fully electric EV1. Their goal then was to prove that an EV could capably motor across our nation using the existing infrastructure. Well...

Nissan-Renault has a partnership with a California-based company called Better Place to interface its electric cars into a battery swapping infrastructure. The concept is to sell people cars without a battery, but make those cars' battery sockets standardized so that drivers can pull into a battery...

The government of Ontario expects to put a charge into electric car sales by offering incentives to buyers. Starting on July 1, 2010, drivers who purchase plug-in hybrids or pure electric vehicles will qualify for between $4,000 and $10,000 in incentives. The program is part of the government's...

Aabar Investments of Abu Dhabi has completed their purchase of 40 percent of Daimler's stake in Tesla Motors.  The announcement was made on Monday and Aabar looks towards a future joint venture between the two companies. A few month back, Daimler surprisingly invested in Tesla.  Though the...

How could Mercedes-Benz possibly improve on their gorgeous S-class sedan? It's already the very definition of sleek design and lithe handling. But apparently, looks and handling weren't enough. They made it a hybrid. But not just any hybrid. Mercedes upped the ante and made it a certified...

French Supplier Valeo is working on the adaptation of regenerative braking on existing stop start hybrid vehicles. They have partnered with Peugot-Citroen to add regenerative braking to so-called micro-hybrid vehicles thus creating a budget friendly mild-hybrid.  Citroen introduced their first...

Toyota has teamed up with French utility company EDF to test feasibility of PHEV Prius and the vehicles ability to recharge using only the power of the sun. Toyota has received funding from the government of Strasbourg that will be used to convert 100 current generation Toyota Priuses to plug-in...

In a press release issued earlier today, American lithium-ion battery maker, Ener1, announced that their products would be tested in two Volvo V70 plug-in hybrid wagons this fall in Europe. The tests are in preparation for Volvo's plans to launch a production plug-in vehicle in 2012. Volvo is...

General Motors missed the start of the hybrid revolution, and admits it by their own accounts. When the first generation Toyota Prius was first launched GM decided not to pursue a similar course at that time. In 2007, after Toyota had sold nearly 1,000,000 Priuses, GM entered the fray by unveiling...

In a report issued last week by the New York City electric grid manager, statements concerning the grids ability to handle widespread use of EVs are not accurate.  The system is fully capable of handling the demands of EVs. According to the grid manager, the city could easily handle widespread...

Renault is currently trying to develop and test a new propulsion method for EVs.  The focus of the new system is to provide additional luggage and interior space in EVs.  They have partnered with Michelin to cooperatively achieve the goal of freeing up additional storage space on board electric...

The people of Japan love their hybrids and the Lexus HS 250h is no exception. The Nikkei reports that Toyota has already taken 1,500 pre-orders in Japan for its upcoming luxury hybrid. This exceeds the automaker's expectations three times over. Not to be outdone, the overwhelmingly popular third...

The Mercedes-Benz AMG division has historically been about ungodly power and torque, space shuttle-like acceleration and street legal race car performance. Each AMG engine is hand built by one engineer from start to finish. With so much emphasis on making cars fast and exclusive, fuel economy has...

Market Pressures Could Kill the Japanese Automaker's US Electric Car Plans

China clearly sees EVs as a major player in the future auto industry.  To achieve widespread adoption within their country, the government has kicked off several new incentive programs and has begun to increase manufacturing capacity and build new R&D facilities. In December the cities of...

A Dutch website that is dedicated to hybrid and electric vehicles has been conducting an online poll asking visitors to rank their top choices in the EV and hybrid categories.  The list of entrants include among other the Tesla Roadster, the Chevy Volt, the Pininfarina Blue Car, and the Think...

As the site GM-Volt.com refers to him as the father of the Chevy Volt, Bob Lutz has surprising decided to stay on with the new GM and help guide them through these trying times. The announcement came yesterday as GM CEO Fritz Henderson held a press conference releasing some details about the...

A company not well known for its lithium-ion battery production may soon become one of the world's largest battery producers.  Hitachi is not a front runner in production of lithium-ion automotive batteries, but their intentions over the course of the next several years could certainly change...

According to research conducted by Pike Research, there will be a huge expansion in worldwide sales of plug-in hybrids over the next 6 years.  The research indicates that as many as 1.7 million PHEVs will be on roadways worldwide by 2015. The research suggests that government incentives and tax...