EVs

Ford has been burning the midnight oil for several years now, and its hard work is paying off. The automaker's One Ford philosophy has resulted in a slimmer product lineup, two fewer brands, and a healthy bottom line. Ford also boasts a much spiffier brand image among shoppers these days, thanks in...

Mitsubishi is currently working on a new global small car positioned below its Colt hatchback and scheduled to enter production at a newly erected plant in Thailand in March of 2012. We first heard about the project late last year but at this week’s 2011 Geneva Motor Show the Japanese...

When it comes to solutions for sustainable mobility of the future, drivetrain technology is only one area being investigated in the effort to make cars more environmentally friendly. Other areas include reducing vehicle weight, developing navigation software to predict fuel efficient routes and...

Silent cruising in a seemingly impregnable fortress of fine leather, sensuous wood, and hand-built steel and glass is the ultimate goal of hyper-luxury brands like Rolls-Royce. Which means it's not too surprising that the automaker has confirmed the development of an all-electric version of its...

Electricity and high-performance cars may or may not mix, depending on your frame of reference, but whether you're a Tesla fan or Formula 1 devotee, it's easy to agree that a hybrid or all-electric Porsche would be a welcome creation for sports car and EV fans alike. Porsche blew us away last year...

We first heard about Mazda’s plans to develop a battery-powered electric version of its Mazda2 hatchback back in 2009, with the automaker finally starting real-world trials of prototypes last year. Now Mazda has announced that its electric Mazda2 (a Demio in Japan) is scheduled to commence...

Later this year Mitsubishi’s battery-powered i-MiEV will finally go on sale in the U.S., having already gone on sale in Europe and Japan and making an appearence at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show last November. However, it’s hard to get excited over Mitsubishi’s zero-emission...

Smart's current range, just like its sole product, the ForTwo, is short and sweet. The lineup consists of the Pure and Passion specifications, and convertible versions of each. A Ford Fiesta rival is expected in the fall, based on the new Nissan March/Micra subcompact. And although it's not...

Increasingly, in production electric vehicles such as the 2012 Ford Focus Electric and 2011 Nissan Leaf, automakers are turning to recycled and repurposed materials. But the rest of a modern car—even an ol' fossil-fuel burner—is no longer just sheetmetal, alloy, and plastics; extruded...

Where is Noah's Ark to save human beings? People pass their eyes drilling into the Earth up to the sky. Each loop of human civilization is closely linked to the exploitation of solar energy—even coal and petroleum. Since sunshine is vital to everything, why human beings don't obtain energy...

If General Motors' EV1 had featured in the Disney Pixar animated film Cars, we can't imagine it would have been the happiest of characters. It might well have spent a little time complaining about its friends all being crushed back in 1999, and who could blame it? And four years ago it might have...

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...

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...

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...

The 2011 Nissan Leaf, at first glance, looks a whole lot simpler to service than conventional gasoline cars; there's no flammable liquid in the tank, no motor oil, no complicated multi-speed transmission either. That said, some dealers are probably feeling a little daunted by the idea of taking a...

Whilst the 2013 Volkswagen Golf Blue eMotion might be responsible for many of the company's EV headlines, their smaller Up concept is possibly even more intriguing. The Wolfsburg maker has just revealed the third in a trio of electric taxi concepts. Following Berlin and Milano versions, the latest...

The 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car is now officially on sale. Over the past several days—beginning with the first delivery in San Francisco we covered this past weekend—Nissan has begun making actual deliveries of the Leaf. Not just to company fleets, public utilities, or those in...

As recently as last week, it became apparent that the current federal 50 percent incentive towards the cost of installing an electric car charging station would expire on the 31st December this year. This would be particularly bad news to the vast majority of upcoming EV owners, many of whom...

If you were to draw up a listof places least in need of encouraging towards the use of electric cars, California would probably be right up there. As well as being the home of companies such as Tesla Motors and Coda Automotive, many EV manufacturers usually pick at least one city in the State to...

There has undoubtably been a lot of work put into battery technology in the last few years as more and more electric vehicles hit the scene. One of the current trends is to use varying numbers of lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells, similar to those you'll find in a laptop computer. They offer numerous...