Green Car News

  • Charging Station Shares Handicapped Parking Space

    Where is the best place to site an electric car charging station? That’s the question that city planners, shopping malls and parking garages all over the world have to answer as they try to support electric car owners keen to patronize local businesses in exchange for the ability to plug in. But recently, we’ve seen a number of examples of electric car charging stations sited in the worst possible places we can think of: handicapped parking spaces. In other words, making electric car drivers chose between plugging in their car or leaving a much-needed parking space open for a...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt drive test, March 2011
    Relax: E15 Gasoline Won't Arrive For A Year Or More, GAO Says

    E15 gasoline has been much in the news lately, but all the hullabaloo may have been a bit premature. The U.S. Government Accounting Office, better known as The Gummint's in-house auditor, says that E15 won't appear at the pumps until sometime next year. Just because the EPA has allowed the sale of...

  • Nissan Leaf at the 2011 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
    Nissan Shares Pikes Peak Leaf Experience (VIDEO)

    Ever wonder how it feels to travel the famous Pikes Peak hill-climb circuit in Colorado in an electric car? While an AC Propulsion powered full-spec race car sponsored by tire firm Yokohama may have set a new electric car hill climb record of 12 minutes and 20 seconds, Nissan was sending one of its...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt joins NYPD Fleet
    New York City Electrifies NYPD With 2011 Chevrolet Volt

    Ask most people to name a classic cop car and they’ll probably mention the iconic Ford Crown Victoria or perhaps the 1974 Dodge Monaco turned Bluesmobile in the classic film The Blues Brothers. We’ve even seen more unlikely cars like the Dodge Challenger and Lamborghini Gallardo take on...

  • BMW i
    BMW Buys Leasing Firm To Launch Its i Series Electric Cars

    BMW has acquired the car-leasing unit of Dutch bank ING. The move will give BMW the ability to launch their i Series electric cars with leasing aimed at both consumers and fleet customers.

  • All ALMS' GTC-category cars use E85 Photo: Anne Proffit
    Racing Goes Green: ALMS Focused On Reducing Environmental Impact

    The American Le Mans Series is taking steps to promote renewable fuels and alternative fuel sources. Series president Scott Atherton is out to prove that racing can produce environmental benefits.

  • Leviton Level 2 Electric Car Charging Station

    Electrical supply firm Leviton Manufacturing announced yesterday that it was now accepting orders for its $1,049 EVB22-3PM Level 2 charging station. Designed to provide up to 3.8 kilowatts to charge electric cars like the 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the Leviton unit can be installed without any permanent modifications to a home’s electric wiring, and is a lower-powered version of the chaging station Leviton developed for Ford's 2012 Focus Electric. Unlike other electric car charging stations we’ve seen, the unit comes with a short 220V plug which enables it to be...

  • 2011 Fisker Karma plug-in sports sedan at Fisker Santa Monica, July 2010, from WebRidesTV
    First Fisker Karma To DiCaprio, 3,000 Orders Behind Him, CEO Says

    Fisker Automotive says it will, finally, deliver its first 2011 Fisker Karma range-extended electric sports sedan later this month. The lucky recipient, it turns out, will be none other than actor Leonardo DiCaprio. He's the man who kicked off the whole hybrids-for-Hollywood-stars trend, by showing...

  • 2012 Mitsubishi i Facebook Fan Page
    Mitsubishi Goes Social For 2012 i Electric Car, Focuses Adverts Online

    Traditionally, automakers spend the majority of their marketing budgets on advertising new cars through traditional formats such as television adverts, billboards and glossy adverts in magazines. But Japanese automaker Mitsubishi has chosen to buck the trend, focusing a huge amount of its...

  • Scenes from dedication of electric-car charging station at Creekside Inn, Palo Alto, CA
    Range Anxiety Antidote: You Don't Drive As Far As You Think

    It's been known among electric-car advocates for years that so-called "range anxiety" is somewhat overblown. That's despite, we might add, advertisements by a large U.S. company that sells a range-extended plug-in car that highlight its ability to let you drive it across the country on the spur of...

  • Aptera Reservation Webpage Taken off line.
    Want an Aptera? You Can’t Reserve One (For Now)

    Remember Aptera, the firm whose futuristic three-wheeled, two-seat 2e electric vehicle promised to revolutionize the way we travelled back in 2007? After a series of technical issues and poor performance prevented it from winning the Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize last year...

  • 2010 Dodge Caliber R/T
    Chrysler's Most Important Car Ever: 2013 Dodge Compact Sedan

    Never mind the Eminem "Imported From Detroit" Super Bowl ad. Ignore the freshened versions of Chrysler and Dodge models dating back to 2006 or before. The most important new car for Chrysler today--as crucial to its long-term survival as the legendary K-car line when it launched in 1980--is a...

  • Think City assembly plant, Elkhart, Indiana, Jan 2011

    If you’ve been following the fortunes of the Norwegian electric car company Think, you’ll know that it recently filed for bankruptcy, the fourth time in its 20 year history. But if you thought the firm would disappear without trace then you’re in for disappointment as a little-known Turkish firm is in negotiations to rescue Think from becoming a footnote in the history books. Enter BD Otomotive. The investment group with access to manufacturing facilities has said due diligence on a Think takeover is complete and it is ready to complete negotiations as soon as...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf
    Nissan Leaf News: Electric-Car Updates Coming For 2012, 2013

    The 2011 Nissan Leaf, the world's first modern battery-electric car built in volume by a major automaker, is starting to hit its stride. Now the evolution of the Leaf is getting clearer, as Nissan officials confirmed changes and updates to the car for the 2012 and 2013 model years. More than 4,000...

  • Solar powered electric-car charging facility, Mitsubishi headquarters, Cypress, CA
    Mitsubishi Joins The Crowd, Unveils Solar Charging Station At HQ

    It's moving from an innovation to a fad, this business of solar-powered charging stations for electric cars. The latest car company to jump on the bandwagon is Mitsubishi, which will launch the diminutive four-door, four-seat 2012 Mitsubishi 'i' electric minicar in November at a price of just...

  • Renault Fluence ZE production electric sedan
    2012 Renault Fluence Z.E.: First Drive Report

    We don’t normally cover French automaker Renault, but when we were invited to drive its its first all-electric production car - the 2012 Fluence Z.E., we jumped at the chance. And we’re glad we did. Unlike its geeky cousin the 2011 Nissan Leaf, the Renault Fluence Z.E. is full of...

  • 2012 Toyota Prius V station wagon, Half Moon Bay, CA, May 2011
    Prius Shortages Will End For 2012, Sales Will Rock, Toyota Says

    It's been a tough couple of years for Toyota. First was the entire sudden-acceleration mess, along with multiple recalls covering almost 10 million cars. Then came the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which devastated Toyota's intricate global network of parts and assembly plants. But with a return...

  • Nissan lithium-ion battery pack plant under construction, Smyrna, Tennessee, Jan 2011
    Nissan: U.S. Built Nissan Leafs Will Be On Time For 2013 Launch

    The devastating earthquake and Tsunami which hit Japan back in March not only caused billions of dollars of damage, killed thousands and made many more homeless, but it also crippled a large part of the auto industry, both in Japan and around the world. With everything from parts to paint becoming...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf

    There are now more than 4,000 Nissan Leaf electric cars on the road in the United States, and the 2012 Mitsubishi “i” is poised to arrive at dealers late this year. Each car offers a DC quick-charge port using the Japanese CHAdeMO standard, for which most 2011 Nissan Leaf owners paid extra. Yet as of today, there is exactly one fully functional CHAdeMO quick charge point in the entire United States: in Portland, Oregon. In Japan, by contrast, 689 DC quick-charge stations have been installed, and Europe now has 87. Everywhere else (that includes the United States) totals an...

  • Volvo series hybrid (range-extended electric car) test vehicle layout
    Volvos A La Volt: Swedish Carmaker Tests Range Extenders In C30, V60

    Swedish carmaker Volvo now operates a test fleet of all-electric C30 hatchbacks, and it's also rolling out another experimental car, a V60 wagon with a diesel engine driving the front wheels, and an electric motor powering the rear. The two cars are now spawning a second generation of test...

  • London Taxi
    British Cabbies Get Friendly, Join Social Network For Eco-Driving

    Take a trip to England and at some point you’re likely to sit in the back of a London taxi cab. Just as famous as its New York counterpart, the London taxi cab is known for its tight turning circle, iconic shape and the scores of native Cockney ‘cabbies’ which pilot them. But if...

  • 2014 Volkswagen Golf blue-e-motion prototype – Copyright High Gear Media
    2014 Volkswagen Golf blue-e-motion First Drive

    Volkswagen is intent on becoming the world's leading automaker by 2018 and that means being top dog in every segment, including hybrid and electric cars. Previously, the German auto giant announced plans to start building its own electric powertrains and even opened a battery research lab at...

  • Assembly of Think City electric cars, Elkhart, Indiana, Jan 2011
    Think Went Thunk: What Does Electric-Car Bankruptcy Teach Us?

    A little more than three weeks ago, Norwegian electric-car maker Think Global declared bankruptcy--for the fourth time, actually. In a pithy piece published a week later, Pike Research analyst Dave Hurst suggested a few lessons that can be learned from Think's latest collapse. The entire article...

  • 24-hour Dutch Nissan Leaf Marathon
    Five Ways to Increase Your Electric Car’s Range Overnight

    If you’re an electric car owner who finds that the range you can get from a full charge isn’t anywhere near the distance the dealer claimed, you’re not alone. Rushing to work, carrying excess weight, poor maintenance, inadequate planning and even drive distractions while driving...

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