Green Car News
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It may be the first full scale, all-electric production car from a major automaker to be sold in the U.S. but Nissan hasn’t exactly been quick to get it into the hands of customers. That should change however with the announcement that the Japanese factory responsible for making the five-seat family hatchback is set to double production over the next month. At the moment, one in every six cars coming off Nissan’s Oppama production line is a Leaf. By the end of March, Nissan has promised every third car will be a Leaf. Just like its rival the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the 2011 Leaf is...
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New Fisker Karma Based Plug-In Hybrid Set For 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show?The last we heard of the Fisker Karma was that the plug-in hybrid luxury sedan was still on track for delivery, either this month or in April, but with an increased starting price of $95,900, up from the original price of $80,000 announced back in 2008. While we’re not holding our breath for...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Mia Electric: 2011 Geneva Motor Show, The Microbus ConceptIf you read our guest post by actor, TV presenter and electric car convert Robert Llewellyn, you may have noticed his mention of a little electric microbus by the name of "Mia". Sitting in the middle of halls 4 and 5 with major manufacturers like Honda, Toyota, Renault and Ferrari in all...
Antony Ingram -
2011 Nissan Leaf vs 2011 Chevy Volt: Strengths & Weaknesses, By The Man Who Owns BothMany comments are appearing on the internet taking enthusiastic positions for either the new 2011 Chevy Volt or the 2011 Nissan Leaf. It seems most readers are in one "camp" or the other. In our household, after studying the technical strengths and features of both cars as they moved from concept...
George Parrott -
Gas Prices Got You Blue? Check Out These Top 5 Fuel-Efficient Car PicksIf you have turned on the news in the last couple of days then you have probably heard about the rising of gas prices. Okay, who am I kidding, if you own a car and have been to the gas station recently you are undoubtedly aware that the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded is hovering...
Jonathan McGrew -
Social Networking for Your Electric Car? Crowd-Source a PlugWe all know cars like the 2011 Nissan Leaf feature smart GPS systems capable of locating the nearest official electric car charging stations, but what happens when you combine the power of a social network with the need to plug your electric car in? Enter PlugShare, a new crowd-sourced way to find...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
The recent opening of a new Tesla store in Milan provided a forum for current Roadster owners to ask Elon Musk exactly what's going on with the Tesla Model S. The answers? Pretty much everything is going according to plan. According to Tesla: Testing of the Alpha models is ramping up to full speed after starting in December 2010. Beta models (production-intent versions of the Model S) should begin final assembly sometime this year for final tests before the first deliveries arrive in North America in mid-2012. The first 1,000 examples of the Model S will be a special North American Model S...
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Silly Little Electric Cars Doing Damage To The Industry?Tucked away in a little corner just off Hall 6 at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, something weird and frightening lurked. Hiding behind the shiny stands of Kia and Smart and sitting in what looked like a poorly-carpeted entrance foyer, a collection of electric motoring misfits vied for the attention of...
Antony Ingram -
Photo Gallery: Think City Assembly Plant Tour, Elkhart, IndianaDuring the Detroit Auto Show in January, we visited the Think electric-car assembly plant in Elkhart, Indiana. It's not necessarily a place you'd expect to find electric cars being put together, but the rows of electric two-seat hatchbacks in blue, red, and black turned out to be surprisingly...
John Voelcker -
CA: Where Small Green Cars Matter & Why Detroit Has To CareDetroit pride is back. Domestic brands are winning quality awards, and matching or beating import labels on consumer satisfaction indices. If you watch television, you've likely seen the spinoffs of the widely discussed, utterly illogical feel-good Chrysler 200 ad featuring Eminem with the...
John Voelcker -
Battery Swap vs Fast Charging: VHS vs Betamax For Electric Cars?To battery swap or fast-charge? That’s the question facing automakers worldwide as they decide on the best standard to adopt to charge the latest generation of electric cars. But just like the early days of video cassettes, a standard war is waging in which there can only be one winner. And...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Report: Smart ForTwo Electric Drive Available For Sale In 2012The Smart brand has enjoyed modest success in the U.S. since its launch here back in 2007 but with a lack of any new models or updates, the oddly-designed minicar brand has fallen largely off the radar of late. Furthermore, even with all the hoopla surrounding electric vehicles at the moment...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Something popped into my head recently when I thought of recalls; it is a verse from a popular Salt-n-Pepa song modified. “Yo, Pep, I don't think they're gonna play this on the radio. And why not? Everybody has recalls.” And no truer words have been spoken and not even manufacturers with impeccable records like Honda can avoid the odd recall. In this case, the most recent recall from the Honda camp is for the 2006-2007 Honda Civic Hybrids. The recall is specifically for the DC-to-DC converter, which for those that are unfamiliar with a hybrid powertrain is an integral part of the...
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EVO Fights Back As Mitsubishi Tries To Redirect Extinction RumorsYou might have seen our coverage earlier this week on “EV Killed the EVO Star: Mitsubishi Kills the EVO.” It seemed like an appropriate play on words and even more appropriate is the response. Yes, that would be denial and redirection. Mitsubishi was quick to post on its Facebook page a...
Jonathan McGrew -
BREAKING: Nissan Leaf To Get Faster Charger 'In a Year Or So'You just never know what you'll hear at conferences. You might, for instance, hear Nissan America's director of product planning, Mark Perry, casually mention that the Nissan Leaf electric car now permits Level II 240-Volt charging at 3.3 kilowatts--"and we'll raise that in a year or so." In other...
John Voelcker -
8 Reasons Why Gearheads Shouldn't Hate Electric CarsOf all those that electric cars have to impress, the toughest crowd to crack has to be gearheads. Brought up on a diet of power, speed, noise and passion, it's tough to get into the clean, green and silent world of electric cars. And we should know - here at AllCarsElectric we aren't just electric...
Antony Ingram -
Do Businesses Need an Electric Vehicle Experience? GE Thinks SoVehicle tours, the de facto way of getting a new electric car in front of the people most likely to buy it, are pretty much an accepted stage in any electric car rollout from a major automaker. So why is General Electric, a company which doesn’t even make an electric car embarking on its own...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2011 Geneva Motor Show Through A Convert's Eyes: Guest Postby Robert Llewellyn I was only there for one day, and I'm still recovering; car shows are fairly energy sapping events. Everyone I met in Halle 7 said the same thing, "Oh, Geneva is the best one. It's not too big, you can get around and see everything." Remind me never to go to the really big ones...
John Voelcker -
German outfit Irmscher has just unveiled its latest rival to the Caterham and Ariel Atom set--but with a green flavor--the new 7 Selectra electric roadster concept. Making its debut this week at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, the 7 Selectra shares the familiar ‘Lotus 7’ roadster body with several other Irmscher models but comes packing a 144V DC electric motor. This particular powerplant is rated at 235 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque--one of the highest torque ratings of an electric motor in an automotive application--and is powered by a lithium iron phosphate cell battery...
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Electric Car Startups To Square Off Against Big Auto CompetitionCompetition is heating up in the electric car sector, and the next few years will be a challenging testing ground for startups looking to gain a foothold among consumers as more and more major automakers launch electric and hybrid cars. Some startups have lofty ambitions. Electric car startup Coda...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
Anti-Hybrid Cause Launched To Keep Next Mitsubishi Evo 'Pure'Democracy can be a messy and ugly thing to watch in practice. Especially when it's being pointed toward carmakers, which aren't often the subject of mass protests pointed toward their future product lines. This morning, we received an e-mail with a link to a Causes page urging Mitsubishi not to...
John Voelcker -
Chevrolet Volt and Opel Ampera: What Are The Differences?Chevrolet's Volt has only been on sale for a short while but sales are respectable and Chevrolet have pulled out all the stops to build a quality product and bridge the technology gap between the vehicles that everyone is used to and the new generation of electric cars. In Europe, General Motors'...
Antony Ingram -
With Green Cars, A License To Drive More?Sweden has, for several years, led the world in per-capita green-car ownership. And it's managed to strengthen economically without increasing industrial carbon emissions. But it's emitting more from its tailpipes. Swedes are driving more—enough to wipe away any the gains from greener...
Bengt Halvorson -
Green Car Roundup: Production Cars At 2011 Geneva Motor ShowThis year's Geneva Motor Show was absolutely crammed with concept cars. But amidst all the outrageous styling and one-of-a-kind features, several important production cars showed up as well. Not all of them were called production cars, mind you. Toyota, Ford, and Audi all showed off new models...
John Voelcker