Range-Extended Electric Vehicle

  • 2014 Chevrolet Volt

    How badly does the public misunderstand the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car? Pretty badly indeed, if the comments received by Volt owners are any indication. DON'T MISS: Three Years Later, Most Consumers Don't Understand The Chevy Volt Last week, we wrote that Chevrolet admits most consumers fail to comprehend how the Volt works, why any car with a 38-mile electric range could possibly be appealing, and so forth. Now we've done an informal survey of Volt owners, to come up with the major misunderstands and rebut them. Here are the top five things Volt owners hear that are just...

  • 2014 BMW i3 (German-market version), Amsterdam, Oct 2013
    2014 BMW i3: What Staff Training Ride & Drives Revealed

    With deliveries of the first 2014 BMW i3 battery-electric cars now just days away, BMW has busily been training service personnel and dealership staff on its new and radical design. And an informed post on BMWBlog by a dealership employee who went through the multi-day course offers some new...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt MPV5 concept, Unveiled at 2010 Beijing Motor Show
    Will GM Offer A Five-Seat Hybrid Or Volt To Target Prius V, Ford C-Max?

    With the anticipated launch of the revised 2016 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car now less than a year away, expectations are that it will be a compact hatchback similar to the current model. Whether it has four or five seats remains up in the air, though the addition of a fifth seat would...

  • 2014 Chevrolet Volt
    Three Years Later, Most Consumers Don't Understand The Chevy Volt

    Chevrolet's range-extended electric vehicle, the Volt, has been on sale for more than three years now. Its sales of 58,000 units so far are still small compared to more conventional vehicles, but many people will have seen one on the road by now--and seen TV ads or information on the internet. Even...

  • 2013 Chevrolet Volt  -  Driven, December 2012
    Chevrolet Volt: Range-Extended Electric Car Ultimate Guide

    The Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car has been on sale since December 2010--but it's still one of the most popular electric vehicles on sale. At the moment, the Chevy Volt is fairly unique in the plug-in car market, in that it's neither a traditional hybrid vehicle, nor a full...

  • 2014 BMW i3 (German-market version), Amsterdam, Oct 2013
    2014 BMW i3: Polarizing Looks, Average Range--Can It Succeed?

    Most of the world's truly significant cars have been striking, even polarizing, designs. But some unusual, even polarizing, designs have been colossal failures. And it remains unclear which category the 2014 BMW i3 will fall, in the different global markets in which BMW is selling it. DON'T MISS...

  • 2012 Chevrolet Volt

    Sometimes memories are short. Electric-car advocates often forget that it took seven years from the first Toyota Prius hybrid, launched in Japan in 1997, until sales of the second-generation Prius started to grow in global markets. Now, General Motors appears to be the subject of suspicion and distrust over whether it's actually, truly committed to plug-in electric vehicles for the long term. Slow sales, low numbers The evidence suggests that it is--but that GM is not tipping its hand the way it did during the very transparent development process that led to the launch of the 2011 Chevrolet...

  • 2014 Nissan Leaf
    FINAL UPDATE: Plug-In Electric Car Sales In March: Nissan Leaf Has Best March Ever

    March was another good month for U.S. sales of the Nissan Leaf, the best-selling electric car in the world. In fact, March was a good month for several plug-in electric cars, with monthly sales up for many models, and new monthly records for a few. Roughly 9,000 electric cars were sold in March...

  • London's taxi drivers try out new range-extended electric Metrocab
    New Range-Extended Electric London Cab A 'Masterpiece,' Says Mayor After Test Drive

    London has some of the worst inner-city pollution of any city in Europe, but legislators and automakers are now working hard to correct that. Among them is Metrocab, a company that purpose-builds taxis for the city--and its latest product, a range-extended electric cab, is drawing praise from...

  • 2014 Cadillac ELR
    2014 Cadillac ELR Recalled For Stability-Control Software Issue

    GM will recall 656 2014 Cadillac ELR coupes to fix a software glitch.

  • Ray Lane takes delivery of the first Fisker Karma
    Owners Of 'New Fisker' Offer Selective Electric-Car History

    Ten days ago, a website appeared from Wanxiang America, the new owners of Fisker Automotive, under the title of "The New Fisker." The site included a comprehensive timeline of the formerly bankrupt company's past, warts and all: from the lawsuit by Tesla Motors against Fisker through the May 2011...

  • Frame from 2014 Cadillac ELR video on YouTube, with actor Neil McDonough
    Cadillac ELR Wasn't Originally Used In 'Provocative' Ad

    In general, getting people talking about your ad is a good way to get people talking about your car. In the case of "Poolside"--an ad for the 2014 Cadillac ELR range-extended electric luxury coupe aired during the Oscars and the Sochi Olympics--however, not all the talk has been favorable. MORE...

  • 2014 Cadillac ELR test car in New York's Hudson Valley, March 2014

    Let's get one thing out of the way up front: The 2014 Cadillac ELR is rather more than a "tarted-up Volt," in the words of more than one commentator. It's a quiet, smooth, adequately powerful and very stylish coupe with a luxurious interior, and it runs on GM's most advanced range-extended electric powertrain. On the other hand, it's effectively a two-person compact car--and it appears to be priced about $30,000 too high. As Consumer Reports concluded in December, the ELR coupe is simply "priced out of its league." MORE: Cadillac Scrambles To Defend 'Provocative' ELR Ad: Not 1-Percent At All!...

  • 2014 Nissan Leaf
    Plug-In Electric Car Sales For Feb: Leaf Up, Volt Down (Tesla Unknown As Usual)--FINAL UPDATE

    Analysts worried that winter weather would put a crimp in U.S. new-car sales last month, but one electric car racked up record February sales: the Nissan Leaf. Leaf sales of 1,425 cars in February were a record for the month, more than double the 2013 total of 653 February sales (the numbers for...

  • 2009 Fisker Karma prototype
    Timeline For New Fisker Karmas: 'Within A Year'...Hopefully

    The assets of the bankrupt Fisker Automotive are now in the process of being transferred to winning bidder Wanxiang America, but already the new owners have started to discuss their plans for the automaker. The latest news nugget is that Wanxiang hopes to restart production of the Karma...

  • 2014 BMW i3 hits the race track
    2014 BMW i3 Gets CA Carpool-Lane Access: Battery Only, So Far

    As expected, the 2014 BMW i3 electric car has been awarded its "white sticker," the coveted permission to drive in High-Occupancy Vehicle lanes with only one occupant on California's crowded freeways. The range-extended version of the i3, however, has not yet appeared on the list--and there remains...

  • Vandalized charging cord from 2013 Chevrolet Volt, Venice, Florida [photo: M Cummings / J Brown]
    Chevy Volt Charging Cord Cut: Angry Neighbor, Electric-Car Hater?

    Owning a plug-in electric car, as buyers learn, is a process of educating the public at large. Mostly, people are curious when they see a car plugged in to recharge. But occasionally, uglier emotions come into play. That's apparently what happened to Matthew Cummings and Jennifer Brown. The couple...

  • 2014 Cadillac ELR
    Ominous Sign For 2014 Cadillac ELR: Half Of Dealers Turn It Down

    Sales of Cadillac's ELR range-extended luxury coupe are... well, they're not high right now. But that's okay, since Cadillac hasn't set itself huge targets for the Volt-based coupe. It's a niche product, not a volume model. Less okay is that nearly half of the brand's dealers have decided not to...

  • VL Destino Convertible live photos, 2014 Detroit Auto Show

    If lithium-ion batteries are "the heart of Fisker," according to new owner Wanxiang, then what does it say is "the soul of Fisker"? That would be the VL Destino, a version of the Fisker Karma range-extended electric luxury sedan with no batteries, electric motors, or plugs at all. MORE: Who's Still Buying Brand-New Fisker Karmas, And Why? The Destino is powered instead by a supercharged V-8 engine from a Chevrolet Corvette, which takes it to a projected top speed of 200 mph. And Wanxiang, China's largest auto-parts supplier, plans to build and sell both versions now that its purchase of...

  • 2009 Fisker Karma prototype
    New Owner Wants To Restart Fisker Karma Production, ASAP

    If all goes according to schedule, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Kevin Gross will rule today on whether the assets from bankrupt Fisker Automotive will be sold to Wanxiang, China's largest auto-parts maker. That company submitted the winning bid of $149 million for the remains of Fisker in an auction that...

  • 2012 Fisker Karma during road test, Los Angeles, Feb 2012
    Fisker Assets Sold For $149 Million To Wanxiang, Chinese Parts Maker

    The assets of bankrupt Fisker Automotive were sold to Wanxiang America at the close of an auction in Delaware bankruptcy court that lasted more than two days and lasted 19 rounds. Bloomberg reports that the Chinese company paid a total of $149.2 million for the company, or six times the price of...

  • Frame from 2014 Cadillac ELR video on YouTube, with actor Neil McDonough
    2014 Cadillac ELR Ad: What Does It Say About Who Buys Electric Cars? (Video)

    Well, if this is the guy who's actually going to buy a 2014 Cadillac ELR, there may be some interesting conversations to come with Nissan Leaf owners. This ELR driver is a hard-charging, self-assured, contemptuous-of-vacations, modern-home-owning middle-aged white male, as portrayed in a recent...

  • 2014 Nissan Leaf
    FINAL UPDATE: Plug-In Electric Car Sales In January: Leaf, Volt Both Low

    In the first month of 2014, sales of the two most popular plug-in electric cars were lower than they've been in many months. Sales levels likely fell victim both to the predictable winter slowdown in electric-car sales (which we saw in 2012 and 2013 too) and to particularly bad weather last month...

  • 2014 Cadillac ELR at Detroit-Hamtramck
    2014 Cadillac ELR Electric Coupe: Free Home Charging Station Included

    When the price of the 2014 Cadillac ELR range-extended luxury coupe was announced last October--it's $75,995--the gasps and shrieking could be heard throughout the plug-in electric car world. Yesterday, Cadillac sweetened the pot a bit: It said it would offer a "complimentary" 240-Volt Level 2 home...

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