Toyota RAV4 News
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While dozens of supercars will be revving up their engines ready for the start of Ireland's upcoming Cannonball Run, the ESB ecars team will be off to a much quieter start. The ESB team's 2011 Nissan Leaf is the first electric car to participate in the Cannonball Run which starts this Friday, September 9, from Dublin. The 600-plus mile route is more than the Leaf can manage on a single charge, so several charging points have been carefully picked along the way that should allow the team to match the other cars all the way to the finish, two days later in Kilkenny. Each overnight halt will...
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2011 Audi A2 Electric Car Concept: New Info, ImagesLate last week Audi released some teaser sketches of its A2 concept car due at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show, now less than a week away. Due to be positioned between the A1 minicar and upcoming Audi A3 Sedan compact car, the new A2 is spiritual successor to the original A2, an aluminum-bodied...
Antony Ingram -
2011 Frankfurt Auto Show: Full Electric Car PreviewWe thought the 2011 Geneva Motor Show was one of the best ever for electric cars and green vehicles, but the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show, starting in less than a week, is shaping up to be even better. We'll be covering the show in-depth next week, but in the meantime we've rounded up all the electric...
Antony Ingram -
Audi A2 Concept Electric Car Due At 2011 Frankfurt Auto ShowWith the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show less than two weeks away the German auto industry is starting to really crank out the concept cars. Latest in the onslaught of new German metal is the Audi A2 concept. If you think the name sounds familiar then you aren't wrong. Audi launched a production A2...
Antony Ingram -
Fatal G-Wiz Crash: Victim Was On Phone, Not Using SeatbeltWe brought you news last year of a horrific accident, in which a woman was killed when her G-Wiz neighborhood electric vehicle, a model not sold in the United States, was struck by another vehicle. An inquest into the accident has now ended and the verdict has been given as accidental death. Last...
Antony Ingram -
Las Vegas Gambles On Chevrolet Volt For City FleetLas Vegas is better known for its excess than its frugality, but city bosses are turning that image around by trialling a fleet of electric cars, the first of which is GM's range-extended electric vehicle, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. The trial will make the city the only government agency in the state...
Antony Ingram -
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This article offers another look at China's evolving plans for electric cars, also covered last week: China's Electric Car Plans Unrealistic, Focus Now On Hybrids) China's ambitious goals for electrification of its automotive fleet call for 10 percent of the cars expected to be produced in 2015 to be EVs, as Micheal Austin reported in a "technology time machine" roundup earlier this year. The official hope has been that China might skip the hybrid phase that advanced industrial countries are going through and leap straight to all-electric cars. But the Financial Times reports...
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Lesson Learned As Salinas Sues Bankrupt Electric Car Maker?It's a sad fact of business that many start-up companies fail within the first few years of trading. Electric car fans are quite used to this and even the most promising new companies can struggle. One such company is Green Vehicles, an electric start-up that folded back in July. Green Vehicles had...
Antony Ingram -
Audi Reveals More Urban Concept Pics Ahead Of Frankfurt ShowIt seems that Audi just can't contain itself with its latest concept cars, the two-seater Urban Concepts. Three weeks ago some spy videos trickled onto the internet showing the camoflaged electric car being driven around in the center of Berlin. The very next day Audi revealed its first sketches of...
Antony Ingram -
Dear Floridians: Golf Carts Are NOT Electric CarsElectric car enthusiasts have struggled for years with "golf cart" jibes and only recently with cars like the 2011 Tesla Roadster and 2012 Nissan Leaf has the "ugly and slow" image started to disappear. In Florida, there's a different problem - people who believe their golf carts are actual cars...
Antony Ingram -
Five Electric Cars You’ll Still Be Able To Buy In Five YearsThe electric auto industry -- more than the conventional auto industry -- is an extremely volatile and competitive place. And unlike the mainstream auto industry, small-scale and boutique companies like Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive actually compete for the custom of electric car buyers...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Kansas Students To Drive Coast To Coast On Electric Car TripIt's human nature to take on challenges, and for many in the electric car industry that means embarking upon huge road trips in cars not known for their long ranges. We've seen trips from Alaska to Mexico in an electric race car and 25,000 miles in a Tesla Roadster, amongst others. Minddrive's idea...
Antony Ingram -
China appears to have abandoned its plans to gain an early advantage on Western carmakers by beating them to the market with mass-produced electric vehicles. As China develops more and more as a nation the demand for cars is increasing at a huge rate. The Chinese government had initially intended to skip hybrid technology to reduce the country's reliance on oil, and to improve the air quality in highly polluted cities like Beijing. Politicians in Beijing had set targets for one million "new energy" vehicles to be on the roads by 2015 and 5 million by 2020, but this could now include regular...
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Costco Pulls The Plug On Electric Vehicle Charging StationsBack in the 1990s, when it seemed like electric vehicles were gaining traction with consumers, Costco did something unusual: the big-box retailer installed charging stations at many of its California locations. Now, however, those stations are being removed, and electric car fans aren't happy...
Richard Read -
2014 BMW i3 Electric Car Spotted During Filming In ChicagoWere it not for imminent reveals at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show in mid September, you might think the automakers were getting careless with their upcoming models. First, Audi's E1 e-tron was caught on camera in the center of Berlin, being filmed in camoflage for an Audi promotional video. The E1...
Antony Ingram -
Electric Cars In "No Benefit For Poor Communities" ShockerPresumably following studies on whether bears really do defecate in the woods and to which religion the Pope actually pertains, The Greenling Institute in California has released a new report suggesting that expensive electric vehicles aren't benefitting communities of low income. The new study...
Antony Ingram -
Want a 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV? You’d Better Live in CaliforniaNext year, we’re seeing a whole new group of all-electric car hit the streets, including the much-anticipated rebirth of Toyota’s all-electric crossover, the 2012 RAV4 EV. With a drivetrain engineered by Tesla motors, a 100 mile range and a legendary reputation to live up to, the 2012...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Toyota To Offer Leviton Charging Stations For Prius Plug-InNext year, Toyota will be launching a trio of plug-in vehicles - the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid, the 2012 Toyota RAV4EV and the 2012 Scion IQ. To coincide with that launch, Toyota has announced it will be selling a branded electric-car charging station, made by electronics manufacturing firm...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
You might feel a little "green around the gills" the following morning, but a night of drinking Bruichladdich whisky from the UK helps to do your bit for green transportation. Mark Reynier is managing director of the whisky distillery in Scotland, and every day drives to work in his recently acquired 2012 Nissan Leaf. Bruichladdich does more than just make delectable drinks - it generates its own electricity, too. The power produced is enough to power the entire business, and there's always enough energy going spare to charge Mark's Leaf. The distillery uses technology that extracts gas from...
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BMW's UK MINI E Test Ends: Drivers Happy, But...A few months after BMW and MINI's electric car study ended in the United States, a similar scheme run in the U.K. has also come to a close, and the results are in... ...and if you've read the results of the American tests, the figures coming from the U.K. will all look very familiar. Basically, all...
Antony Ingram -
2012 Toyota RAV4 EV To Be Built In Toyota Plant, Not By TeslaThis much we know already: Tesla Motors will build battery packs and electric drive systems for the upcoming 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV electric crossover. What we didn't know was where that car would be assembled. Would it be the Canadian factory that builds standard gasoline RAV4s for North America, or...
John Voelcker -
Top Gear Tests Nissan Leaf, Peugeot iOn: A Fair Assessment?It's the episode electric car enthusiasts have been itching to see- and now the guys at BBC motoring show Top Gear have tested two electric cars to see whether they make any sense for the car buying public. Now we already know that Top Gear hasn't had the greatest history with electric cars. First...
Antony Ingram -
Electric Cars Dirtier Than Gasoline Equivalents In ChinaEV fans are probably sick of arguing the case for electric cars whenever someone brings up the old "well to wheels" scenario. "Well, where does the electricity come from?" they ask. Familiar with it? Most of us have pre-prepared figures as to why EVs are cleaner, even considering the fuel burned to...
Antony Ingram -
2012 Mitsubishi i Electric Car: X-Ray Cutaway Shows LayoutHere's a view of a car you've probably not seen before, though it may be familiar to you if you've ever been in the hospital. The image above shows the 2012 Mitsubishi i electric vehicle after an X-ray scan, allowing you to see many of the vehicle's key components. X-rays pass cleanly through...
Antony Ingram