U.S. DOE
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Yep, it's almost the end of the year, which means reams of roundup stories from all your favorite auto websites. Nope, we're not that different: We've got one too. Here's our take on the five most important stories--or perhaps themes--of 2011 in the growing world of green cars. New fuel economy rules: 54.5 mpg CAFE by 2025 The biggest story of the year is the new gas-mileage requirements jointly issued by the NHTSA and EPA--under the encouragement of the Obama White House, and with signoff from most if not all of the major automakers. (Auto dealers are still fighting the rules.) The new...
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Lithium-ion cell maker Ener1 Stock To Be Delisted After Think Collapse
Ener1 Inc., the battery firm charged with supplying battery packs to the ill-fated Think electric car company and parent company of EnerDel -- a $118.5 million U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantee recipient -- was officially delisted from the Nasdaq stock exchange yesterday after it failed to...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Could Fisker Karma's Low MPGs Hurt DoE Car-Tech Loan Program?
Fisker Automotive may have sensed that the 20-mpg EPA rating on their 2012 Karma electric sport sedan was not good news. The company simply omitted the statistic from their press release announcing that the EPA had legally certified the Karma--meaning it can now be sold to retail buyers. Fisker...
John Voelcker -
DoE Says Electric Cars Crucial To Cutting Dependence On Oil
Electric-car advocates spend a lot of time touting the advantages of driving on plug-in power rather than burning gasoline. Sometimes, it can be a lonely battle. But now the U.S. Department of Energy has weighed in on the side of electric cars, with a conclusion that may startle some: It's more...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Promotes DOE Loans, Asks For More Money
Electric automaker Tesla Motors posted a blog post on its website earlier this week detailing how the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Program had helped it expand and prepare not just one but many electric cars for the market. The blog post was designed...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
TomTom Integrates Coulomb's Charging Map: We Have Concerns
Consumers and automakers both know that range anxiety is a huge barrier standing between shoppers and electric vehicles. But soon, EV owners will have yet another tool in their anti-anxiety toolkit, and it comes from a partnership between GPS heavyweight TomTom and charging station manufacturer...
Richard Read -
By far the most ambitious plan to build and assemble electric cars in the U.S. comes not from General Motors or Ford, but from Nissan. Now, it may happen a little later than expected, due to the March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami that severely damaged large portions of Japan's industrial infrastructure. Parts shortages may delay Nissan's plan to manufacture 150,000 Nissan Leaf electric cars and 200,000 lithium-ion battery packs for electric vehicles in Tennessee, according to trade journal Automotive News. Hideaki Watanabe, head of Nissan’s Global Zero Emission Vehicle Business...
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New Chrysler Engine To Burn Gas And Diesel--At The Same Time
You probably drive a gasoline car. And surely you've heard of cars with diesel engines. But how about a car with an engine that burns both fuels, at the same time? That's what Chrysler is working on, it turns out, funded in part with research dollars from the U.S. Department of Energy. Author Mike...
John Voelcker -
DoE's Chu Hopes Chrysler Can Play With Big Kids, Get Loans At Last
Well, looks like Chrysler is getting closer to playing with the big kids at last. The back-from-bankruptcy third U.S. automaker, now effectively controlled by Italy's Fiat, is putting together a financial package that will allow it to pay off all the money invested in it by the Obama Administration...
John Voelcker -
China In 2050: 350 Million Vehicles, Many Electric Cars...And Gasoline Exports?
The big unknown in global efforts to reduce carbon emissions is China. It is industrializing at a rapid pace, and a burgeoning middle class has savings galore to spend on its first automobiles--including luxury European brands. By some estimates, the world's current 800 million vehicles will grow...
John Voelcker -
EcoCar2 Will Challenge College Teams To Build Greener Cars
The winning team for the third and final year of the first EcoCar Challenge has yet to be announced, but the next three-year competition has already been unveiled. On Wednesday, representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors officially launched EcoCar2, whose tagline will be...
John Voelcker -
You'll Pay $700 More For Gasoline This Year (If You're Average)
According to the Department of Energy, the average U.S. household will pay $700 more for gasoline this year than it did in 2010. In a weekly review of the oil market, the department's Energy Information Administration noted that prices will rise at least 10 cents more over the current national...
John Voelcker -
In a renewed push for clean energy, President Obama called for one million electric cars to be on American roads by 2015 last month. But is that goal realistic? The government released a report this week saying that by its “conservative” estimates for 2015, the electric car supply in the U.S. will total 1.2 million cars. One eyebrow-raising note in its estimates, though: The report projects supply of the Nissan Leaf (pictured) in the U.S. this year to be 25,000 cars. Nissan has reportedly delivered just 106 cars as of last week, although it says it’s ramping up production in...
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GM Says More Government Money Not Needed--Though Rivals Took It
Well, give them credit for resolve, anyway. General Motors said today it was withdrawing its applications to the U.S. Department of Energy for $14.4 billion of low-interest loans under the DoE's advanced technology vehicle manufacturing program. That's the program that so far has granted loans to...
John Voelcker -
2011 Nissan Leaf Laurels: Euro Car of the Year, U.S. Cell Plant Underway
Initial deliveries of the 2011 Nissan Leaf battery electric car have been fitful, compared to hundreds of Chevy Volts sold each week. But Nissan's first modern mass-produced battery electric car continues to rack up accomplishments (and the company says it will be at full production by March)...
John Voelcker -
Things We Read, And Like: 'Why We Need Energy Literacy'
Many readers on this site are concerned with miles per gallon, or how much fuel their car uses. And while any site called Green Car Reports is bound to have an environmental tilt, most car buyers are far more concerned with saving money than saving the planet. Nonetheless, we're all about making...
John Voelcker -
Struggling Startup Carmaker V-Vehicles Names CEO, Renames Itself
Startups are hard. Automaker startups may be harder. But one of the necessary qualities in startups--tenacity--was on display recently from Next Autoworks. New name, new CEO That's the new name of the former V-Vehicles Inc., which attracted funding from famed Silicon Valley venture firm Kleiner...
John Voelcker -
A123 Spin-Off 24M Lands $16M To Explore Next Frontier Of Batteries
Last week, advanced battery company A123Systems announced that it was spinning off a new venture called 24M Technologies, which would focus on more unorthodox energy storage innovations, including grid-scale flow batteries. One of the reasons it decided to release the new entity into the wild was...
John Voelcker -
International research consultancy firm McKinsey has just released the latest of its reports on electric cars, placing the U.S. ahead of other countries when it comes to electric car adoption. Taking into account nine variables likely to influence investment in the electric car sector such as cost of production, electricity rates, consumer interest and government incentives for electric car purchase, McKinsey has produced an index of countries most likely to lead the emergence of electric cars as a means of mass transportation. Thanks to the continued support from the U.S. Congress and...
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Tesla IPO Doc Reveals Plans For Crossover, Cabrio And Commercial Vehicle
Tesla has previously hinted that its electric powertrain technology could be applied to a number of vehicle platforms and that the company would eventually expand its lineup beyond the current Roadster and upcoming Model S sedan. In fact, at Tesla’s announcement of interest in acquiring a $465...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Who Buys a 2011 Nissan Leaf? Toyota Prius Owners, Of Course
So who are these strange people who might want something as unusual, as perplexing, as downright radical as an electric car? More specifically, an all-electric 2011 Nissan Leaf compact hatchback? Turns out they're the same people who wanted the last most radical type of family car: a...
John Voelcker -
2010 Coda Sedan: Exclusive Video Gives Electric-Car Details
Launching a brand-new car make is a tough task; just ask General Motors (RIP Saturn). But if you're electric-car startup Coda Automotive, you have at least one plus (it's a pure electric car, which is sexy) to offset several potential minuses (who's Coda? it's made in China? I can't buy one outside...
John Voelcker -
GM, Chrysler To Join Ford, Tesla in DoE Retooling Loan Queue
Over the last year, the U.S. Department of Energy has granted almost $9 billion of low-interest loans to help automakers retool for more fuel-efficient cars. But until now, General Motors and Chrysler had been shut out while Ford, Nissan, and Tesla were awarded loans last June, joined by Fisker in...
John Voelcker -
Fisker bumps up latest funding round to $175 Million
This story, written by Camille Ricketts, was originally posted on VentureBeat's GreenBeat, an editorial partner of GreenCarReports. Having already banked $100 million Fisker Automotive has raised its sights on a new round of venture capital funding, now seeking $175 million, according to a filing...
John Voelcker