Lyle Dennis, Editor-in-Chief
Articles
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EEStor Founder Dick Weir Confirms ESUs Presently Being Built, and Once Delivered to ZENN by the Fourth Quarter, Lyle Dennis
EEStor Inc is a Texas based startup that has been working in stealth mode for years to develop a disruptive breakthrough battery technology which would be extremely useful in electric cars. The... -
Honda Planning Rapid Mid-Cycle Update to the Insight Hybrid
The Honda Insight got off to a quick start in Japan where it launched in March prior to the third generation Prius. However, the new Prius with its improved design, extreme efficiency, and robust ride and handling is quickly taking the wind out of the Insight's sail (or should I says sales). The...
Lyle Dennis -
GM May Use eBay to Sell First Chevy Volts
The Chevrolet Volt electric car will be launched in November 2010. Initial copies of the vehicle will be built in limited supply. This is for quality ramp up purposes and to assure everything is working properly on this groundbreaking vehicle. GM recently announced it had formed a new...
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CEO of Zenn Motors: EEStor Production Storage Units to be Demonstrated in Weeks Delivered in Months
Ian Clifford is the CEO of Toronto-based Zenn Motor Company (ZNN.V). His company has a unique relationship with the secretive and fascinating Texas startup called EEStor. EEStor was founded by Dick Weir and Carl Nelson who have worked in hard disc manufacturing for decades. Ten years ago they...
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Nissan Not Expecting to use Better Place Battery Swapping for its US Electric Car
Nissan-Renault has a partnership with a California-based company called Better Place to interface its electric cars into a battery swapping infrastructure. The concept is to sell people cars without a battery, but make those cars' battery sockets standardized so that drivers can pull into a battery...
Lyle Dennis -
GM Admits its Developing Dedicated High Efficiency Hybrid Other Than the Chevy Volt
General Motors missed the start of the hybrid revolution, and admits it by their own accounts. When the first generation Toyota Prius was first launched GM decided not to pursue a similar course at that time. In 2007, after Toyota had sold nearly 1,000,000 Priuses, GM entered the fray by unveiling...
Lyle Dennis -
The new CEO of Honda, Takanobu Ito has confirmed a rumor we have heard for a while in an announcement last Friday. He said the company would be launching a CR-Z sports hybrid in February of 2010.
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Mitsubishi Could be Forced to Leave the US and Take it's i-MiEV Electric Car With it
Market Pressures Could Kill the Japanese Automaker's US Electric Car Plans
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Hyundai Planning Plug-in Hybrid Sports Car for 2012
The road to energy independence is quickly filling up with with many and varied concepts. Apparently Korean budget car maker Hyundai-Kia intends to muscle into a plug-in hybrid niche. According to company R&D President Yang Woong-chu, Hyundai plans to bring its Blue-Will concept into...
Lyle Dennis -
Tesla Dealership to Open in New York City July 14th
Tesla Motors freshly infused with nearly a half billion in loan guarantees from Uncle Sam will now be expand its dealership base from the Golden State to the Big Apple. On July 14 the electric car maker will open its first dealership for a media preview in New York City. The store will be in the...
Lyle Dennis -
Lightning Plans to Build Two More Electric Car Models
The Lightning GT is a high-end ultraluxury electric car which first debuted in 2008 and is slated to go into production in Spring 2010. The $240,000 vehicle is powered by four 120 kw motors and a 36 kwh lithium-ion battery that allows it to produce a jaw-dropping 700 hp. The car would go form 0 to...
Lyle Dennis -
Toyota Prius Sales Outpace Honda Insight 6-Fold
Unfortunately for Honda, its new low-priced mild hybrid Insight does not seem to be making any headway against the Toyota Prius. Honda launched the car in April with great anticipation that its lower price point would add value to the hybrid proposition positioning it to dent the Prius market...
Lyle Dennis -
The hybrid war between the venerated 3rd generation Toyota Prius and the 2nd generation Honda Insight has barely begun, but its increasingly looking like Honda is the loser. Though the Honda was...
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BMW's MINI E Program Will Lead to New BMW City Electric Car in 2012
BMW is currently leasing 450 electric MINIs outfitted with a 205 HP AC propulsion drivetrain and 35 kwh lithium-ion battery. This author is one of the "pioneers" involved in the field test. BMWs plan is to take back the cars at the end of the one-year lease and dismantle them to learn how they...
Lyle Dennis -
ExxonMobil Unveils Electric Car
You know a revolution has truly taken hold when one of the world's largest oil companies decides to launch its own electric car program. And today that is exactly what happened. In Baltimore, ExxonMobil has announced it will be sponsoring a new electric car sharing and rental program called AltCar...
Lyle Dennis -
Elon Musk: Tesla to Become Profitable Next Month, Dispells Eberhard Lawsuit Claims
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is not one to shy away from controversy. Recently, Martin Ebehard, Tesla's former CEO, filed suit against the company for libel, slander, and breech of contract. Musk has written a new voluminous blog post in an effort "to correct several misconceptions propagated by...
Lyle Dennis -
Cash for Clunkers Program Passed by Congress
Late Thursday the US Senate passed the $106 billion war appropriations bill which had previously been passed by the House of Representatives. Included in the bill was a $1 billion provision called "cash for clunkers." This money is earmarked to give to US consumers who purchase new...
Lyle Dennis -
A few days ago I took delivery of MINI E #412 in New York. I will have the car for a 1-year close ended lease.
As an electric car enthusiast and advocate, actually getting my own EV for full time...
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First Photos: Chevy Volt in Black
People still remember the aggressive sporty design of the original Chevy Volt concept. The car was redesigned to be more practical and especially to be more aerodynamic. GM unveiled the redesign at their 100 year anniversary in September of 2008. The redesign upset some people but many remain...
Lyle Dennis -
Mitsubishi Becomes World's First Automaker to Mass Produce an Electric Car
On Thursday June 4th at its main plant in Okayama Japan, Mitsubishi Motors has become the world's first automaker to begin mass production of an electric car. The vehicle that has begun rolling off the assembly line is the Mitsubishi iMiEV, a pure electric car with 100 miles of driving range and...
Lyle Dennis -
Coda Automotive Unveils New Mainstream All-Electric Sedan
Coda Automotive is a brand new car company that has been formed under the stewardship of Miles Rubin of Miles Automotive. On June 3rd the company unveiled itself as well as a new all-electric car that it plans to introduce to the California market in 2010. The company is headquartered in Santa...
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EEStor VP Says EESUs to be Delivered by End of 2009
The drama that is EEStor continues to unfold. The secretive company is known to be working on developing a radical new type of battery that offers several times the energy storage at a fraction of the size and weight of modern day lithium ion batteries. The material would theoretically have...
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Hybrids Expected to Account for 20% of US Cars Sales by 2020
JP Morgan issued its annual hybrid report on May 22. The 88 page document seems fairly bullish on the prospects for hybrid-electric cars. Analysts believe hybrids will account for 19.4% of the US market by 2020, and that the global hybrid market will grow 23-fold to 11.2 million by the same year...
Lyle Dennis