Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield, Contributing Writer

Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield is a self-confessed petrol head. She grew up in a carless family but was able at a very early age to name cars passing her on the street while other girls her age were more interested in Barbie Dolls. Although she trained as a classical musician she’s now a full-time broadcaster and journalist, covering green fuels and tech. After passing her driving test she’s owned a wide selection of cars, including a 1962 Morris Minor Woodie Hotrod; a single seat electric bubble car; a ’92 Honda Prelude; a ’91 Volvo 240; a ’04 Toyota Prius Plug in Hybrid (which she converted herself); an ’85 VW electric factory built rabbit; and a ’09 Smart ForTwo CDI Nikki specializes in electric vehicles, but also enjoys clandestine gas-guzzling, working on the rule that the larger and noisier the better. She is also loves riding motorcycles, but currently doesn't own one. Nikki also hosts the TransportEvolved podcast. She lives in Bristol UK with her wife, their two daughters and their Border Collie.

Articles

Tesla’s Challenge: Build $30k Mainstream Electric Car by 2015 Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 20, 2011

Build a $30,000 electric car in under four years. That’s the promise made last night by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Speaking at the Cleantech Investor Summit in Palm Springs, California, the 39-year...
Mitsubishi Switches On: 6 More Plug-in Electric Cars by 2015
In case you didn’t know, Mitsubishi is in the midst of a dramatic corporate change of direction. While it may be more known for its pickup trucks, SUVs and rally cars, the automaker is planning to build on the success of its 2011 i-Miev electric car by unveiling at least six more plug-in...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 20, 2011

Electric Car Pioneers Want Simple Sockets, Not EVSE Charging Stations
Less than two months after the first 2011 Nissan LEAFs and 2011 Chevrolet Volts arrived in the eager hands of their new owners, there is an increasingly large group of owners worldwide who are wanting to ditch the confines of dedicated electric vehicle charge points and plug in where-ever they can...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 19, 2011
2012 Tesla Model S Oozes Class in First Official Road Video
It was announced nearly 3 years ago and we’ll not see it on the roads for another year, but Tesla’s Model S has made another important step towards production: the obligatory drive-by road video. As our John Voelcker reported yesterday over at GreenCarReports, the all-electric...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 19, 2011
VIDEO: Future Electric ‘Car’ Drives Itself But, Oh, Those Looks...
If you listened to countless futurists of days gone by, we should all be living in little space pods by now, with electric cars, robotic servants and self-cleaning homes. But as with many promises for the future, many of these predictions from long ago seem rather laughable today. Except of course...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 18, 2011
DBM Energy’s Electric Audi Destroyed in Fire, Cause Unknown
The converted Audi A2 electric car which hit the headlines back in October last year by apparently driving 375 miles on a single charge has been destroyed in a warehouse fire in Berlin. While the German police investigate the cause of the fire, no official statements have been made about the fire...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 18, 2011
Life After Top Gear: “The Stig” Goes Electric, Joins EV Cup Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 17, 2011

What happens when the masked marvel of the highly popular and highly anti-electric car BBC Show Top Gear leaves? He starts racing electric cars, of course.

Since his fiery departure from the...

Toyota Seeks To Ditch Rare Earth Metals from Electric Motors
As hybrid cars and electric vehicles increase in market share, rare earth metals like neodymium - a soft metal which is used to create the ultra-strong magnets used in electric motors - are becoming increasingly expensive and sought-after. But it’s not just demand causing a rise in prices...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 17, 2011
Do High Electricity Tariffs Make CA Electric Cars Costly?
California might be considered the U.S. spiritual home of the electric car, but according to a new study by Purdue University in indiana the cost of charging electric cars in California may be higher than anywhere else in the U.S. Or is it? According to the university’s Wally Tyner, the James...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 14, 2011
Why The 2011 Chevy Volt Won North American Car of the Year
Earlier this week the judges in the North American Car of the Year announced that the 2011 Chevrolet Volt had won the coveted NACOTY prize. At the press conference kicking off the start of the 2011 Detroit Auto Show, the NACTOY team announced that the 50 or so automotive journalists representing a...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 14, 2011
Revolutionary or Flop? Li-Ion Struggles With Reservations
Last year Li-Ion Motors were crowned winners of the Progressive Insurance X-Prize Alternative Side-by-Side category with their suitably unusual Wave II electric car. Amidst all the controversy surrounding the X-Prize results and allegations of misconduct and fraud, court cases and even a U.S...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 13, 2011
Range Anxiety? Brit Proves Electric Cars Can Go The Distance
Yesterday we covered the unexpected electric car challenge from a Tesla fan to the BBC journalist driving the 400+ mile trip from London to Edinburgh in a prototype 2009 MINI E David Peilow, a regular at TeslaMotorsClub.Com, took some time off from his work to prove that not all electric cars were...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 13, 2011

Tesla Fan Drives Epic Electric Car Trip To Prove BBC Wrong Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 12, 2011

The British Broadcasting Corporation, considered to be the center-pin of television and radio in the U.K., has always had a cautious view of the benefits of electric vehicles, often choosing to...
2011 Detroit Auto Show: Sexy Electric Mercedes SLS AMG Due 2013
If the shots we showed you last year of Mercedes-Benz’s electric offering on the now iconic SLS AMG super-car were enough to get your juices flowing, you’ll be pleased to know that Mercedes announced yesterday at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show that the all-electric SLS AMG E-Cell will be...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 11, 2011
Fighting The Electric Car Pirates: Renault Gets Tough
Take one look at the news coming out of Detroit this week and you’ll know that the electric car revolution seems well and truly under way. Nearly every major automaker is now extolling the virtues of electric car technology when a few years earlier, they were dismissing them as impractical...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 11, 2011
Ed Begley, Jr. Launches Ford’s Electric Car War On Chevrolet, Nissan (VIDEO)
Choosing a spokesperson for a new brand is pretty tough, especially if someone else has already had a go at selling what you’re trying to. NIssan chose world-champion cyclist Lance Armstrong to be their public face on early Nissan LEAF commercials. It appears Ford has chosen American actor...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 10, 2011
2011 Detroit Auto Show: Tesla Celebrates 1500 Roadsters Sold
Tesla celebrated the start of the 2011 Detroit Auto Show today by announcing that it had now sold over 1,500 of its iconic electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster. It was November 18, 2006 when we were first shown the sexy two-door car that very few believed could be as good as the then unknown...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 10, 2011
2011 Detroit Auto Show: Ford In Love With Electric Cars
Just a few days after unveiling the 2012 Ford Focus Electric at the 2011 Consumer Electrics Show in Las Vegas, Ford has expanded its green fleet for 2012/13 with yet another plug in vehicle: The C-MAX Energi Plug-in Hybrid From the specifications and the way Ford is talking about its new vehicles...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 10, 2011

Coming Soon to Best Buy: Electric Car Home Charging Stations Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 7, 2011

Until recently, getting Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) installed in your home required you to go directly to the manufacturers of the equipment, or buy direct from your electric car dealer....
2012 Ford Focus Electric Unveiled by CEO at CES
Earlier this week Ford hinted on the social media network site Facebook that it had plans to unveil an all-electric car at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. From the shots it released, we guessed the announcement would include an all-electric Focus. As suspected, Ford CEO Allan...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 7, 2011
2011 Detroit Auto Show: Electric Car Preview
The Holidays are over, the New Year celebrated, which means it’s the time of year when the auto-world descends on Detroit for the North American International Motor Show. Held over the coming two weeks, it will showcase the very latest in automotive design, innovation and technology. Last...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 6, 2011
BMW Launches ActiveE Electric Car Forum, Mobile App, Extends MINI E Leases
BMW made a step towards its electric car future today by launching its ActiveE electric car forums. In its final Plugged-In newsletter to all its current MINI E Lease participants, BMW announced that the new website will form the backbone of BMW’s next electric car program. In addition, BMW...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 5, 2011
2011 Nissan LEAF: Deliveries Now More Than a Trickle
Last month, Nissan became the first major automaker to deliver an all-electric car to a U.S. customer. In the month of December however, only 10 LEAFs were actually delivered to customers, whilst Chevrolet delivered somewhere between 250 and 350 2011 Volts to customers. Now it looks as if Nissan is...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 5, 2011
Electric Cars Financially Viable by 2020, Study Reports
Buying an electric car today is hardly cheap. With lithium-ion battery prices at around $450 per kilowatt-hour of storage, the 24 kilowatt-hour battery pack found in the 2011 Nissan LEAF weighs in at a jaw-dropping $10,800, and that's before complex battery management electronics are added. That...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield January 4, 2011