Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield, Contributing Writer
Articles
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We're living in exciting times. In the next year we'll see electric cars hit the market in the form of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Mitsubishi i-Miev to name just three.
While...
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BREAKING: The RAV4 EV Is Returning, Tesla, Toyota ConfirmsRemember yesterday's article where we spoke about rumbles from the rumor mill at Toyota and Tesla? Industry insiders had told two auto sites that the two companies were working together on a supercar and a re-development of the classic RAV4 EV. We said yesterday that the possibility of the RAV4...
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Are Tesla And Toyota Re-Electrifying RAV4EV, Going Supercar?We've known for some time that Toyota and Tesla are planning on working together on an EV, despite protests to the contrary. But with two separate rumors breaking today this partnership looks ever more likely to produce not one, but potentially two very interesting cars. That's if the rumor mill...
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Rabobank, SolarCity Switch On Chargers Along Highway 101, CACalifornia's Highway 1, otherwise known as the Pacific Coast Highway is one of the world's most famous roads and one we should all drive at some point in our lives. Some 400 miles of driving, a trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles might be a fun journey in a gas car, but isn't a trip many would...
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GM Backs Up 2011 Chevy Volt With 8-Year, 100K-Mile WarrantyToday the silence ended. We've driven the 2011 Chevy Volt Test Mule, We've cringed through the Volt Dance and we watched the Freedom Drive unfold over the July 4 weekend. While we've known about the car's 40 mile all electric range, 9 gallon fuel tank and planned 10,000 car production schedule for...
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Ultimate Green SUV: For $225K, Range Rover Electric ConversionAsk most consumers to describe an electric car and the chances are they will talk about the Tesla, the 2011 Nissan Leaf, maybe the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. They almost surely won't think of the large, luxurious, and expensive Range Rover. They may talk about how expensive EVs are. And unless they're...
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Super sexy Silicon Silicone Valley darlings Tesla Motors might be feeling a little motion sickness after the ups and downs of its first two weeks on the stock market, but its most recent hire brings...
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What Consumers Should Know About Cars Converted to ElectricGetting custom-built cars has been a part of the auto industry for many years. From improving the power curve on a small block engine through to creating custom convertibles from anything from a Hummer H3 through to a Toyota Prius, paying a company thousands of dollars for a unique vehicle happens...
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Yellow Is The New Green As Mercedes Bares All With SLS AMG E-CellRemember the bright yellow Mercedes SLS AMG E-Cell prototype we wrote about back in June? Equipped with a four-motor, all-wheel-drive system the SLS AMG E-Cell is capable of putting out more than 525 horsepower onto the road and packs electric supercar performance into the iconic gullwing body. As...
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Sports Cars, City Runabouts Electrify 2010 Bridgestone Eco-RallyThe small, seaside town of Brighton UK, some 50 miles south of London, has often been the destination for many a weary Londoner keen to take in its pebbled beaches, kitsch souvenir shops and traditional fish and chip suppers. But today it wasn't sticks of sweet sugary ‘seaside rock' candy cane or...
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Sexy Red Electric Concept Displays French Dream For Sports EVsConcept cars are often no more than an automaker's chance to dream about a future of fully autonomous vehicles, sweeping curves and Jetsons-style glass panels, but once in a while a concept is unveiled which has what it takes to make it to production. And these days, no concept would be complete...
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Japanese Firm Lets EVs Refill Faster Than a Gas CarWhat can you do in three minutes? Boil a egg? Buy a Coffee? Check your Mail? Visit the bathroom? Thanks to Japanese based JFE Engineering, you can now add half-charging your EV to the list, courtesy of its ultra-fast charge station. Designed to comply with the CHAdeMo standard developed by Tokyo...
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Imagine going on a vacation to London, or Paris. You've just got over the jet-lag and are feeling like exploring the city. You've done all the usual tourist activities and have some friends on...
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BREAKING: The Tesla Roadster 2.5 Is More Than Just A Few TweaksTesla have taken cues from the world of software design as it announces the latest set of upgrades to its world-famous Tesla Roadster. But unlike a minor software upgrade, the Tesla 2.5 model gives customers a whole lot more than a few performance tweaks. Just days after its IPO and with shares...
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Think Unveils EVCup Race-Ready City: Faster, Lighter, LeanerThere was a time when 'electric vehicle racing' was nothing more than an oxymoron. While teams of dedicated engineers, speed junkies and volt-heads have lit up drag strips with custom-built EV quarter-mile kings for years, the concept of racing production electric vehicles has yet to take off. But...
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As Governments Worldwide Tighten Fiscal Wallets, Are EV Programs at Risk?The U.K. coalition government has warned auto industry that it cannot continue to offer financial assistance to enable it to fully recover from the global recession. In addition, concern has been raised that even purchase grants for plug-in vehicles may be at risk if the government is unable to...
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Has The 2011 Volt Become A Hybrid Instead Of An EV? GM Says No.Is one of the most anticipated EVs to launch this year nothing more than a plug-in-hybrid? Or has miscommunication led to a rumor that the 2011 Chevy Volt will run on gasoline only at highway speed? In an article for the U.K's Telegraph newspaper, motoring journalist Andrew English shared his...
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Five Things EVs Will Need To Do Before They Become Mainstream.Let's face it. EVs are still a very small, very niche market. Expensive, short on supply and not even universally supported throughout the USA there are a whole series of achievements EVs will need to attain before they are considered regular cars. Here's the five most important things EVs will...
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Elon Musk Draws Similarities Between Tesla, Google and Apple, But Are They Really Alike? Nikki Gordon-BloomfieldUnless you've been asleep for the past two months the chances are that you already know that Tesla Motors is about to launch it's IPO. You're probably also aware that predicted investment from the...
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Why Early Adopters of EVs Won’t Suffer Range Anxiety.If most mainstream media outlets are to be listened to we are a few short years from seeing stranded EVs dotting our major highways after running out of electricity short of the next charging station, but is this really an accurate depiction of what life with an EV will be like? While traditional...
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Move Over Tesla. There’s a Mercedes Gullwing SLS AMG E-Cell Behind You.Until now the words electric, car and Mercedes have had an uncomfortable union. While Mercedes' cheapest car, the diminutive Smart ForTwo, has an electric version, its 62.5 mph top speed is hardly enough to get car buyers excited about converting to electric. But Mercedes super-sexy, bright yellow...
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Mitsubishi to slash 30% from 2011 i-Miev price, closes price gap on Nissan and Chevrolet.What happens when you're the first mainstream automaker to bring an EV to market after an eight-year absence of highway-capable, mass-produced EVs? Accolades a-plenty, lots of media attention and test-programmes worldwide. But what do you do when rival companies bring out a more versatile, more...
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Nissan Leaf Audio Warnings Disappoints Advocates, Need For Sound Questioned.Ever think of the benefits of EVs? Aside from the more obvious ones associated with not burning quite as much oil, zero tailpipe emissions and ease of driving many will cite the lack of engine noise. That last point however, may not be such a benefit to all and may even prove dangerous to those...
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2011 Chevy Volt Engineers Work Out Final Software Glitches, U.K. Volt Attempts 170 Mile Trip.GM's answer to the 2011 Nissan Leaf, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt is nearing production readiness. But a European badged Volt is taking part in a publicity long-distance drive in the U.K., GM's Detroit engineers are still tweaking the software responsible for ensuring the 40 mile-per-charge range...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield