Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV)
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With the first three-year leases of Honda Fit EVs now set to end in June, drivers of Honda's only electric car have been wondering what will happen to their cars now. Many of them would like to hang onto the cars. While Honda won't let them buy the car, the company has decided to offer those lessees an option for a further two-year lease. DON'T MISS: Honda Ends Three Green Models For 2015: Insight, Fit EV, FCX Clarity Honda announced this morning that it would offer two-year extension leases to current Fit EV lessees. For those owners who don't wish to renew, Honda will take back the...
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Group Buy Of Fiat 500e Electric Cars Ignites 'Feeding Frenzy,' 100-Plus Bought
Suppose you could get a new electric car for $83 a month--and its running costs per mile were only a fraction of what a gasoline car would in fuel. That'd be almost a free car, right? Indeed, the allure of such a deal added to the viral nature of the Internet led to sales of roughly 100 Fiat 500e...
John Voelcker -
2015 BMW i3 Video Road Test
If there were ever a brand-reset button in the automotive business, the BMW i3 electric car is it. It's both a compact hatchback and an all-electric car, from the brand that claims to build ultimate driving machines. How does it measure up to that lofty standard? Hi, I’m Joel Feder, and...
Joel Feder -
UberX Drivers To Test BYD e6 Chinese Electric Cars In Chicago
The BYD e6 wagon is the battery-electric car that never quite made it onto the U.S. market. Despite various plans and announcements over the last five years, the e6 was never offered for retail sale in North America. Very quietly, that's now changing; the company hopes to lease around 200 BYD e6...
John Voelcker -
Toyota RAV4 EV Electric Car Recalled For Shift Flaw In Tesla Software
Toyota is recalling certain RAV4 EV electric cars over a software issue.
Stephen Edelstein -
UPDATE: Audi e-tron Confirmed: Sleek Electric SUV May Beat Tesla Model X On Range
With the all-new 2016 Audi Q7 now launched at last week's Geneva Motor Show, and a diesel plug-in hybrid model to follow, luxury maker Audi can turn its attention to its next utility project. That would be a stylish all-electric crossover SUV that takes direct aim at the Tesla Model X, which is...
John Voelcker -
After seven days of traveling cross-country in my Tesla Model S electric car--including routes without Supercharger DC fast-charging sites--I had made it as far as Texas. The trip demanded both forward planning and considerable thought toward contingencies, should conditions not permit the Tesla to go as far as I'd planned on any given leg. Still, entering my second week, I had made it from New York's cold, snowy Hudson Valley all the way into the heart of big, flat, warm Texas. YESTERDAY: Tesla Model S Cross-Country Trip: Days 4-7 DAY BEFORE: Tesla Model S Cross-Country Trip: Days 1-3 DAY 8...
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Ford May Show A 200-Mile Electric Car This Year To Counter Chevy Bolt: UPDATE
The announcement that the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt electric car will go into production within 18 months seemingly sent shockwaves through the auto industry. GM's crosstown rival Ford, which has sold hybrids for more than 10 years but shown little love for battery-electric cars, now seems to feel the...
John Voelcker -
Plug-In Electric Car Sales In Feb: Cold-Weather Doldrums Continue: FINAL UPDATE
Winter is always a slower sales time for plug-in electric cars than the warmer months, and last month looks like it won't be any exception. Sales of most of the highest-selling battery-electric and plug-in hybrid models stayed roughly at levels similar to those of January. While a blockbuster...
John Voelcker -
2015 Volkswagen e-Golf Electric Car Gets Less Expensive Trim Level
When pricing for the 2015 Volkswagen e-Golf electric car was announced last August, only one trim level was available, a lavishly equipped top-of-the-range package. Now VW has supplemented that SEL Premium version of the e-Golf with a new, less expensive model called the Limited Edition, at a price...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model S Cross-Country Trip, Without (Many) Superchargers: Days 4-7
A cross-country road trip in a Tesla Model S electric car requires a fair amount of forward planning and contingency research. Still, I made it from New York's cold, snowy Hudson Valley into the warm, humid climes of Alabama in my first three days--as I wrote about yesterday. Then, waking up on Day...
David Noland -
Tesla Model S Cross-Country Trip, Without (Many) Superchargers: Days 1-3
With our daughter off to college, my wife and I recently became empty-nesters. Suddenly, there was no more reason to endure the wretched winters in New York’s Hudson Valley. California, here we come: We rented a cottage for February and March in the small beach town of Carpinteria, an hour...
David Noland -
Kia plans to expand sales of the Soul EV pending an increase in production capacity.
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2016 Mitsubishi i-MiEV Electric Minicar To Start Deliveries This Month: UPDATE
The little Mitsubishi i-MiEV is the smallest four-seat electric car sold in North America, and its sales have been commensurate with its size: low. Since it went on sale more than three years ago, sales have totaled less than 2,000 units--against 72,300 for the larger Nissan Leaf. DON'T MISS: 2014...
John Voelcker -
All-Electric Aston Martin DBX Crossover Concept: Geneva Surprise
James Bond would probably like this one, for its silent speed and rough-terrain capability. And it's even an Aston Martin. At today's Geneva Motor Show, the British sports-car maker unveiled a surprise concept: a sporty crossover utility vehicle with an all-electric powertrain. DON'T MISS: Lagonda...
John Voelcker -
Four Years And 70,000 Miles Later, 2011 Nissan Leaf Going Strong
See what it's like to drive a Nissan Leaf electric car for four years.
Stephen Edelstein -
GM Officially Confirms It Will Build Chevy Bolt Electric Car With 200-Mile Range
Six days ago, Reuters broke the story that GM would indeed build and sell the Chevrolet Bolt electric car, but that production would start late next year--not in 2017 as previously expected. This morning, the company's North America President, Alan Batey, officially confirmed at the Chicago Auto...
John Voelcker -
How To Test Hydrogen Vs Electric Cars: A Challenge To Automakers (In Our Dreams)
The amount of animus between some proponents of plug-in electric cars and those who support hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles is remarkable, and sometimes disturbing. Each side marshals studies of everything from wells-to-wheels carbon footprint (electric cars win) to "refueling time" to full range...
John Voelcker -
Last October, Tesla announced an all-wheel-drive version of the Model S electric car, with up to a mind-boggling 691 horsepower, and said deliveries would start as early as December—only a two month wait. The performance specifications of the new P85D version promised supercar numbers on the drag strip, along with several new electronic features, most dramatically the promise of future self-driving. The gauntlet had been thrown: What would first-generation Model S owners do? Would they upgrade? I did. And it appears I'm not alone, to judge from my conversations with other Tesla owners...
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Why Tesla Model X Electric SUV Is Late: Range, Towing, 'Falcon Doors'
Electric-car fans and Tesla owners alike are eagerly awaiting the debut of the Tesla Model X electric SUV, now scheduled to go into production roughly six months from now. Like every Tesla, the Model X has been delayed a number of times--but there's been little speculation about the reasons for the...
John Voelcker -
Breaking: 2017 Chevrolet Bolt 200-Mile Electric Car To Start Production In Oct 2016
The Chevrolet Bolt, a subcompact electric car with 200 miles of range, is to go into production earlier than expected, just 20 months from now. According to a breaking news story early this morning, the Bolt will start production in October 2016--possibly as a 2017 model. DON'T MISS: Chevrolet Bolt...
John Voelcker -
FINAL UPDATE: Plug-In Electric Car Sales In Jan: Winter Slump Sets In
Last year's U.S. sales of plug-in electric cars were the highest on record, but now the traditional winter sales slump has set in with a bang. Electric car sales usually dip during the coldest months, and last January was the lowest sales month of the year--but this January's results apparently...
John Voelcker -
FINAL UPDATE: Plug-In Electric Car Sales Continue Rise In 2014, To 118,500
Plug-in electric car sales during 2014 rose above the 100,000 level, to total roughly 118,500. Last year's total represents a 27-percent gain over calendar year 2013. It's the third annual increase in full-year sales in the U.S. since modern electric cars first went on sale in December 2010; the...
John Voelcker -
Driving Small Electric Cars: What It's Like In The Real World
Reader Jen Danzinger explains what it's really like to drive a very small battery-electric car year-round in the Midwest. In the years following my participation in the Progressive Automotive X-Prize, I have watched with keen interest as major car companies introduced electric vehicles into their...
John Voelcker