Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV)

  • Tesla Model S all-wheel-drive prototype testing in California, March 2014

    It's long been expected that sooner or later, the Tesla Model S electric sport sedan will be offered with all-wheel drive. Now, two different Tesla fans have captured photos and video of what appears to be a prototype test vehicle with external instrumentation driving around the San Francisco Bay Area. As published on TransportEvolved, the video and first photos posted yesterday by Frank Hsueh--which aren't of particularly high quality--simply showed the silver Model S with roof-mounted instrumentation and wheel sensors on all four wheels. MORE: AWD Tesla Model S Coming Soon? (Warning: Pure...

  • 2014 Tesla Model S
    How Financial Analysts (And Many Others) Misunderstand Tesla's Competitors

    Startup electric-car maker Tesla Motors and its sleek Model S luxury sport sedan have generated more media coverage over the last three years than many well-established car companies. But at least some of that coverage is woefully, hilariously out of touch with the actual world of real people...

  • 2014 Tesla Model S
    Has U.S. Demand For The Tesla Model S Electric Car Stabilized?

    Last month, Tesla Motors reported deliveries of a record 6,892 Model S vehicles during the fourth quarter of 2013. Giddy investors promptly sent Tesla shares zooming higher. But many of those cars--Tesla isn't saying how many--were delivered to Europe. And if you look closely, there are signs that...

  • 2013 Honda Fit EV drive event, Pasadena, CA, June 2012
    2014 Honda Fit EV: Model Year Ends Early As Last Cars Are Built

    Honda has announced through its EV sales division that the Fit EV model year production will end early, with production of the last of the 2014 Fit EVs this fall. [UPDATE: Honda North America subsequently clarified that Fit EV production will end on schedule this fall, not "early." Honda added that...

  • 2014 Nissan Leaf
    Nissan Surveys Tesla Owners For Intelligence On Electric Cars

    Nissan is very quietly gathering additional electric-car "intelligence" about satisfaction, details, and features from Tesla Model S owners.

  • 2014 BMW i3 hits the race track
    2014 BMW i3 Gets CA Carpool-Lane Access: Battery Only, So Far

    As expected, the 2014 BMW i3 electric car has been awarded its "white sticker," the coveted permission to drive in High-Occupancy Vehicle lanes with only one occupant on California's crowded freeways. The range-extended version of the i3, however, has not yet appeared on the list--and there remains...

  • Tshering Tobgay, prime minister of Bhutan, with Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn and Nissan Leaf electric car

    The small Asian nation of Bhutan has a very big goal: It hopes to convert the country's vehicles to almost all electric power. Today, Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn announced an agreement between the nation and the carmaker to work together toward that goal. Nissan Leaf electric cars are to become both Bhutanese government vehicles and taxi cabs in the capital city of Thimphu. MORE: Bhutan Mulls Turning All Taxis Into Nissan Leaf Electric Cars The Nissan Leaf is the most successful electric car in history, with more than 100,000 sold. In today's ceremony, Ghosn...

  • 2014 BMW i3 hits the race track
    BMW's Toughest Task: Training Its Dealers On i3 Electric Car

    Early adopters, ecology-minded citizens and, increasingly, drivers who want very low running costs are now buying plug-in electric cars. That much we know. But many have reported frustrations at the dealership, from a lack of interest to salespeople who actively steer them away from electrics...

  • 1914 Ford Model T
    Tesla Model S Electric Car Versus ... Ford Model T? A History Lesson

    Well, give Car and Driver points for high concept: In picking a car to test against a 2013 Tesla Model S luxury electric sedan, the magazine chose...a 1915 Ford Model T. Yep, the most advanced, most talked-about battery-electric vehicle on the planet was pitted against the car that put the world on...

  • 2014 Nissan Leaf
    2014 Nissan Leaf Has Lowest Lifetime Carbon Footprint: Report

    Which new vehicle sold today has the lowest overall carbon footprint over its lifetime? The answer, according to Automotive Science Group (via InsideEVs), turns out to be the Nissan Leaf battery-electric car. In a study to be released this spring, The Automotive Peformance Index: Redefining Value...

  • 2015 Kia Soul EV launch at 2014 Chicago Auto Show
    2015 Kia Soul EV: Details From Execs Who Brought It To The U.S.

    The upcoming 2015 Kia Soul EV is not only the Korean carmaker's first battery-electric vehicle sold in the U.S., it's also one of less than a dozen all-electric cars offered for sale. Launched last week at the Chicago Auto Show, it adds a new and much greener model to the very popular second...

  • 2014 BMW i3 (German-market version), Amsterdam, Oct 2013
    2014 BMW i3 Electric-Car Orders Limited To Single Trim Level (For 3 Months)

    The 2014 BMW i3 electric car will only be offered in Launch Edition trim for its first 3 months on sale.

  • Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk speaking in Oslo, Norway, on Feb 1, 2014

    Tesla Motors is notoriously stingy with information about its cars and future plans, to the great frustration of news-hungry Model S owners and fans. But in a Q & A session in Norway on February 1, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the company's CTO JB Straubel revealed several intriguing tidbits about the Model S, the upcoming Model X electric SUV, and the company's planned mass-market Model E sedan. Among the Model X highlights: The Model X will have the same wheelbase as the Model S, and its length will be within 5 cm (about 2 inches). Width will be the same too. The Model X, of course, will be...

  • Citroen test car fitted with Phinergy prototype aluminum-air battery
    Aluminum-Air Battery Developer Phinergy Partners With Alcoa

    Phinergy and Alcoa will work to commercialize the Israeli startup's aluminum-air battery technology.

  • 2015 Kia Soul EV
    2015 Kia Soul EV Electric Car Unveiled At Chicago Auto Show

    Call it electric Soul: Kia took the wraps off its first electric car to be sold in the U.S. this morning, officially launching the 2015 Kia Soul EV at the Chicago Auto Show. The Soul EV was one of three Kia vehicles featured at the Chicago show. It was shown alongside the Kia Niro Concept, a hybrid...

  • Tesla Model X at 2013 Detroit Auto Show
    2015 Tesla Model X Will Have All-Wheel Drive Only, Company Confirms

    With less than a year to go before the first production Tesla Model X all-electric crossover utility vehicles are scheduled to roll off the assembly line, the company has confirmed that every Model X will come standard with all-wheel drive. Previously, four driven wheels were listed as an option...

  • 2014 Nissan Leaf
    FINAL UPDATE: Plug-In Electric Car Sales In January: Leaf, Volt Both Low

    In the first month of 2014, sales of the two most popular plug-in electric cars were lower than they've been in many months. Sales levels likely fell victim both to the predictable winter slowdown in electric-car sales (which we saw in 2012 and 2013 too) and to particularly bad weather last month...

  • 2014 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive
    2014 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive: What It's Like On The Road

    With minimal changes from the model launched last year as the least expensive electric car in the U.S., the 2014 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive remains the smallest and shortest plug-in electric car sold in the U.S.--as well as the only one offered as a convertible. The two-seat electric Smart comes...

  • AMC Amitron concept car, 1967

    Regenerative braking is a standard and expected part of any electrified car now, from Honda's mild hybrids up through battery-electric vehicles like the Tesla Model S. It lets the car recapture energy from momentum, which would otherwise be wasted as brake heat, by running the electric motor in reverse to recharge the battery. But what was the first car to employ regenerative braking? According to a short piece in Car Design News, it was an electric concept car called the Amitron, unveiled in 1967 by--of all things--American Motors. Shorter than a Smart ForTwo minicar, it was sufficiently...

  • 2014 Nissan Leaf
    With Demand Soaring, Nissan Leaf U.S. Production Could Double This Year

    With the 2014 Nissan Leaf going on sale this week and next, Nissan is poised to expand production and dramatically boost sales of its U.S.-built battery-electric hatchback. And if its CEO has his way, sales will double in 2014, from the 22,610 Leafs delivered in 2013 to 40,000 or more, perhaps as...

  • 2014 Nissan Leaf
    2014 Nissan Leaf Electric Car: 84-Mile Range, RearView Monitor Standard

    The 2014 Nissan Leaf is now rolling off the assembly lines in Tennessee, and the first examples should arrive at dealerships this week or next. Now, after a long wait, we have information on the updates to the electric car for the new model year. Rated range rises to 84 miles Most importantly to...

  • Consumer Reports tests the Tesla Model S (video screen capture)
    2013 Tesla Model S Electric Car: Consumer Reports Still In Love

    After a year of driving, Consumer Reports is still enamored with the Tesla Model S.

  • 2014 BMW i3 (German-market version), Amsterdam, Oct 2013
    Actress Anne Hathaway Is NOT The First 2014 BMW i3 Owner In The U.S.

    Sometimes the media don't quite know what they're talking about. And so it was with a story that had actress Anne Hathaway importing one of the first 2014 BMW i3 electric cars from Germany for her husband because she didn't want to wait for it to go on sale in the U.S. next spring. The story, which...

  • Polar Charging Post and Nissan Leaf
    Electric Cars So Disruptive, Gas Cars Will Be Obsolete In 2016, Says Futurist

    Many people like to think they can predict the future, but only futurists (and psychics) get paid to do it. And futurist Lars Thomsen thinks that electric cars are such a disruptive technology that they will make gasoline cars obsolete--starting in 2016, or much earlier than most other analysts...

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