Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV)
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The 2013 Tesla Model S electric car wouldn't be defined as a supercar--which is, more or less by custom, a two-seat sports car, not a large sedan. But to take the luxury plug-in sedan "into supercar handling territory," Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] has announced a new "Performance Plus" suspension and handling option. The package upgrades the shock absorbers, stabilizer bars, suspension bushings and fits new Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires on 21-inch wheels. Per Tesla's description, the new rear tires are not only 0.8 inches (20 mm) wider, they're slightly staggered to improve acceleration on...
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Tesla Hires New Engineering VP From Luxury Maker Aston Martin
While CEO Elon Musk is doing another tweet-hyped conference call today, Tesla has a lot going on in the background. Not only is it building and selling Model S electric luxury sport sedans, but Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] has quietly hired a new vice president of vehicle engineering. That new VP is...
John Voelcker -
How You Can Buy a 2013 Tesla Model S Now, With No Waiting
Good news for rich, impatient, picky Tesla Model S electric-car wannabes! If you're looking to buy right now--but can't abide a car sullied by a few thousand miles of loaner-car duty under the recently announced buy-it-now program--Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] now offers a new but little-known option...
David Noland -
April Plug-In Electric Car Sales: Leaf And Volt Neck And Neck
Sales of plug-in electric cars in April continued at roughly the same pace as in March, with sales likely totaling about 7,500 cars. Last year's first- and third-place plug-ins, the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, are now pacing each other in sales. Their year-to-date totals are separated by less than...
John Voelcker -
Greentech Auto's Electric Sedan: Haven't We Seen This Before?
Suppose you took a Chinese-made compact sedan, converted it to a battery-electric vehicle, and sold it in the U.S. market. Does that story line sound familiar? If so, you may be thinking of Coda Automotive, the now-all-but-defunct maker of the 2012 Coda Sedan. Coda flashed into our minds on reading...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Tunes Up Model S Warranty, Loaner Cars, Service Plan
On Friday, Tesla held a media call to reveal another in the series of announcements touted in tweets by CEO Elon Musk. This time, the news covered enhancements to the warranty and service experience on its Tesla Model S electric luxury sport sedan. Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] is now delivering several...
John Voelcker -
The 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV has been a long time coming, but it's almost here. This morning, Chevy announced that its only battery-electric car will have a range of 82 miles and be rated at a combined 119 MPGe efficiency. MPGe, or miles-per-gallon-equivalent, is a measure of the distance a car can travel electrically on the same amount of battery energy as contained in 1 gallon of gasoline. The Spark EV's 82-mile range matches that of the 2013 Honda Fit EV, but isn't as high as that of the 2013 Fiat 500e (87 miles) or the 2013 Toyota RAV4 EV (103 miles). But its 119 MPGe is the highest...
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NYC Officially Launches Nissan Leaf Electric Taxi Program
Within a few weeks, a handful of New Yorkers each day will ride in a new kind of taxi: an all-electric Nissan Leaf. On Monday, to celebrate Earth Day, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg joined with Nissan officials to announce that six Nissan Leaf taxis would go into service this spring. The...
John Voelcker -
Will Future Tesla Electric Cars Use Metal-Air Batteries?
Most advocates and industry analysts expect lithium-ion batteries to dominate electric-car energy storage for the rest of this decade. But is Silicon Valley startup carmaker Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] planning to add a new type of battery to increase the range of its electric cars? The high-end 2013...
John Voelcker -
AWD Tesla Model S Coming Soon? (Warning: Pure Speculation)
With the delay of its Model X crossover until "late in 2014," it may look as if Tesla's product pipeline is running dry. But we suspect the Silicon Valley startup electric-car company will offer a few new variants on its sole product, the Model S luxury sport sedan. And an obvious next step for...
John Voelcker -
Does Tesla Already Outsell Audi, BMW, Lexus & Mercedes-Benz?
The established German luxury brands--Mercedes-Benz and BMW--have sold cars in the U.S. for decades. So how could Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] possibly be beating them at their own game? The answer lies in how you define sales: It appears that the Tesla Model S electric sport sedan is outselling both...
John Voelcker -
2013 Fiat 500e Electric Car: First Drive
The 2013 Fiat 500e may be a compliance car, but its engineers created an electric car that's so much fun to drive that seemingly they want it to be more. And with remarkably aggressive pricing--the same $199 monthly lease payment as on a top-of-the-line gasoline 500--Fiat's marketers are trying...
John Voelcker -
As Fisker Automotive seemingly enters very public death throes, and its battery supplier A123 Systems works to get back to business after a bankruptcy sale, another electric car might have been caught in the crossfire. The 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV is to launch this summer, after its announcement in October 2011 and a short media drive of Spark EV development prototypes last fall. The Spark EV was officially launched at the Los Angeles Auto Show two weeks after that test drive. But the littlest plug-in electric Chevy also uses lithium-ion cells from A123 Systems. Does that mean that A123's...
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Life With 2013 Tesla Model S: Some Bikes Don't Fit
I've now had my 2013 Tesla Model S for six weeks since it was delivered in late February, and I'm getting used to living with it. I've recharged at the Supercharger network, measured its vampire current usage at night, tested the impact of speed on range, and even experienced my first software...
David Noland -
Life With 2013 Tesla Model S: How A Software Update Worked
One of the many cutting-edge features of my new 2013 Tesla Model S is the ability to download software updates over its cellular connection. With its touch-screen controls and electronic motor and battery systems, the Model S all-electric sport sedan is almost certainly the most highly computerized...
David Noland -
Life With 2013 Tesla Model S: Range Penalty At Speed Is Lower Than Expected
I've been surprised and delighted by how efficiently my new 2013 Tesla Model S has been running at higher speeds. Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] hammers home the message that high speeds can drastically reduce the range of any Model S. It cautions that its original range figure of 230 miles for my 60-kWh...
David Noland -
Cheaper Electric-Car Batteries: Slow & Steady Wins The Race
Did your parents ever tell you, "Slow and steady wins the race"? It can be annoying to hear as a child, but often it's true--and in the case of electric car batteries, it's how they'll get less expensive. As a new posting from the Washington Post's Wonkblog points out, there is no Moore's Law for...
John Voelcker -
March Plug-In Electric Car Sales: Tesla On Top, Leaf Roars Back (FINAL UPDATE)
The big news in plug-in car sales for March was Tesla's statement that it delivered "more than 4,750" Model S electric cars from January through March. That news early Monday not only sent stock in Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] soaring, it also cued up an interesting three-way horse race. Those sales...
John Voelcker -
We didn't expect the fluorescent green, that's for sure. But it probably helped us on our half-hour drive around crowded midtown Manhattan in the new 2013 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive, the latest all-electric version of the little two-seat Smart car. With the lithium-ion battery pack in the sandwich floor and the electric traction motor replacing the gasoline engine under the rear deck, the electric Smart has just as much room in it as a regular one. Which is to say, two adult men fit fine--although if one of them is not only 6'5" but also carrying a video camera, some of the angles get a...
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Oh, Tesla: Your 'Lease' Is Smart, But That Calculator Wasn't
Well, that didn't take long. Yesterday, just before 5 pm Eastern time, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] released details of its new "lease-like" financing product. The general consensus in the media (we read a lot of Tesla coverage here, folks) has been that it's smart for Tesla to offer financing for its...
John Voelcker -
Big Mystery Unveiled: You Can Now 'Lease' 2013 Tesla Model S
And now we know: Tesla's Big Mystery Story, teased via more than one tweet from CEO Elon Musk, is this: You will soon be able to "lease" a brand-new 2013 Tesla Model S. That's a good thing (though not nearly as much fun as some of the ideas proposed under the Twitter hashtag #TeslaPredictions). But...
John Voelcker -
2013 Nissan Leaf Electric Car: Updates, Video At NY Auto Show
Later today, we'll find out how many 2013 Nissan Leafs the company delivered last month. March was the first month that Nissan's electric car reached dealerships in volume from the Tennessee production line where all U.S. Leafs are now assembled, using lithium-ion cells from a plant right next...
John Voelcker -
Electric 2014 BMW i3 ReX Coming Dec, Lower Engine Power Confirmed
The ranks of dedicated electric cars--those designed from scratch as plug-in vehicles--are thin. Come December, a fourth entry, the 2014 BMW i3, will join the three currently on the market (the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt, and Tesla Model S). BMW officials confirmed last Thursday that the first i3...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model S Electric-Car Deliveries For Q1: 4,750-Plus, Says Company
When the news is good, you want to get it out there. Last night, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] released a statement saying that it had delivered more than 4,750 Model S cars from January 1 through March 31 of this year. The statement came before the first quarter of 2013 had even technically ended...
John Voelcker