Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV)

Some electric cars aren't as good as we hoped--Coda Sedan, cough--while others are better than we expected. That latter group includes the 2013 Honda Fit EV and, now, according to Consumer Reports, the 2014 Fiat 500e. The battery electric conversion of Fiat's perky little 500 hatchback is powerful...

Yes, there's a big imbroglio going on right now over an article in The New York Times, followed by some tweets (1, 2, and 3) from Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk contradicting it. We're ignoring that, for the moment. Instead, we're bringing you an idea that made us chuckle. That idea is that the Tesla...

After just about four years of waiting, my 2013 Tesla Model S has arrived. Almost. The call from the Tesla delivery rep came on February 4, the last day of the two-week delivery window promised back in December. My car, with metallic green paint, 60-kilowatt-hour battery pack, black leather...

It's become increasingly common for carmakers to solicit volunteers to lease new-technology cars for a year or two, to gather real-world data about how the cars are actually driven and used. But those cars remain development prototypes, not production-quality vehicles. And as BMW ActiveE drivers...

It happens every so often: a spate of media reports with gloom-and-doom headlines about what a dismal failure electric cars are. Take, for instance, this morning's in Reuters--"Electric Cars Head Toward Another Dead End"--or a weekend report in The Detroit News entitled "Electric Vehicle Sales...

Unless you follow green cars fairly closely--or perhaps live in California--you may not know that the Golden State now requires the sale of certain number of battery electric cars. Between 2012 and 2014, the six highest-selling carmakers in the state must sell a combined 7,500 zero-emission...

To put it mildly, the Tesla Model S has been a resounding success. The New York Times has called the all-electric luxury sport sedan a game-changer, comparable to the Model T Ford. It's won virtually every 2012 "Car of the Year" honor, including the only unanimous Motor Trend award in the...

Let's hope that the Tesla Model S fares better than the Fisker Karma did. That's the first thought that sprang to mind when we heard the news that Consumer Reports had bought its very own Model S all-electric sport sedan to test. The respected consumer testing magazine notoriously savaged the...

You may never have heard of Europe's most important electric car. It's the Renault Zoe, an all-electric subcompact that won't be sold in the United States. It comes from French Renault, a company that shares technology with Japan's Nissan--which introduced the Leaf compact electric hatchback here...

For fans of the Tesla Model S all-electric sport sedan, the past few weeks have been full of good news. Deliveries of top-of-the-line 85-kilowatt-hour models now number in the thousands, the 60-kWh model will go into production this month--and has been rated at 208 miles of range--and no major...

Coda Automotive, the startup maker that builds the 2012 Coda Sedan electric car, is going through some very tough times. But it looks like one of its three dealers is trying to figure out the right price point for the all-electric compact sedan--which was originally priced at $38,145, including a...

We know the specifications and details of the 2013 Nissan Leaf, which has now gone into production in Smyrna, Tennessee. But the missing piece of information has always been: What will the battery electric car cost now that it's built in North America? During an electric vehicle roundtable today at...

It may be the most eagerly sought piece of information in the plug-in electric car world. And Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] ain't talking. The company has a set policy of not disclosing monthly sales figures or production figures until it has to by law. So it'll be another month or so before we know how...

The storm clouds continue to darken over electric-car startup Coda Automotive. The day after Christmas, the company announced on its Facebook page that it had closed its Coda Experience Center showroom in the Westfield Mall Century City. Then, last Friday, Coda laid off more staff. That day, the...

In its third year on the market, the updated 2013 Nissan Leaf will have a slightly longer range, a new and lower-priced base model, faster charging, and a more efficient cabin heater. The battery electric car goes into production at Nissan's assembly plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, this week. While the...

Sharp-eyed Tesla Model S buffs may be wondering why the mid-range 60-kWh car, which costs $10,000 less, is rated more efficient than the top-of-the-line 85-kWh model. The EPA said last week that the 60-kWh Model S has a range of 208 miles, and its efficiency rating is 95 MPGe (miles per gallon...

Just two years after the first Nissan Leaf was sold in the U.S., Nissan said today it has opened a plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, to fabricate lithium-ion cells for electric-car batteries. The first cells built at the plant have completed the necessary aging process, and can now be charged for the...

Two weeks ago, we noted that drivers of the Chevrolet Volt had covered 100 million electric miles. What we neglected to note at the time was that Nissan Leaf drivers are keeping pace, having covered more than 100 million electric miles as well. And it's appropriate to note that total today, just...

If you're a couple of years late launching your car, and it gets only tepid reviews, and then its frontal crash safety is rated at just two stars out of five, it might be safe to say your company has a few challenges. That's the situation for Coda Automotive, which yesterday confirmed that it had...

After more than an hour of discussion last night, the town selectmen of Natick, Massachusetts, voted 4-1 to grant a license to sell cars to Tesla Motors Massachusetts. The local company, which the Selectmen concluded was legally separate from Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA], will operate out of a property...