Electric Cars

There's no getting around it: Hybrids cost more than gasoline models, and plug-in electric cars cost a lot more than gas vehicles. Each type of green car cuts operating costs, either by raising gas mileage substantially or replacing gas costs with grid electricity that generally cuts the...

For the past five years or more, the iconic Tesla Roadster has been the poster child for electric cars. Produced between 2008 and 2011, the two-seat Tesla Roadster combines the desirability of a luxury sports car with race-car performance, while its massive 53 kilowatt-hour battery pack gives...

We all know electric and plug-in hybrid cars can help cut down consumption of gasoline, but just how do you measure how much gasoline savings can be made? Normally, we measure gasoline savings in gallons, or barrels of oil, but General Motors has decided to measure the gasoline saved by its...

Comedian and television host Jay Leno comes away quite impressed with the 2012 Ford Focus Electric after taking one for a quick spin.

You’ve taken the plunge and shelled out anything from $33,000 upwards for an all-electric 2012 Nissan Leaf. Quiet, efficient and full of gadgets, you’ve discovered that it has quickly relegated your gas car to the garage, carrying out the weekend chores, work commutes and maybe even...

Los Angeles is well known for being at the forefront of electric car adoption, spurred on in part by large numbers of Hollywood A-list electric car drivers, enthusiastic advocacy groups and chronic air quality. But Los Angeles isn’t just the place where you’re more likely to see an...

If you've seen the animated Pixar film WALL-E, you'll remember a scene where humanity, after generations of being on a space ship where everything is done for them, are hugely overweight and never get out of their hovering chairs to interact with the world. That was the scene that came to mind when...

In the quest for efficient mobility, there are three major players currently battling for top spot. The 2012 Nissan Leaf, 2012 Chevrolet Volt and 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In all have one main aim--efficiency--but all go about reaching that aim in different ways, which also means that each has its own...

It isn't just big manufacturers like Nissan and Mitsubishi that enter the famous Pikes Peak hill climb in Colorado--plenty of individuals and independent teams take part each year too. This year, Electric Vehicle West, or EV West, is entering a converted electric car into the event, based on a...

It had to happen some time, just not perhaps as quickly as this. Since Nissan’s all-electric Leaf hatchback launched in late 2010, many have been watching with interest to see how long it would be before the car’s 24 kilowatt-hour battery pack showed the gradual reduction in range and...

Last week, we shared with you our first-hand experience of driving an electric car through a Better Place battery swap station in Israel. Publicly, especially outside of Israel, Better Place’s concept of switching out depleted electric car battery packs for fully charged ones at its...

Garages in single-family homes are relatively easy to wire for electric-car charging; shared garages in multifamily residences often aren't. Therein lies much frustration, not only for plug-in car drivers but also their landlords. The latest episode hit the airwaves last Wednesday, when KGO-TV in...

Forty years ago, in the midst of fuel crisis after fuel crisis, automakers large and small around the world came up with concept and limited-run electric cars that would, it was hoped, revolutionize city commuting. They didn’t. Powered by several thousand pounds of lead acid batteries, fitted...

Smart's eBike electric bicycle has been attracting a lot of attention recently, but it's not the only electric bike to emerge from Germany. Audi has teased its own electric bike in a short video, featuring French freestyle trials rider Julien Dupont. Where Smart's bike is very much a commuting...

Remember the early days of mobile phones, when lots of small carriers competed and roaming was just a far-distant dream? Welcome to the wild world of electric-car charging, folks. Right now, more than a dozen networks--some local, some regional, some national--operate Level 2 charging stations for...

After revealing more details about the Tesla Model S just last week, Tesla Motors said it expected to use the last of its Department of Energy loan by the end of this year. The company now confirms it also has plans to start paying back the loan this year too--and will be the first company to do...

Put most people behind the wheel of an electric car, and you can guarantee one of the first things they'll talk about is the silence. Unfortunately, that silence has led some legislators to require EVs to emit a sound in order to warn pedestrians of their presence, stifling one of the genre's...

Going electric makes a lot of sense for the smallest city-commute vehicles—like the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive, which is still on the way. But in the meantime, it looks like a different Smart electric vehicle will arrive first: the Smart eBike. The Smart eBike is a bicycle, but an...

Earlier this week, Antony Ingram asked if the open-air Renault Twizy electric car would threaten the new Smart ForTwo. A little larger than most motorcycles, the two-seat French city runabout has found itself a surprising number of fans, thanks in part to its minimalistic, yet funky design. But...

Electric-car infrastructure firm Better Place has spent the past few years creating some serious waves in the electric car world with grandiose claims that it can make electric cars as convenient to use as gasoline ones. Alongside its fully integrated smart-grid network of charging stations...