Electric Cars
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It wouldn't be an auto show without concept cars, and the Detroit Auto Show this year has its share. From Volkswagen comes a new take on a familiar shape: the Volkswagen E-Bugster, an all-electric two-seat coupe version of its iconic Beetle. Volkswagen isn't unveiling the car until the show opens, but with sites violating the maker's embargo, we felt you deserved to see the car too. First, the styling, which blends a flat windshield, a low roofline with shallow windows, and a close-coupled hardtop to create a sporty coupe body. It's rather like the new 2012 Mini Cooper Coupe, although (to our...
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NHTSA: Chevy Volt Battery Pack Fix OK, Ends Investigation
Officials at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have said they are happy with the proposed safety enhancements for the 2011 and 2012 Chevrolet Volt designed to minimize the risk of battery pack fire following a major impact. In an interview yesterday at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Detroit Auto Show: Green Car Preview--Concept Cars
While the bulk of our green car coverage from the 2012 Detroit Auto Show will concentrate on production models, concept cars can be just as exciting. With wild styling, untested powertrains and flashy colors they might not seem too relevant, but many of the cars we cover today began as concepts and...
Antony Ingram -
Five Reasons Why Google Gets Plug-In Cars Before You Do
Just before the holidays at the end of last year, Google welcomed the first 2012 Ford Focus Electric to roll off the production lines into its ever-expanding G Fleet of plug-in and hybrid cars. Google’s G Fleet now includes the 2012 Nissan Leaf, 2012 Chevrolet Volt, and various Toyota Prius...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Animation Shows Chevy Volt Crash Safety Updates: Video
An animation released by General Motors depicts the modifications to Chevy Volt that will be performed by dealers to strengthen the battery compartment.
Kurt Ernst -
Tata Emo Electric Concept: Is It Really that Depressing?
If you’re of a certain age, the word Emo evokes images of sulking, depressed teenagers with jet-black hair metaphorically drowning in a world of sorrow, complex poetry and dark, emotional music. So you can understand our amusement when Indian automaker Tata decided to name its latest electric...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Next week's Detroit Auto Show promises to be the busiest and most influential in several years. With the auto industry continuing to recover slowly from its 2008 meltdown and Chinese sales rising, both U.S. and overseas automakers will launch new models and show off gleaming concept cars. And green cars will be right at the forefront. The largest contingent will be standard gasoline cars with smaller, more efficient engines that deliver better gas mileage while providing about the same power as the larger, lazier engines they replace. Gasoline direct injection, turbocharging, and other...
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Tesla CEO: 2013 Model X Crossover SUV Will Be Unveiled Feb 9
For some time now, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said its new vehicle, the upcoming Model X crossover electric car, would be unveiled int he first quarter of 2012. We just didn't know when, until now. In an interview with In an interview with Gigaom’s Katie Fehrenbacher, Musk confirmed that the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Can Owning Solar Panels Buy You A Chevy Volt? Sort Of
What comes first, the electric car or the solar panels to charge it from? And can you use the money you save from one to pay for the other? We’ve already told you about the benefits you can get from owning both an electric car and installing a photovoltaic solar array on the roof of your...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Chevrolet To Offer Volt Modifications Against Battery Fire Risk
GM announced today that it would offer a "customer satisfaction" initiative that provides modifications to roughly 12,400 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric cars to reduce the chance that the battery pack could catch fire days or weeks after a severe accident. The safety "enhancement" is meant...
John Voelcker -
Plug In America Announces Online Electric Car Advocacy Seminar
If you’re already drive a plug-in hybrid or electric car then the chances are you’ve spent at least some time standing in a parking lot somewhere answering questions from a curious passer-by about your car. Or perhaps you've experienced a curious neighbor asking questions like the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Via Motors To Use A123 Lithium-Ion Cells In Electric Trucks
Via Motors, the extended-range electric truck conversion company with GM legend Bob Lutz on its board, announced today that it would use lithium-ion cells from A123 Systems in its battery packs. The startup company will show its full lineup of electric-drive pickup trucks at next week's Detroit...
John Voelcker -
With the first sales of the 2012 Ford Focus Electric registered last month, Ford's battery-electric compact hatchback enters the market to compete with the Nissan Leaf and other plug-in cars. Unlike the Leaf, though, the Focus Electric is an adaptation of a high-volume gasoline-powered car. And Ford is proud of the fact that it's built on the same assembly line in its Wayne, Michigan, plant as every other Focus. The line workers omit several steps and add a few others to build a Focus Electric amidst dozens of gasoline Focus models. It starts with a different floorpan stamping, though the...
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Electric Car Sales For 2011: Modest First-Year Numbers Hardly A Surprise
Last year, the electric-car revolution became real. After a late-Nineties false start, much gnashing of teeth, and years of promises, carmakers delivered more than 17,000 plug-in vehicles in the U.S. market during 2011. December sales numbers are being announced today. The relevant figures: Nissan...
John Voelcker -
Want To Tow With Your 2012 Nissan Leaf? Now You Can
If you own a 2012 Nissan Leaf alongside a regular gasoline car, the chances are you’ve already taken to driving your electric car as much as possible, using it for everything from the daily commute to weekend trips to the dump. But while Nissan’s mass production electric car beats a...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Volvo XC 60 Plug-in Hybrid Concept Heads To 2012 Detroit Auto Show
Volvo might have already started production on its first plug-in hybrid wagon -- the 2012 V60 Diesel Plug-in Hybrid -- but as we’ve told you before, the Swedish automaker doesn’t think the U.S. is ready for a diesel plug-in hybrid yet. But at next week’s 2012 Detroit Auto Show...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2013 BMW i3 Electric Car iPhone App Screenshots Teased: 2012 Detroit Auto Show
We’re less than a week away from the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and that means automakers are eagerly dropping hints about what we’ll be seeing next week. For BMW, that means posting six screenshots from its unreleased iOS smartphone application for the 2013...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Leaf-Shaped Charging Station: Ultimate Nissan Leaf Accessory?
So often in the world of Industrial design, form follows function. Then once in a while, a design comes along that turns a mundane object like an electric car charging station into something a little more artistic. Enter the leaf-shaped Lotus solar-powered electric car charging station. Designed by...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
If you're looking to buy a hybrid or electric car in the next few years, you could certainly do worse than to keep your eye on the Korean carmakers. Hyundai Motor Group, the company in charge of both Hyundai and Kia, has announced heavy investment into hybrid and electric technology this year. AsiaOne Business has revealed that the group intends to invest $15.5 billion into facilities, and research and development. Two thirds of this will go towards improving facilities, and a significant proportion of the R&D budget will be focused on the development of hybrids and electric cars. Hyundai...
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Quick Snap: Google Goes All-Electric In Mitsubishi 'i'
If you mention internet giant Google and "electric car" in the same sentence, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that the company was working on a car of its own. After all, the company is well-known for its work on autonomous vehicles, with a technology-heavy Prius that's now driven thousands...
Antony Ingram -
San Diego Dealer First To Sell Coda Electric Car; Four More To Follow
The long-awaited Coda electric sedan finally has its first confirmed dealership, located in San Diego, California. Marvin K. Brown Auto Center in the heart of San Diego is expected to be the first retailer to sell the 2012 Coda Sedan, when deliveries commence this year. According to Automotive...
Antony Ingram -
IIHS Sticks By Volt Safety Rating: No Pack Issues After Crash Tests
Earlier this year, the public reputation of the 2012 Chevrolet Volt was changed forever after a crash-tested Volt caught fire in wrecking yard belonging to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It didn’t matter either that the battery fire started two weeks after the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Fisker Recalls 239 Karma Electric Sedans To Fix Battery Pack
Finding out about battery defects was something of a nightmare before Christmas for luxury automaker Fisker, who suddenly had to deal with news that its Karma might be liable to catch fire. Fisker and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have now officially announced a recall...
Antony Ingram -
Japanese Electric Car Startup Explains Why Its Cars Look So Wacky
We all know that most electric cars are more energy efficient than their gasoline counterparts, but just how do you improve on the limited range most electric cars have? For some automakers like BMW, the answer lies in making an electric car as lightweight as possible. For others, the answer is to...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield