Electric Cars

  • 2012 Chevrolet Volt

    Chevrolet announced today at the Los Angeles Auto Show that its Volt extended-range electric car will qualify for solo access to California's HOV lanes, a feature deeply desired by many of the state's car buyers. A 'Low Emissions Package' will be fitted as standard equipment to all Volts sold in the Golden State starting "early next year." Owners of Volts fitted with the Low Emissions Package can apply for one of 40,000 stickers designating the car as a California Enhanced Advanced-Technology Partial Zero-Emissions Vehicle, or E-AT-PZEV. That designation, and the sticker that denotes it, are...

  • Jay Leno Celebrates 11000 MIles In His Chevrolet Volt
    One Year, One Talk-Show Host, 11,000 Miles, And No Gasoline

    Talk-show host Jay Leno might own everything from vintage Model T Fords through to large-engined, gas-guzzling supercars, but it turns out his daily driver is the 2011 Chevrolet Volt he purchased last year. And in that time, Leno says, he hasn’t visited a gas-station once. Since collecting...

  • 2012 Ford Transit Connect Wagon
    Azure's Ford Transit Connect Electric Wagon: First Five-Seat All-Electric Wagon In U.S.

    In a press release a few hours ahead of the start of the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show, Ford and electric vehicle partner Auzure Dynamics has announced the Ford Transit Connect Electric will be joined in 2012 by an five-seat electric wagon version for the commercial market. Aimed at businesses rather...

  • 2011 Coda Sedan electric car
    2011 LA Auto Show: Coda Releases Pricing, Details on 2012 Sedan

    It’s taken a long time arriving, but we finally know how much a 2012 Coda Sedan will cost you to buy: $39,900 before state and federal incentives. In a press release to coincide with the start of the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show, Coda has finally disclosed some of the key features of its...

  • 2012 Fisker Karma
    Fisker Promises 15,000 Karmas for 2012, Changes Story On Production Delays

    Fisker Automotive, maker of the plug-in Karma sports sedan, hasn’t had an easy time of late, thanks to the Karma’s rather low EPA fuel economy rating and slower-than-expected initial production volumes. But that is all behind the firm, company Chairman Ray Lane told Reuters yesterday...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf
    Little Love For Nissan Leaf In Luxury-Conscious Hong Kong

    If you thought the Nissan Leaf was a hard sell in the expanses of North America, then you may be surprised to learn it's doing far less well in one of its natural habitats. Cities are where electric cars often make the most sense, but the fashion and luxury-conscious buyers in smog-ridden Hong Kong...

  • First 2011 Nissan Leaf delivered to buyer, San Francisco, Dec 2010, photo by Eugene Lee

    It’s a known fact that certain areas of the U.S. are better known for their love of the electric car than others, but San Francisco wants to go one better with a bid to become the electric car capital of the entire U.S. In order to achieve this, elected official and local business leaders in the bay area have joined together to launch the EV Strategic Council, a workgroup designed to develop the infrastructure needed to facilitate and encourage mass-adoption of plug-in vehicles throughout the city. At its launch, the project announced it had received over $5 million in funding from...

  • Car accident
    NHTSA To Treat Crashed Electric Cars With More Respect After Volt Blaze

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is considering adopting a new set of procedures for tow trucks and wrecking yards to follow when dealing with severely crashed electric cars. The new guidelines may be implemented after an incident in which a 2011 Chevrolet Volt caught fire...

  • Electric vehicle charging stations in Ireland; source: Google
    Electric Cars Easier In Smaller Places: Ireland Outpaces U.S.

    The spread of electric cars and public charging stations for them across the United States will be uneven for many years to come. Many analysts and advocates believe that California residents will buy as many plug-in cars as are sold in the next five states combined. With the exception of Texas and...

  • better place battery switch station 012
    Better Place Electric Car Infrastructure Company Gets $200 Million Additional Funding

    Better Place, charging infrastructure, battery leasing and global pioneer of rapid battery swap stations for electric cars, has just announced it has secured $200 Million of investment in its series C funding. Aiming to make electric car ownership and refueling as simple and as quick as refueling a...

  • car on fire
    Fire Marshal Says NC Garage Fire Started Away From Chevy Volt: Exclusive

    The fire marshal investigating a Mooresville, NC, fire that engulfed a 2011 Chevrolet Volt electric car has concluded preliminarily that the car was not the source of the fire.

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt destroyed in Barkhamsted, CT, garage fire; image from WTNH News 8 report
    Third Fire Consumes A Chevy Volt Electric Car: Perspective

    Neither GM nor the NHTSA has been able to replicate a fire that occurred in a wrecked Chevrolet Volt three weeks after it was demolished in an NHTSA crash test.

  • 2012 Renault Fluence Z.E.

    You might not know it, but the 2012 Renault Fluence Z.E. electric car is technically the world’s most in-demand electric car. With a massive 100,000 cars ordered by battery swap and charging infrastructure company Better Place and production already underway, the French designed electric sedan from the Renault-Nissan alliance could be the highest-selling electric car of 2012. Earlier this year, we got the chance to spend a few minutes driving a prototype Fluence Z.E. sedan through the streets of London, England during a press launch event. But a ten minute drive through the center of...

  • Nissan Direct Current Rapid Charging Station
    Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi i Rapid Charging Gets Cheaper Thanks To Nissan

    Rapid electric car charging stations for cars like the 2012 Nissan Leaf and 2012 Mitsubishi i may soon become a lot more common in the U.S. thanks to a new rapid charging station Nissan says it will launch in the U.S. by early 2012. The charging station, which is based upon the CHAdeMo direct...

  • Rolls-Royce Phantom 102EX, experimental electric prototype, New York City, November 2011
    Electric Rolls-Royce Phantom 102EX: Quick Drive

    If you're going to have your very first drive behind the wheel of a Rolls-Royce, what better car than a one-of-a-kind experimental all-electric Phantom? The metallic silver-blue Phantom, given a rare factory experimental designation of 102EX, has been touring the globe to gauge the reactions of...

  • BMW i3 and i8 preview, New York City, November 2011, photo by Tom Moloughney
    Sneak Peek: BMW i3 And i8 U.S. Debut Before LA Auto Show

    Yesterday afternoon, BMW hosted a Special Sneak Peek Preview Event of the BMW i3 and BMW i8 concept electric cars in New York. Both cars will make their official U.S. debut at next week's Los Angeles Auto Show. After an hour-long photo session, we were addressed by Richard Kim, exterior designer...

  • 2012 Fisker Karma
    Fisker Karma Electric-Car Production Ramps Up, But Slowly

    Every carmaker ramps up production on a new vehicle slowly. So Fisker Automotive struck back at the thesis of a GigaOm article yesterday that suggested the company was delaying the production schedule for its 2012 Karma extended-range electric luxury sport sedan into the middle of next year...

  • 'Revenge of the Electric Car' movie: Elon Musk and Bob Lutz
    Tesla's Elon Musk, GM's Bob Lutz To Appear On 'Charlie Rose' Tonight

    They're both featured in Revenge of the Electric Car, the documentary that's now in limited release across the country, so it makes sense they'd be doing media together. The pair of auto-industry stars is Bob Lutz, former product czar at General Motors and still a part-time behind-the-scenes...

  • 2011 Suzuki Regina Electric Car Concept

    The 2011 Tokyo Motor Show is now just a handful of weeks away, which means some weird and wonderful concept cars are starting to eminate from the country's domestic manufacturers. Following Nissan's recent electric car concept, the Pivo, Motor Authority has revealed that Suzuki will bring a trio of its own efficient vehicles along to the show. The first is probably most interesting, balancing a mix of concept car styling with a hint of "they could probably build that" production reality so often missing from crazy Japanese show cars. Known as the Regina, its swooping lines and retro upright...

  • 1919 Rauch & Lang electric car. Image: Hyman Ltd. Classic Cars
    eBay Watch: 1919 Rauch & Lang Vintage Electric Car

    It may not be the first electric car ever built, but the original 1919 Rauch & Lang electric car currently for sale on eBay is truly an object of beauty. With elegant blue and black coachwork, whitewall tires and brass detailing - including a wonderful clock inside the cabin - it really lives...

  • 2012 Chevrolet Volt
    GM Relents, Lets Dealers Sell Their Volt Demonstrators, Today

    Year-end sales figures are looming ever closer, and the critics of the GM bailout and all thing electric-drive are already drafting wrapup stories about how the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car has been a sales disaster. So Chevy has taken off the gloves. The company said it would allow...

  • 2011 Nissan Pivo 3 electric city car concept
    Is Nissan’s Tokyo Motor Show Pivo 3 Concept A Mini Leaf In Disguise? We Find Out

    If you’ve been a fan of electric cars for more than a few years, you’ll probably remember Nissan’s adventurous all-electric concept cars -- the Pivo 1 from 2005 or Pivo 2 from 2007. Created long before Nissan launched its all-electric Leaf hatchback, the Pivo concept cars offered...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt charging port
    Should Chevy Volt Owners Worry About Charging Fires? Utility Says Yes, Common Sense Says No 

    A fire in Mooresille, North Carolina last week involving a 2011 Chevrolet Volt has led Duke Energy to advise its customers against charging the plug-in hybrid at home in case it starts a fire. But is the advice justified, or just another example of what happens when irrational fear of a new...

  • 2012 Fisker Karma
    Dream About Ordering A 2012 Fisker Karma? We Show You How It's Done (Video)

    Have you ever dreamed about just walking into your local Fisker dealer and ordering a Karma plug-in luxury sport sedan? Very few of us have the funds to afford the $95,900 starting price of a 2012 Fisker Karma, but that doesn't mean we can't imagine doing it. The youngest member of the High Gear...

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