Electric Cars

If you're holding out for an electric car that gets similar range to your fossil-fuelled car, then don't hold your breath for one from Nissan. That's the message implied by Nissan North America's director of product planning and strategy, Mark Perry. Speaking with Auto Observer, Perry says there is...

Earlier today, Audi launched the latest part of its plug-in electric vehicle program, commencing a public trail of its A1 e-tron range-extended electric car in Munich. Announced in September 2010 after Audi unveiled the A1 E-Tron concept car at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, the 20-strong test car...

Ask most people how long electric cars have been driving on the roads of the U.S. and they might give you an answer of a few years. If they’ve seen Chris Paine’s 2006 film Who Killed The Electric Car, or knows someone in the know, they may give you the real answer: about as long as...

If you read only certain subsections of the "news," you might be forgiven for thinking that plug-in electric cars have been a sales disaster. They haven't. The Tesla Roadster, Nissan Leaf, and Chevrolet Volt are all built in quite small numbers, and their sales have been commensurately low...

Tesla’s first electric car, the 2007-2011 Roadster, may have ceased production after its planned 2,500 (ish) car production run, but the Tesla Roadster will live on in an all-new car for 2014, Tesla has confirmed. In an interview with Autocar, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed what we already...

Chevrolet announced today that it would build the electric motor for its upcoming Spark EV battery electric car in a plant in Maryland. The carmaker also released the power specification for the motor, which will offer 85 kilowatts (114 hp) of peak output and roughly two-thirds of that in sustained...

It's been a tough week for Fisker. The startup electric-car company finally got its car approved for sale, many months late, only to have the EPA rate its gas mileage at just 20 mpg in range-sustaining mode. Now, a new wrinkle to those ratings has come out: Based on the volume measurements it uses...

Let’s face it. If it hadn’t been for the highly popular Back To The Future film trilogy of the 1980s, the stainless-steel, gullwing-doored DeLeorean DMC-12 would probably have been relegated to the history books as an overly-expensive, unreliable sports car wannabe. But thanks to the...

In the electric auto industry there are three types of car companies: Those who bring a successful electric car to market, those who bring an unsuccessful electric car to market, and those who perpetually claim their ground-breaking electric car is “coming soon”. California-based Aptera...

Two weeks ago, Chevrolet unveiled its 2013 Spark minicar and confirmed that it would offer a Spark EV all-electric model--a story GreenCarReports broke the night before. But within a few days, an intriguing question came up: Where does GM plan to build its first new all-electric car since the late...

Almost two years ago, in January 2010, a mysterious electric version of the Fiat 500 appeared the Detroit Auto Show on the Chrysler stand. Then, two months later, Chrysler said it would sell an electric 500 in the U.S. market. Engineers at the company's Auburn Hills, Michigan, headquarters would...

NASCAR-loving North Carolina may not be the first place you’d think of as being particularly pro-electric car, but for 40-lucky residents the cost of buying a 2012 Nissan Leaf there just dropped by $5,000 thanks to a time-limited scheme being run by Advanced Energy. As part of its latest...

Over the years, we’ve heard lots of excuses from electric car companies as to why they’ve had to delay the launch of a car. Ranging from delays in the part supply through to last-minute improvements and modifications to comply with new regulations, we think we’ve heard them all...

It might be celebrating a global total of 15,000 all-electric Nissan Leafs since the model was launched last year, but Nissan isn’t planning to keep its plug-in technology inside pure electric cars, it has revealed today. Talking at an event in Yokohama, Japan earlier, Renault-Nissan CEO...

Its first mass-produced car may have won the acrimonious title of being the plug-in car with the worst fuel efficiency to date, but Californian automaker Fisker is trying to remain upbeat about its planned range of plug-in hybrid cars. So much so, the Californian automaker is keen to let everyone...

Many town and city councils across the U.S. are introducing legislation to enable electric car owners to park for free as a way of encouraging more people to make the switch from gasoline to plug-in cars. Normally, these free parking spaces include access to a suitable level 2 charging station...

Back in April, our own John Voelcker was lucky enough to attend the world premiere of Chris Paine’s much-anticipated sequel to Who Killed The Electric Car? Called Revenge Of The Electric Car, the second film continues where the first left off, telling the story of how the electric car was...

When the EPA's official MPG figures were released for the 2012 Fisker Karma a few days ago, we can't have been the only ones a little disappointed with the 20 MPG figure on gasoline and 52 MPG equivalent in EV mode. There were even suggestions the low 20 MPG rating on gasoline could hurt the DoE...

While some lucky 2011 Nissan Leaf owners have had their cars now for nearly 8 months, most are in the magic six-month honeymoon period of owning their new electric hatchback. But what happens when you get to six months of ownership and it’s time for your first Nissan Leaf service? As...

If you're in the market for a new car and your top priority is fuel efficiency, what do you buy? With so much to choose from now including gasoline, diesel, natural gas and electric cars on the market as well as a range-extended electric vehicle and hybrids galore, the options are bewildering. If...