Electric Cars

Last week we told you about Nissan’s plans to break some novel world records at the world-famous 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Unlike some of the other competitors there who sought the fastest time driving forwards up the twisty 1.16 mile course, Nissan had planned to have British stunt...

It’s official: next year Toyota will launch not one, but three plug-in vehicles in the year ahead. Announced at Toyota’s Annual National Dealer meeting in Las Vegas, the trio of vehicles will consist of one plug-in hybrid and two pure electric vehicles to the U.S. market by the end of...

Nissan took the next step in its aim to become the world leader in electric vehicle technology yesterday with the announcement that it was starting a global test program for an all-electric minivan. Based on the versatile NV200 minivan platform currently popular in Europe and Japan with delivery...

Sales of plug-in electric cars continued their slow climb in June. The 2011 Nissan Leaf racked up its best U.S. sales number ever while the 2011 Chevrolet Volt sales held steady, as the company had warned they would. Following a May total of 1,142 sales--the first time more than 1,000 Leafs had...

The Leaf generates massively more and constant high frequency sound feedback

Mike Koenigs is also a true Tesla and clean power activist

About a month ago we first brought you details on the new T.27 electric minicar prototype from automotive industry legend Gordon Murray, one of the chief designers of the McLaren F1 supercar. His latest T.25 minicar project is bustling along, with his design firm, the eponymous Gordon Murray...

While we think Rolls-Royce is unlikely to be selling an all-electric Phantom any time soon, the British luxury car maker has been putting its 102EX Electric Phantom through a whole series of tests ahead of a worldwide tour to ensure it behaves in an appropriate manner at all times. One of the most...

Better Place has moved a bit further down the road in its quest to corner the electric vehicle market. In Denmark, the company has just unveiled Europe's first Battery Switch Station, which will serve as the cornerstone of Better Place's biggest real-world test to date. The grand event was held at...

The days of the almost silent electric car are gone. Motivated by a severe case of liticaphobia - or the fear of lawsuits - the auto industry has already agreed that electric cars should have some form of audible warning system fitted as standard to alert pedestrians of their approach. But while...

While the major automakers whittle away on their electric car developments, a small German firm by the name of e-Wolf has been building and selling a range of electric vehicles including small scooters, full-size commercial vehicles and high-performance track cars, for several years now...

When is a 2011 Chevrolet Volt not a plug-in hybrid? When it covers 2,500 miles between fill-ups. That’s how far Maryland resident Jeff Parmet has driven in his 2011 Chevrolet Volt in the past six months. In fact, he’s just visited the gas pump for the first time since buying the car...

For the past week or so the famous Pikes Peak in Colorado has rung with the sound of cars and motorcycles climbing the 12.42 mile course to its 14,110 foot summit. But yesterday for a few minutes, the mountain was a little quieter as an electric car climbed the summit, completing the would-renowned...

You have to go from San Diego, CA to Tucson, AZ, a distance of around 480 miles. With a variety of options available to you, which do you choose? Most people wouldn’t hesitate to book a flight, and some would even consider the train. But one electric car fan decided to make the trip in his...

If you own an electric car you’ll also be familiar with the wide variety of charging stations on the market today. If you’ll forgive us for saying so, very few of them are design classics. There’s a good reason too - charging stations are nothing more than appliances, built...

Earlier this week we said that that Nissan needed a new, quirky way of advertising its 2011 Nissan Leaf that didn’t involve making household gadgets run on gasoline or relying on trained polar bears. Nissan can’t have heard us. Instead of a quirky new ad campaign, Nissan is attempting...

How do you legally have fun with a $109,000 electric sportscar that can do 0-60 in under 4 seconds, has excellent grip, and a top speed of 125 mph? That’s exactly the question facing many Tesla Roadster owners looking to test their cars - and themselves - to the limit in a safe environment...

If you’re a regular visitor to this site, you’ll know that we’ve said before that making a good electric car is hard, even for large automakers like Ford, Nissan, Toyota and Chevrolet. As for turning a production gasoline or diesel car into an electric one? It’s a whole...

early adopters can be the best promoters of new technology

Making an electric car is a particularly tough business, fraught with financial risk, engineering challenges and tough competition from small-scale and mainstream automakers alike. And in that world, some automakers will succeed in bringing electric cars to market, while others flounder at the...