Electric Cars
-
The long wait is over. At least, it soon will be. At an event at General Motors’ Detroit Hamtramck facility which was streamed live on the Internet, everyone from government officials and GM board members down to the factory workers responsible for manufacturing the extended range electric car came together to celebrate the first production Volts leaving the assembly line. But along with the sound-bytes, self-congratulatory back-patting and obligatory speeches was the news that Chevrolet planned to auction off Volt number 000002, the second ever production Volt to be made. Driving the...
-
Audi Using Solar Panels To Power Future e-tron Cars
Audi is demonstrating the use of solar energy for future mobility by converting the roof of one of its factories in Ingolstadt, Germany to solar panels. Here, Audi e-tron models will in future have their batteries charged with current obtained directly from the photovoltaic equipment installed on...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Why the 2011 Chevrolet Volt EPA Rating Sends Mixed Messages
If like us, you were waiting with baited breath for the official EPA rating for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt you’ll have heard that the day before Thanksgiving Chevrolet announced the official figures were back for its first plug-in range-extended electric car. But unlike the 2011 Nissan...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2010 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid Prototype: Drive Report
The main thing to understand about the Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid is that it's not an "electric car" as many people use the term. Yes, it plugs in to any electric socket to recharge the 5.2-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. And, yes, its Hybrid Synergy Drive system uses electric torque...
John Voelcker -
Move Over THINK: Mitsubishi i Highest Selling Electric Car (For Now)
A few months ago we reported that the diminutive Think City had snatched the top spot as the world’s best-selling city EV with over 2,500 vehicles now on the road. But that claim is now dwarfed by Mitsubishi, which last week celebrated the 5,000th i-Miev electric car to roll off its Japanese...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2011 Nissan Leaf Voted Car Of The Year In Europe
Our sister site GreenCarReports voted it the Best Car to Buy for environmental conscious customers and it looks like the judges in the European Car of the Year panel agree, awarding the 2011 Nissan Leaf this year’s winner in the prestigious awards. The all-electric hatch beat out the likes of...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
The 2011 Nissan Leaf all-electric car has been designated as Europe's 2011 Car of the Year, according to reports in Autocar and other media outlets. While the Leaf won our GreenCarReports 2011 Best Car To Buy award, the bulk of similar U.S. awards went instead to the 2011 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car. U.S.: Volt. Us: Leaf. Among others, Motor Trend and Automobile magazines gave the nod to the Volt, as did Green Car Journal, which runs its own Green Car of the Year awards here. And Car and Driver named the Volt one of its Top 10 cars. (Nissan notes it did not provide a Leaf to...
-
Gran Turismo Game Goes Green: Virtual Electric Cars
Depending on your demographic, the new PlayStation 3 Gran Turismo 5 (GT5) video game is either your single most essential purchase this year, or a completely baffling piece of technology that you'll probably never buy. Ironically, the same could be said for the current wave of electric cars we've...
Antony Ingram -
Your iPhone Can Charge Wirelessly—How About Your Electric Car?
Psh. Plugs. They’re, like, so 2008. There’s been a surge of attention over the last year towards products that that can charge your smartphone wirelessly, like the devices PowerMat makes. Just set it down on the charging mat and let your phone juice up. But according to a new report...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
From GAP To The Electric Car: Tesla’s George Blankenship
How do you go from selling clothes to electric cars? George Blankenship, Tesla’s Vice President of Design and Store Development knows. A 20-year veteran of global clothing store GAP and the man responsible for Apple’s successful retail stores, Blankenship jokes that these previous jobs...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Zero Emission Solar Charging At Chevrolet Volt Plant [Video]
We've discussed before the issue of how clean electric cars really are when you take into consideration the source of the electricity you use to charge them - they're only as clean as the grid powering them. It's usually one of the first things EV dissenters bring up... "Yeah, but where does the...
Antony Ingram -
Did We Err On The Leaf, Or Is GM Volt Boosterism Bashing It?
Last week at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, we announced that the 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car was the winner of the GreenCarReports 2011 Best Car To Buy award. That same week, a flurry of other media outlets almost uniformly gave their "car of year" awards to the 2011 Chevrolet Volt...
John Voelcker -
Earlier this week Nissan announced that it had finally received its EPA official ratings for the 2011 Nissan Leaf. Earlier this week our John Voelcker had a lot to say on its 99MPGe figure, indicating the equivalent miles-per-gallon fuel consumption of a car which runs on electricity. Yes, we know. For today we’re going to leave that can of worms alone. Instead, we’re going to look at the official EPA range per charge figure for the Leaf. Worryingly it’s a paltry 73 miles, a long way from the 100 miles Nissan has been using in advertising. So what’s to blame for this...
-
LEAF Task Force: Nissan's Electric Car Soldiers Of Fortune
In 2011 a crack task force was sent to the United States by a Japanese manufacturer for a car that's making headlines. These men were promptly trained to be experts in their field. Today, wanted by thousands of owners, they survive as a rapid response unit. If you have a problem, if no one else can...
Antony Ingram -
Geeks Get Fitted For Electric Cars Via Google GFleet
Let’s face it: Google loves its green cars. Its also home to some of the best tech-savvy engineers in the world. Engineers who love their tech and love to innovate. So what better way to put a new electric car through its paces than make it part of Google’s GFleet - a pool of cars the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Why Startup Coda Thinks It Can Compete Against Big Auto
I just spoke to electric car startup Coda’s interim CEO Steven “Mac” Heller, who is stepping in since former chief executive Kevin Czinger stepped down. Heller talked to us from Los Angeles Auto Show, where Coda is showing off its all-electric sedan — and where automotive...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
EPA Rates 2011 Nissan Leaf at 99 MPGE, 73 Mile Range
Just how fuel efficient is an electric car? That’s been the question facing the EPA for months as it has battled the ratings system to give consumers a realistic and useful way of comparing electric cars against gasoline counterparts. Now we know. The EPA has decreed that the 2011 Nissan Leaf...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Mitsubishi 'i', Urban Electric Car: Blessing Or Curse?
After several years of taunting and many months of speculation, the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show is finally the venue chosen for Mitsubishi to show off their U.S.-specification 'i' electric car to an expecting public. We've featured the Japanese-spec 'i' several times, as the company has shipped...
Antony Ingram -
You have to feel a little sorry for CODA automotive. A few months ago the Santa Monica firm was striding towards a December launch of its 2011 Sedan. Then as a prequel to announcing its first all-electric car would be delayed by nearly 9 months its Senior VP of Sales and Marketing left, closely followed by its CEO. But it looks like the period of grief is over for the firm as it announced today that it has entered into a partnership with Hertz to provide electric cars for select rental markets in southern California. The press release announcing the partnership does not go into the specifics...
-
2010 LA Auto Show: 2012 Mitsubishi 'i' Electric Minicar
It was the first electric car sold in volume anywhere in the world, starting more than a year ago, and now the 2012 Mitsubishi "i" is officially coming to the U.S. market. The U.S. version was unveiled on Thursday at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, though Mitsubishi provided few new details on how...
John Voelcker -
2010 Los Angeles Auto Show: Guide To Electric Vehicles
We took a look a few weeks ago at the five electric cars we reckoned you should do your best to see at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. Our list included the 2011 Nissan Leaf, 2011 Chevrolet Volt, 2011 Coda Sedan, the 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV and the 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV. Our opinion hasn't changed -...
Antony Ingram -
Cheap Insurance For EVs? LEAF May Benefit, Will Others?
With all the talk of purchase price, charging costs, tax incentives, congestion charging exemptions and maintenance costs for EVs, there's one financial area which often gets overlooked - insuring them. With so few EVs on the road it's been difficult to gauge whether they'll cost more or less than...
Antony Ingram -
“Unlimited Juice” Electric Vehicle Charging Plans: Good Idea or Exploitation?
We often get asked by readers just how much it will cost to run an EV. And while we’re able to say that an EV costs less to run once purchased than a gasoline car we’ve had to guess refer them to their local utility company for exact pricing. So what if you could enter into a monthly...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
16,000 Miles in an Electric Car? Mission Accomplished
A team of intrepid engineers turned explorers have just finished an epic road-trip from Chena Hot Springs Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina. Built in 9 months by a team of graduates from Imperial College London, the two-seat modified racing car drove over the finish line 135 days after it began its...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield