Electric Cars

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) announced Wednesday that Smith Electric Vehicles U.S., has had an additional 22 Million dollar DOE grant added to the 10 million awarded the company in 2009, for a total of 32 million dollars.   The money will go toward new vehicle development and to...

Pricing for the 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car, eagerly awaited for many months, has now been set for both Japanese and U.S. markets.

Nissan has announced pricing for the 2011 Nissan LEAF electric vehicle, which will first become available in a few markets late this year.

Failure to meet CAFÉ standards can result in stiff fines for automakers.  In particular, Mercedes has paid over $200 million in CAFÉ infringement related fines since 1983 and many other companies have been hit with similar fees.  For 2009, CAFÉ standards were set at 27.5 mpg, and number that...

What if you could charge an electric vehicle without plugging it in?  There has been discussion before about the ability to charge battery powered items without a cable.  There has also been successful devices that do exactly that.  But what about charging something larger than say a cell phone...

Nissan's ambitious plans to build and sell its 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car around the world will not include populous India, at least not initially. According to Indian Autos Blog, the CEO and managing director of Nissan Motors India said the company had no plans to introduce the Leaf to the...

Why produce plug-in EREVs such as the Chevy Volt when you believe that full electric vehicles are the wave of the future?  This is a question that GM will have to tackle as even the company admits that battery only vehicles will dominate sales in the future. GM North America President Mark Reuss...

Everything is going electric these days including the iconic Polaris ATV.  Apparently even backwoods hunters favor eliminating emissions and traveling through the brush without the racket of a gasoline engine ruining their serene adventure. The electric Polaris ATV moves with silent, swift motions...

Daimler is a busy player in the electric vehicle category.  From recent news that Smart has partnered with Renault-Nissan, a deal which could result in an updates Smart ED, to Daimler signing a joint venture with BYD to build EVs for the Chinese market, the company is active with electrics. The...

Is there any better way to encourage innovation than a contest? Offer a prize for inventing or improving something, whether there's a cash prize involved or not, and that most basic of human instincts — competitiveness — will kick in and take care of the rest. And if the intent is to motivate...

Honda can't afford another hybrid failure.  After lackluster sales of the newly redesigned Insight, Honda needs a hit in the hybrid segment.  They are hopeful that the upcoming CR-Z can garner sales success and be a hit here in the States, but the outlook is uncertain.  Whether or not the CR-Z...

In a recent article posted on this site, we had reported that the Tesla Roadster would see a production lapse in 2012.  The lapse was considered to be necessary due to a chassis changeover by Lotus, of which the Roadster shares numerous components.  During the changeover by Lotus, Tesla would be...

A few months ago the SAE announced standards for charging electric vehicles.  The standards were long overdue, but automakers finally have a charging standard to build their plug-in vehicles to.  Now that the plug end is standardized and automakers are making vehicles to the new SAE J-1772...

Californians can rejoice as they are now able to get up to $5,000 off of their electric car purchase. Starting earlier this month, the states Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) went into effect which will allow buyers in the state of California the opportunity to purchase certain zero emission...

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } With the release date of the Chevy Volt drawing near, final testing is under way.  The Volt is currently undergoing what is referred to in the business as suspension durability testing.  The testing is under way at GM's test track at the Milford Proving Grounds...

Most older homes across the nation are not equipped to deal with the electrical draw of upcoming electric vehicles. Retrofitting an older home to cope with EV charging can be costly. Some estimates predict that the cost of converting an older home to handle the high amperage draw of EVs could cost...

Electric vehicles are likely to see a gradual roll out over the next few years.  Most of the first electric vehicles to take to the streets will likely be in the hands of corporations for use as fleet vehicles.  We have already witness this trend with many current electric vehicles that are not...

As the lithium-ion battery market continues to expand, it becomes one of the few industries reporting job growth during the economic downturn.  recently, Compact Power, a subsidiary of LG Chem, announced plans to hire additional workers as demand has outstripped current supply and is expected to...

VWs plans for electrifying their lineup of vehicles has been officially announced and will kick off with the introduction of a fleet of battery powered Golfs beginning next year. The VW Touareg Hybrid is a step towards electrifying the VW lineup of vehicles, but its high price tag will keep it from...

The U.S. appears to be one of the target countries for hybrid and electric vehicles.  Many automakers have focuses hybrid efforts solely on the U.S.  Select automakers have chosen to release some of their hybrid offerings in other countries, primarily Japan.  Few automakers have viewed Europe as...