Electric Cars

Due to generous subsidies from French President Nicolas Sakozy's administration, Daimler will produce the Smart ForTwo electric drive at its Hambach plant in the French region of Lorraine. From the source: "The initial series production will begin now with 1,000 vehicles, the first of which will be...

Recent You Tube videos presented by Nissan highlight the technology of the all new Nissan Leaf EV.   In the first installment of videos, viewers are presented with battery technology information including a reference to the world's first li-ion powered EV the Nissan Altra.  According to Nissan...

Later this month, Nissan Motor Co. will unveil its two seat electric Land Glider at the Tokyo Motor Show.  Not content with the Leaf as their only EV, Nissan is hoping to take the lead in the EV category over rivals Honda and Toyota. The Land Glider is a two seater targeted at urban dwellers.  It...

In March we told you that Nissan's luxury brand, Infiniti, planned to release a hybrid version of their M sedan. Today the Japanese automaker has confirmed that the new hybrid will be available in the spring of 2011 for the 2012 model year. This will be Infiniti's first offering in the luxury...

 GreenTech, a small startup company with old ties to Brilliance China Automotive, recently unveiled 4 fuel efficient prototype vehicles that they hope to build at a production plant in Mississippi.  In order to begin production, GreenTech is searching for $2 billion in investments to begin...

Toyota is slowly getting closer to what appears to be a production ready EV.  This new concept, which will be displayed first at the Tokyo Motor Show, shows that the company is serious about producing a small EV. Called the FT-EV II, short for Future Toyota Electric Vehicle, the concept is...

The saga of the Zenn Motors and EEStor continues to wind on. For those that don't know, EEStor is a Texas-startup reportedly secretly building a powerful new energy storage medium that is far lighter, faster-charging, cheaper and longer-lived than lithium ion cells. Zenn is a Canadian company, and...

Most major automakers have scheduled the release of an EV within the next few years.  Daimler is one such company which promises us an EV soon.  However, many automakers do not believe that EVs are the answer for the long term future of automobiles. According to Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler...

On display at the AltCar expo in Santa Monica was this intriguing battery swapping concept pictured above.  Though it was little more than a small scale, model mock up, the idea is at least creative and interesting. Pictured above is the NuTech automatic battery charger and changer presented by...

The Cash For Clunkers program was highly successful at boosting sales of many different types of vehicles including hybrids.  During the program, hybrid sales soared for both the month of July and August, but now without a Clunkers program around, sales have fallen off dramatically. Sales of...

Torotrak, a British technology company known for its continuously variable transmissions, will deliver a paper at the SAE Commercial Vehicle Congress in Illinois next week revealing a flywheel-based Kinetic energy storage system for buses which is said to recover potential energy from a moving...

According to Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen, an electric vehicle based on the concept e-tron electric supercar will enter production and is expected to come to the U.S. in only 2 to 3 years.  As de Nysschen said, "I expect we will see running examples in the next 24 months." The...

Nissan is embracing social media in getting out the message about its LEAF EV, set to launch in selected US markets in late 2010. Nissan predicts there will be 20,000 early adopters in those markets lined up and ready to buy the 100 mile range EV. The company has partnered with EV charging...

From their press release: "Bajaj Auto Limited (BAL) and MotoCzysz LLC are proud to announce an agreement has been finalized to enter into a joint venture "Dream" project. The goal of this project is to uncover and explore the possibilities for a Next Generation automobile." "The JV project will be...

Aptera and Elio, two companies producing three wheel vehicles, can briefly rejoice as their bids for receiving federal government loans are now one step closer to completion. Legislation has been drawn up that will make 3 wheel vehicles eligible to receive federal loan money from the Department...

The all new 2010 Nissan Altima Hybrid will go on sale Monday with a base MSRP of $26,780.  The vehicle will only be available in the same nine states that the outgoing model was offered in.  The states include California, Connecticut, Maine, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and...

As we reported yesterday, FOX News presented misleading information regarding funds allocated by the federal government to the company Fisker.  They incorrectly stated how Fisker would use the government loans and mistakenly reported that the money would go to workers producing the vehicles...

According to Better Place, the electric vehicle industry is following along as expected and several makers are locating batteries in the ideal underside location, perfectly situated for their own battery swapping program. The battery swapping system from Better Place was designed as a means to...

While discussing two upstart electric car companies, contributors to the self proclaimed "fair and balanced" Fox News Channel (FNC) have proven that they are not smarter than a fifth grader. Jeff Foxworthy didn't even have to ask a single question. In reports criticizing recent Department of Energy...

German firm Ingenieurgesellschaft Auto und Verkehr (IAV) is working on technology to fit roads with embedded induction-loops that will remotely “refuel” electric cars while they are driving or parked, without the need for connectors or cords.  The technology is similar to that being developed...