Green

  • 2012 Ford Focus Electric

    Until recently, getting Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) installed in your home required you to go directly to the manufacturers of the equipment, or buy direct from your electric car dealer. But in a deal announced today at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, Ford and Best Buy announced that they were revolutionising the way electric car owners shopped for their EVSE. Coinciding with the unveiling of Ford’s 2012 Focus Electric, the Level 2 240-volt Ford-branded home charging station will be capable of providing up to 32-amps of current, providing the Ford Focus Electric with...

  • 2012 Ford Focus Electric
    2012 Ford Focus Electric Unveiled by CEO at CES

    Earlier this week Ford hinted on the social media network site Facebook that it had plans to unveil an all-electric car at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. From the shots it released, we guessed the announcement would include an all-electric Focus. As suspected, Ford CEO Allan...

  • Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid prototype, tested in November 2010
    Smart Grid’s Silver Spring To Unveil Prius Charging Technology

    In the latest example of the opportunities created by the rollout of electric vehicles, smart grid networking player Silver Spring Networks announced it will unveil a prototype tomorrow of a charging station enabled with its technology for the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid (pictured). The...

  • Volt_China
    Beijing Limits Car Registrations To Tackle Traffic, Pollution

    It's no secret that China's auto market has been growing rapidly, surpassing the US market in unit sales for the last two years. While that's an indicator of the country's strong economy, it has also created serious pollution and congestion problems in China's largest cities. During the week of...

  • Skylar and Teagen from Team VIN 1000
    347.2 Miles! Tesla Takes New Production Car Distance Record

    Many of us will have broken in the New Year celebrating with friends, sinking a few drinks, watching a firework display and generally being merry. For some though, the celebrations will have come later that day. Between the afternoon of December 31, 2010 and the end of January 1, 2011, Team VIN...

  • Volt Battery Pack
    GM To Use Argonne National Lab Advances In Next-Gen Volt Battery

    General Motors announced today that it has licensed lithium-ion battery technology developed at Argonne National Laboratories, the research institution that's funded largely by the U.S. Department of Energy. The agreement allows GM to use the technology throughout its supply chain, and covers a...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf Energy Display

    In a move that shows off the latest push among automakers to bring cars to the digital age, Airbiquity and Hitachi Automotive Systems showcased a connected services technology system for electric vehicles at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today. The system, which is debuting in Nissan’s all-electric Leaf, allows drivers to search for charging stations and plot routes that will use less of the electric car’s battery (avoiding slopes, for instance), and connects drivers through a global cloud that Airbiquity operates for Nissan. The platform comes standard with...

  • Tesla Model S Sedan
    2011 Detroit Auto Show: Electric Car Preview

    The Holidays are over, the New Year celebrated, which means it’s the time of year when the auto-world descends on Detroit for the North American International Motor Show. Held over the coming two weeks, it will showcase the very latest in automotive design, innovation and technology. Last...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    2011 Chevrolet Volt: What Do Owners Think, A Few Weeks In?

    Much of 2010 was spent learning more and more details about Chevrolet's exciting new range-extended electric car, the Volt. Towards the end of the year our colleagues at GreenCarReports finally got to drive the vehicle, and more recently the first owners have taken delivery. So what do owners...

  • 2012 Tesla Model S
    Tegra For Tesla: 2012 Model S To Use Nvidia Graphics Tech

    The Tesla Motors company goes hand-in-hand with high technology. Their current 2011 Roadster 2.5 uses cutting edge aluminum and carbon-fiber construction and offers supercar-rivalling performance from its electric drivetrain. We've known about the upcoming 2012 Tesla Model S electric sedan for a...

  • Renault Fluence ZE production electric sedan
    Spy Games: Renault Electric Vehicle Work Riddled With Moles?

    Monday morning opened on an anxious note for French automaker Renault. The company said it suspended without pay three executives, who have not yet been named. It fears that details and intellectual property connected to its comprehensive electric-vehicle program were leaked to unnamed parties...

  • 2011 Coda Sedan at Hertz Global EV rental launch, New York City, December 2010
    Electric-Car Startup Coda Gets $76 Million in Venture Funds

    Last year was a rough one for electric-car startup Coda. The company replaced its CEO, along with its marketing chief, and announced a delay of up to nine months in the launch of its first car, the 2011 Coda Sedan. This year is starting off on a much better note, though, with the announcement of an...

  • 2010 Toyota Prius ad comparing its emissions to those of a sheep (cropped)

    Some of the first emissions regulations in the world came about because of the way the Los Angeles Basin is shaped. Reports of smog in southern California started with the Conquistadors, and by the Sixties, LA was notorious for its foul air. California began regulating auto emissions before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency even existed, and motor vehicles have been a focus of emissions laws ever since. So-called criteria pollutants (carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrous oxides) have been reduced by more than 90 percent since 1970. Vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases, primarily...

  • BMW ActiveE
    BMW Launches ActiveE Electric Car Forum, Mobile App, Extends MINI E Leases

    BMW made a step towards its electric car future today by launching its ActiveE electric car forums. In its final Plugged-In newsletter to all its current MINI E Lease participants, BMW announced that the new website will form the backbone of BMW’s next electric car program. In addition, BMW...

  • John Duncan takes delivery of one of the first 2011 Nissan LEAF EVs, near Portland OR, 12/15/2010
    2011 Nissan LEAF: Deliveries Now More Than a Trickle

    Last month, Nissan became the first major automaker to deliver an all-electric car to a U.S. customer. In the month of December however, only 10 LEAFs were actually delivered to customers, whilst Chevrolet delivered somewhere between 250 and 350 2011 Volts to customers. Now it looks as if Nissan is...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt EPA sticker
    Video: 2011 Chevrolet Volt EPA Gas Mileage Explained

    If the idea of measuring the efficiency of an electric car, which burns no gasoline, in miles per gallon still irks you, spare a thought for our green car expert John Voelcker who goes to some length in this previous article to try and explain why the EPA deems it fit to do so. While that previous...

  • Tesla Model S Sedan
    Tesla Employee: Model S Alpha Prototype Up And Running

    Has Tesla completed their first Model S prototype? A Tesla manufacturing team employee, commenting on Engadget, appears to confirm this, though Tesla has not formally announced anything. “I just got to see the 1st Alpha proto run…. And, boy, did that thing run! The production vehicle...

  • U.S. Capitol
    House Republicans Ask Automakers Which Regulations To Kill

    The U.S. Congress began its 111th session this week, and the new Republican majority in the House clearly wants to change the regulatory tenor of the U.S. government. Automakers and their trade groups were among more than 150 entities who have already received a letter from Representative Darrell...

  • Tesla Motors - Model S lithium-ion battery pack

    Buying an electric car today is hardly cheap. With lithium-ion battery prices at around $450 per kilowatt-hour of storage, the 24 kilowatt-hour battery pack found in the 2011 Nissan LEAF weighs in at a jaw-dropping $10,800, and that's before complex battery management electronics are added. That alone helps to account for the LEAF’s high price tag. But according to a recent analysis by Deutsche Bank, electric car battery prices could have dropped so much by 2020 that electric cars will truly be affordable for everyone. The analysis comes as part of a the Deutche Bank’s study...

  • THINK City on hire in the Alps
    Can Electric-Car Clubs And Shows Really Bring In Buyers?

    As an electric car enthusiast or recently-converted gearhead, you'll no doubt be aware of the huge variety of clubs out there for virtually any make and model or automotive scene you can think of. For many people, a thriving scene and great social network might be the difference between choosing...

  • Audi A1 e-tron Concept
    VW Vexed By 'Anarchic' Audi A1 E-Tron Electric? Nein, Says Audi

    We've loved the concept of the Audi A1 e-Tron concept since its launch at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show last March. It's a range-extended electric vehicle (like the 2011 Chevy Volt) that uses a tiny Wankel rotary engine to run a generator that produces electricity to power the car once its lithium-ion...

  • Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car at quick charging station
    Turning Japanese: U.S. Gov. Tests Electric Car Fast Chargers

    Ever since the early 1980s, Japan has led the world of technology and digital entertainment. In 2010, thanks to cars like the 2011 Mitsubishi i and 2011 Nissan LEAF it also adopted electric cars as a viable private transport solution. But the ultra-fast charging technology which made both cars...

  • Subaru Stella
    Who Killed the Electric Car? Subaru To Slay Plug-In Stella EV

    Back in July 2009, two Japanese automakers launched electric cars within weeks of each other. (And neither one was Nissan.) One was Mitsubishi, which put its i-MiEV five-door hatchback microcar on sale after several years of consumer tests. That car is now the best-selling electric car in the...

  • 2012 Ford Focus Electric teaser image
    Ford Releases Focus Electric Teaser Ahead of CES Launch

    Does the future of electric cars lie in the gadget world? Ford thinks so. So much so, it will launch an electric car at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Friday. How did it announce this? By posting some teaser photos on social networking site Facebook, of course. From the photos...

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