plug-in cars
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General Motors will perform free servicing to fix potentially low battery coolant in certain Chevy Volts.
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Nissan Leaf Carwings: Company 'Hopes' To Improve Telematics App
Nissan wants to use Carwings to collect more data on battery health.
Stephen Edelstein -
Will Hollywood Abandon Tesla Model S For BMW i3 Electric Car?
Electric cars can be confusing enough to neophytes--a car that you plug in at night just like a phone ?!?!?--but when you add in social status signifiers, it can all get quite complicated indeed. Which is how we end up with a Hollywood Reporter piece that asking whether celebrities may abandon...
John Voelcker -
Jay Z Now Owns A Murdered-Out Tesla Model S (Apparently)
It appears that celebrity musician and promoter Jay Z has added an electric car to his stable of luxury rides. At least, that's the so-far-unconfirmed inference from a photo posted in late April to his wife Beyonce's website. The only reason we're running this two-month-old photo--aside from...
John Voelcker -
Chevrolet Volt Drivers Pass 500 Million Miles On Electricity
Chevrolet Volt drivers reach another electric-motoring milestone.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla Model S Battery Swapping: Will It Ever Actually Arrive?
Exactly a year ago, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk presided over a flashy demonstration in which the battery pack of a Tesla Model S electric car was apparently swapped from underneath within 90 seconds and replaced with a fresh pack. The event generated a huge amount of press, and subsequent coverage...
John Voelcker -
The Nissan Leaf is by far the world's best-selling electric car, but one of the ways Nissan has kept its cost down is by eliminating an active-cooling system for its lithium-ion battery pack. Now, however, its second mass-produced electric vehicle--the Nissan e-NV200 small commercial van--turns out to have a slightly different battery pack design than the Leaf. And it uses the vehicle's electric air-condiioning unit to route cool air through the pack when the electric van's battery management system decides it's warranted. DON'T MISS: Driving Nissan e-NV200 All-Electric Small Commercial Van...
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When Will Plug-In Electric SUVs And Crossovers Go On Sale?
Have patience, all you SUV and crossover fans who desperately want one that plugs in and runs electrically. They're coming, but you've got a year to wait--or perhaps a bit less, with luck. Only two vehicles remotely qualify today as plug-in crossovers or SUVs, and neither offers all-wheel drive--a...
John Voelcker -
Why An Electric Car Saves Fleet Operators $16,000 In Lifetime Cost
The average car spends about 95 percent of a 24-hour day parked. For the 5 percent that they're driven, they actually spend one-third of the time idling–at red lights, stuck behind leisurely left-turners, or even while the driver waits for the vehicle to warm up (or cool down) before getting...
Matthew Klippenstein -
Driving Nissan e-NV200 All-Electric Small Commercial Van
One of two Nissan e-NV200 all-electric vans being used in North America was pushed into service yesterday by Portland General Electric (PGE). And we were among the first to get a turn—and a few miles—behind the wheel. What's it like? Frankly, it's a lot more like the current 2014 Nissan...
Bengt Halvorson -
Stock Commentator Jim Cramer Caught Off Guard By Tesla-Fan Ferocity
Fans of Tesla Motors, its CEO Elon Musk, and the Tesla Model S electric car are some of the most ... errrrmmmm ... dedicated advocates for the company and its products that you'll find. And loud, well-known stock commentator Jim Cramer learned that, apparently to his dismay, when he recently ran...
John Voelcker -
Atlanta's Success In Electric-Car Sales Highlights Incentives Role
Georgia's $5,000 tax credit and local incentives have made Atlanta an electric-car haven.
Stephen Edelstein -
The Tesla rumor mill is never quiet for long, and the latest one suggests that the company is developing a long-wheelbase version of its Model S sedan, specifically for the Chinese market. Tesla Motors just recently launched in China, obviously a key market for it and every other automaker, and one in which rear-seat room may be a more important selling point than anywhere else on the planet. DON'T MISS: Tesla Will Build Electric Cars In China; Model S On Sale There This Week It used to be that roughly half of new-car buyers in China had never driven before, so they were content to be...
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2013-2014 Fiat 500e Electric Cars Recalled For Possible Coolant Leak
A large recall of Fiat 500e electric cars addresses possible coolant leaks.
Stephen Edelstein -
Electric-Car Rally Celebrates 'Sociability Run' 100 Years Ago: UPDATE
A century after the first major Electric Sociability Run, electric cars rallied in West Virginia.
Stephen Edelstein -
Most-Electric-Vehicles Record Broken Again: 507 in Stuttgart
The record for most electric vehicles in one place was broken again, this time in Germany.
Stephen Edelstein -
BMW i3 Electric Car Buyers: Mostly New To BMW (But Not i8 Owners)
The 2014 BMW i3 is proving to be very effective at luring new buyers to BMW--buyers who haven't before owned one of its cars. Such buyers, known as conquests, are highly valued by carmakers, who have a much better chance of retaining a customer if they're already driving one of its vehicles. The...
John Voelcker -
Why Tesla's Elon Musk Must Sell 6 Million Electric Cars To Make History
Many entrepreneurs have tried to start car companies in the U.S. over the past century, but the last person to do so from the ground up with a brand that survives to this day was Walter P. Chrysler. He started his company in December 1924--which indicates the magnitude of the challenge faced by...
John Voelcker -
May was a great month for Canadian plug-in electric vehicle sales, as it was in the United States--where sales of 3,117 Nissan Leafs represented the second-highest monthly sales ever for any car that plugs in. On the Canadian side of the border, our tracking showed the nation's electric-car fleet has now topped 7,000 vehicles, and April and May look to be the country's top two plug-in sales months yet. DON'T MISS: U.S. Plug-In Electric Car Sales In May: Highest-Ever Leaf Total, First BMW i3 Numbers: FINAL UPDATE Canadians bought 177 Chevy Volts in May, down modestly from 222 in April, but...
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Tesla Annual Meeting Yesterday: What We Learned That Was New
Tesla Motors held its annual shareholder meeting yesterday afternoon, and as always, a few nuggets of news emerged from CEO Elon Musk. You can read a complete transcript here, but here are some quick bullet points on items that struck us as newsworthy: Tesla electric cars have now covered 344...
John Voelcker -
Plug-In Electric Car Sales In May: Highest-Ever Leaf Total, First BMW i3 Numbers: FINAL UPDATE
Well, chalk up another first for Nissan: It sold 3,117 Leaf electric cars in the U.S. last month. That's not only its best-ever one-month sales performance, but it's the first time any carmaker has sold more than 3,000 battery plug-in electric cars in a month in this country--ever. (August 2013...
John Voelcker -
Nissan To Launch Plug-In Hybrids Too, In Less Than Two Years
Plug-in hybrids will clearly be all the rage among carmakers for the next couple of years. While the number of high-volume battery-electric vehicles today can be counted on one hand--BMW i3, Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model S--virtually every global automaker now has plug-in hybrids planned for launch...
John Voelcker -
NJ Bill To Permit Direct Sales By Electric-Car Maker Tesla To Be Heard Tomorrow
The guerilla warfare between auto dealers and Tesla Motors continues, with the latest skirmish happening tomorrow in New Jersey. Perhaps war analogies are overstating the case, but certainly Tesla has had to fight in numerous states for the right to sell its cars directly to buyers through the...
John Voelcker -
More Data Confirms: Electric-Car Drivers Really Love Their Cars
Studies show the U.S. electric-car fleet is growing, and maturing.
Stephen Edelstein