plug-in cars
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Many people like to think they can predict the future, but only futurists (and psychics) get paid to do it. And futurist Lars Thomsen thinks that electric cars are such a disruptive technology that they will make gasoline cars obsolete--starting in 2016, or much earlier than most other analysts suggest. Thomsen delivered a speech this past September, at the 25th International AVL Conference “Engine & Environment” in Graz, Austria, that's contained in the clip above. It's also in German, which may make the 36-minute-long video a bit impenetrable for non-German speakers. ALSO...
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All-Electric SRT Viper: Battery-Powered Supercar On Sale Now
With hybrid supercars starting to appear at last--the Ferrari LaFerrari and McLaren P1 among them--many electric-car fans wonder when we'll see another battery-electric supercar to follow the Tesla Roadster. One already exists, it turns out--and we didn't even notice. You can literally put a...
Joel Feder -
Buying A Tesla In China: Just Call It 'Te Su Le'?
Tesla Motors is selling cars in China without a Chinese name.
Stephen Edelstein -
U.S. Drivers Ready For Electric Cars, Even If They Don't Know It Yet
When Chevrolet was engineering the Volt range-extended electric car, it gave the car a battery just big enough for 40-50 miles of electric range. GM did this because it reasoned that this electric range would be most effective for most drivers--covering the average commute on electricity alone...
Antony Ingram -
Ad Turns Electric Car Into Slot Car, With The Help Of CGI
Two Renault Zoe "slot cars" race through London in a new ad.
Stephen Edelstein -
Life With Tesla Model S: Battery Upgrade From 60 kWh To 85 kWh
A recent 1,200-mile East Coast road trip in my 2013 Tesla Model S electric car proved to be something of a turning point in my view of the car. Fitted with the smaller 60-kilowatt-hour battery pack, my car's EPA range of 208 miles was not quite enough to make it between Superchargers--Tesla's...
David Noland -
Cars running on gasoline have been with us for almost 140 years, and diesels for almost 80 years. More than 1 billion vehicles on the planet use those fuels today. So the view that liquid hydrocarbon fuels are on their way out requires taking a rather long view. Now we have one estimate of a timeframe for such a transition, courtesy of the U.S. Energy Information Agency. And it can be summed up as: a very long time. In an "early release overview" of its Annual Energy Outlook report, released Monday, the agency predicted a sharp rise in average fuel efficiency, resulting from stringent new...
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Will There Be Another Electric Mini E Within A Few Years?
Back in 2009, the MINI E electric car was BMW's very first attempt at building a battery-electric vehicle. The fleet of several hundred electric MINIs was leased out to volunteer test drivers in the U.S., Europe, China, and the U.K. to let the company gather data on how drivers used plug-in cars in...
John Voelcker -
Ohio Car Dealers Sue To Block Tesla From Selling Cars In The State
With legislation defeated, Ohio car dealers are turning to the courts to block Tesla's company-owned stores.
Stephen Edelstein -
Samsung To Make Electric Cars As Well As Smartphones, Etc.?
Recent patent filings from Samsung include important electric-car technologies.
Stephen Edelstein -
2014 Cadillac ELR Luxury Electric Coupe: Now En Route To Dealers
The 2014 Cadillac ELR is now shipping to dealers.
Stephen Edelstein -
Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt Range Loss In Winter: New Data From Canada
Just in time for the holiday-feast season, we now have published charts that detail the effect of cold weather on the battery range of Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt electric cars. Think "range shrinkage". The data comes courtesy of FleetCarma, the Canadian company whose app MyCarma tracks vehicle...
Matthew Klippenstein -
The modern wave of electric cars has brought with it many benefits, but also a few downsides. Aside from obvious factors like the issue of range anxiety for some users or spending a little more to buy a plug-in car in the first place, one of the biggest problems faced by actual electric car users is that of charging etiquette. And in a new video, best practice for using public charging spaces is clearly explained by Marc Geller from Plug In America and Forrest North from Recargo. The premise here is simple, but can cause some real problems for electric car owners wanting to plug in their...
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Road Trips In A Tesla Model S Electric Car: Lessons Learned
It's one facet of the American myth: Get in your car, drive away from wherever you are, take the road trip. Think crossing the country to find the California Dream. Think Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Think buddy movies. MORE: Tesla Model S Road Trip: 1,200 West Coast Electric-Car Miles More...
John Voelcker -
Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Cars Price-Competitive With Electrics By 2030, Toyota Says
Toyota hopes advances in design and parts sharing will cut the cost of fuel-cell vehicles.
Stephen Edelstein -
Why Some Dealers Are Inept At Selling Plug-In Electric Cars
People tend to recall bad or frustrating experiences more acutely than good ones. Which is likely why a staple of plug-in car forums is the bad-treatment-at-a-car-dealership story. Anecdotes abound about Chevrolet and Nissan dealers who tried to pull Volt and Leaf buyers away from plug-in electrics...
John Voelcker -
Life With Tesla Model S East-Coast Road Trip: Freeze In Slow Lane, Or Languish At Nissan Dealers?
After reading George Parrott's article yesterday about his effortless 1,200-mile West Coast road trip along Tesla's Supercharger Highway, I have only one thing to say. "George, you lucky bastard." You see, I too recently made a 1,200-mile journey in my Tesla Model S. And it wasn't quite so...
David Noland -
Tesla Model S Road Trip: 1,200 West Coast Electric-Car Miles
600 miles in a day in the all-electric Tesla Model S
George Parrott -
New parking facilities in the Big Apple will have to electric-car charging capability for 20 percent of their spaces.
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Electric Cars: Which States Are Doing It Right, Which States Lag?
If you live in parts of California, electric cars--from the Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid all the way up to the Tesla Model S--are no longer uncommon. The streets of Palo Alto, in the center of Silicon Valley, are practically crawling with Teslas these days. But in other parts of the country, you may...
John Voelcker -
How Did A Small Illinois Town End Up With 300 Plug-In Cars?
:Normal, Illinois has become a leader in incentivizing electric cars.
Stephen Edelstein -
Consumer Reports Verdict: 2014 Cadillac ELR 'Priced Out Of Its League'
The Cadillac ELR extended-range electric car is too expensive, Consumer Reports says.
Stephen Edelstein -
Chevy Volt's Wind Thrumming Noise: Aero Fix Now Available
It's become a common part of road testing: Get the car up to speed, then roll down a window to see how bad the drumming and buffeting gets. Never experienced it? Try it on your own car sometime. Now, it turns out, there's an aerodynamic add-on fix available to cure the worst of the thrumming...
John Voelcker -
FINAL UPDATE: Plug-In Electric Car Sales For November: Down On October
As the year winds toward a close, U.S. car sales are at their highest levels in years. And modern plug-in electric cars will set a new sales record too. With one month left, November deliveries of cars with plugs looked like they'll hold steady with last month's--but as the final numbers came in...
John Voelcker