plug-in cars
-
There are currently 10,000 or so publicly-available electric car charging stations in the U.S., in addition to countless private charging stations in homes and businesses across the nation. The current number of charging stations in the U.S. today makes electric cars trump all other alternative-fuel cars when it comes to finding a place to refuel, but according to a recent report, the number of electric car charging stations in the U.S. could reach 4.1 million by 2017. The prediction comes courtesy of a recent analysis of electric car charging stations by Frost & Sullivan, a global...
-
Latest e-Scooter Prototype Shown By BMW i Electric-Car Brand
BMW has big plans for its i brand of plug-in electric cars, giving the lineup its own visual design language and its first foray into online sales. But beyond the i3 subcompact electric city car and the i8 plug-in hybrid sports coupe, there will be other BMW i models--some of which, apparently...
John Voelcker -
GE WattStation Vindicated, Leaf Blamed In Charging Station Woes
It isn’t a good time to be Nissan right now. For a start, its first all-electric car, the 2012 Leaf, is suffering from poor sales. Then there’s the matter of Leafs in hot states like Arizona exhibiting premature battery capacity loss to attend to. Then, over the weekend, more bad news...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
How Many Miles Are Enough To Kill Electric-Car Range Anxiety?
Range anxiety, or the fear that an electric car will run out of charge before you reach your destination. is a real and present fear for many first-time electric car drivers and buyers. Even though research clearly shows that present electric cars can satisfy the requirements of 95 percent of all...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Electric Car Industry Sums Up Progress, Challenges At Plug-In 2012
It’s been about 18 months since plug-in electric cars went on sale in the U.S., and you might say the industry is in something of a sophomore slump. Sales of plug-ins, while higher than those of hybrids at the same stage of their launch, haven’t met the optimistic projections tossed...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Buoyant After 2012 Model S Launch, Despite Losses
After nothing to sell for nearly six months, an age of anticipation, media hype and short, chaperoned rides, Tesla began official deliveries of its all-electric 2012 Model S sedan just over a month ago. So its hardly surprising that the fledgling car company has just posted net losses of $105.6...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
In the spectrum of alternative fuel vehicles, there's something on sale to suit almost every taste. Whether you're buying an all-electric vehicle or simply want a mild hybrid to save a little on gas, there's a lot of choice in between. The 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In sits virtually in the center of these choices, with range-extended electric cars and battery electric vehicles above, with full hybrids and mild hybrids below. With the car now on sale in the U.K, we took the opportunity to get behind the wheel once more. Familiar Behind that wheel, and indeed before you even clamber inside the...
-
2013 Honda Fit EV: Video From First Drive Of All-Electric Car
Yesterday, Honda delivered its first Fit EV electric car to private buyers--or, more accurately, private lease customers, since the car isn't available for outright sale. Only 1,100 lucky lessors in a small handful of states will ever get behind the wheel of a 2013 Honda Fit EV, because for Honda...
John Voelcker -
Does Your Utility Offer Electric Car Rates? Only 6 Percent Do
Compared with gasoline cars, electric cars are cheap to refuel, especially when charged at night using specialist electric car rates. Designed to encourage the charging of electric vehicles at night time when grid demand is naturally lower, electric car rates are substantially cheaper per...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Audi Shows Getting Ready For An Electric Car Is Pretty Simple (Usually)
Although Audi has no production plans as yet for its A3 e-tron electric car, the automaker is still working hard to promote electric cars through its small A3 e-tron test fleet. Last month, Audi released a video in which we met some of its e-Pilots: the lucky few Audi employees chosen to put the A3...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2013 Nissan Leaf: What Would You Change?
The Nissan Leaf may have gone on sale in December 2010, but later this year, production of Nissan’s all-electric hatchback will start for the first time in Smyrna, Tennessee. We’ve been looking forward to the 2013 Nissan Leaf for some time, with hints from Nissan that...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Tesla Model S: Seven Little Things A Buyer Doesn't Like
Let's make one thing clear right up front: I think the 2012 Tesla Model S is the coolest freaking car in the history of Western Civilization. I put down my $5,000 deposit more than two years ago. I've chugged the Tesla Kool-Aid, extra-large size. But after a 7-minute spin in a dark green Model S...
David Noland -
Honda delivered its first coporately-leased all-electric Fit EV back in December 2010 to the city of Torrence, California, one month after announcing it at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. Since then, Honda has continued deliveries of its Fit EV to fleet customers, but at the start of last week, nearly nineteen months after the first Fit EV hit the streets, it still hadn't delivered a Fit EV to a private customer. That changed on Friday, when Honda successfully delivered the first privately-leased 2013 Fit EV to a couple from Southern California. According to its official press release, Matt...
-
How Do Public Charging Stations Fit Into Better Place Service?
Electric-car drivers in the U.S. are now asking, What is a fair price value for use of public Level 2 charging stations? In the U.S. and Europe, multiple networks of charging-spot providers have proliferated. Some are or were free, others offer a variety of payment terms, authentication systems...
Brian of London -
2012 Tesla Model S: First Drive Video
With Tesla Motors opening new Tesla Stores at a rapid pace, the 2012 Tesla Model S all-electric sport sedan has now been seen by hundreds of thousands of people. Thus far, however, very few of them, however, have gotten behind the wheel. Tesla's working to change that, with a traveling nationwide...
John Voelcker -
Researchers Improve Electric Car Range: With Better GPS System
Although electric cars are very energy efficient, electric car battery packs can’t store as much energy as a tank full of gasoline, resulting in much shorter driving range between fill-ups than a gas car. At present, engineers around the world are working on the problem, developing everything...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Tesla Model S: First Drive Of All-Electric Sport Sedan
After an hour in a 2012 Tesla Model S all-electric sport sedan, one thing became clear: It's a viable car. The Model S gives Tesla Motors a shot at turning into a real car company. That's a provisional judgment; as many journalists have noted, 10-minute drives or an hour driving and riding in...
John Voelcker -
Charge Your Electric Car For Less: Switch Off Unused Appliances
One of the reasons people make the switch from a gasoline car to an electric car is to benefit from the reduced running costs. With some careful planning -- and special time of use tariffs that make night-time electricity cheaper -- charging an electric car can be pretty cheap. But what if you...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
dealerships are showing 2012 Nissan Leaf SL models at fully $5000 off MSRP
-
Tesla Cuts Model S Production Goal For Third Quarter To 500, Analyst Reports
Tesla Motors said today it would cut the third-quarter production target for its 2012 Model S all-electric sport sedan, according to a stock analyst who follows the company. A report by Wunderlich Securities analyst Theodore O'Neill notes that Tesla is now saying it would probably only deliver 500...
John Voelcker -
Nissan's Mark Perry: We're Investigating Arizona's Wilting Leafs
More than two months after a few Nissan Leafs in Arizona began to lose capacity bars in the extreme heat and suffer premature battery aging, Nissan has started formal investigations into the issue. While being interviewed over the telephone by Arizona’s KPHO 5 station in Phoenix, Mark Perry...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Nissan, GE, Working To Solve Leaf, WattStation Charging Woes
Plugging an electric car into a charging station might seem like a simple process, but sometimes even the simplest of processes can go wrong. Over the weekend, we heard reports of several cases of Nissan Leaf owners whose Leafs had sustained damage after charging at GE WattStation Level 2 charging...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Electric-Car Charging Stations: Will Market Forces Cut Prices?
As some public charging stations have started charging fees for charging sessions, many electric-car drivers are debating what a fair price would be. Virtually all drivers accept that it's reasonable to pay something to charge at a private business. Two executives from Coulomb Technologies, which...
George Parrott -
Elon Musk Bets Half Of All Cars Built In 2032 Will Be Electric
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has an enthusiastic base of fans who consider him a visionary. And with Paypal in the past, and SpaceX as well as Tesla today, Musk has an impressive track record. So ears perked up when he recently predicted that in 20 years, half of all new cars sold would be plug-in...
John Voelcker