plug-in cars

  • Toyota Coms (Provided by Toyota Auto Body Co.)

    Historically, automakers haven’t been fond of small electric cars capable of carrying one or two people. Lately, everyone from General Motors to Renault has shown interest in low-speed city runabouts, leading some to even bring doorless, electric runabouts to market. Unlike most automakers, Toyota has been making low-speed single-seat vehicles for mobility and industrial use for years through its subsidiary Toyota Auto Body Co. Now it has unveiled its latest model, the 2012 Coms. With a top speed of 60 kph (37 mph), the Coms isn’t designed for highway use. Instead, its small size...

  • 2012 Fisker Karma during road test, Los Angeles, Feb 2012
    Friday 13th? Five Green Automakers Who Have All The Bad Luck

    Have you noticed today’s date? Unless you’re of Italian or Spanish descent (those nations consider Tuesday the 13th and Thursday the 17th bad luck), you might consider today to be an inherently unlucky. But before you cross yourself, reach for the four-leaf clover, or hide under the...

  • 2012 Ford Focus Electric
    2012 Ford Focus Electric: Small Ad Budget Due To Low Sales Of Volt, Fisker

    Earlier this week, Ford announced it had signed a deal with troubled Internet content provider Yahoo to stream 10 episodes of an Internet reality show centered on its 2012 Ford Focus Electric. Called Plugged In, the show will send teams of contestants to various U.S. cities in Ford's battery...

  • 2012 Nissan Leaf 4-door HB SL Headlight
    UK-Built 2013 Nissan Leaf To Sport Unique Europe-Only Styling

    Let’s face it: Europeans and Americans have very different tastes in cars. So much so, it is common for the same car to be subtly redesigned for each market. Now Colin Lawther, vice president of Nissan engineering in Europe, has announced that the European version of the 2013 Leaf will get a...

  • Better Place user David Rose w/keys to Renault Fluence ZE electric car in Israel [photo: David Rose]
    Early Better Place Customer On Israel Electric-Car Experience

    With no local fanfare or announcements, electric car network provider Better Place has started delivering cars to its first paying customers in Israel. One the first customers is David Rose, who reserved his car in October 2011. His home charging spot was installed a month after he submitted his...

  • BYD e6 electric taxi in service in Shenzhen, China
    BYD e6 Electric Crossover: Now Coming In 2013, Fleets First

    You don't hear as much worrying these days about the threat of Chinese automakers entering the U.S. market with inexpensive cars. Nor do you hear concerns over Chinese electric-car makers swamping sales of the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt, which have racked up more than 23,300 sales between them...

  • Coffee

    In the automotive world, there’s a constant struggle going on between automakers keen to encourage customers to choose their green car over the competition. Just after a major auto show or car launch, automakers find it relatively easy to sell new car, especially if they have lots of new features or impressive gas mileage. But at other times of the year when consumers are looking to other big-ticket spends, ad agencies and PR firms start to get creative. Sometimes the result is a unique and clever ad campaign. More often however, the resulting press releases are humdingers that make us...

  • Camp Jeep Outdoor Off Roading Ride Along at New York Auto Show [Matthew Van Dusen/Txchnologist]
    Txchnologist: Why Are Electric Car Demonstrations So Boring?

    The New York Auto Show, which opened to the public on Saturday, has elicited some barely stifled yawns from the automotive press. The slightly tweaked top-selling Toyota Camry and the Nissan Altima, conservatively styled to defend its No. 2 position, just don’t get the pulse racing like the...

  • Toyota Prius Vs. Chevrolet Volt
    2012 Toyota Prius Vs. 2012 Chevrolet Volt: Which Is Right For You?

    With gasoline prices on the increase, many consumers are looking to buy a hybrid or plug-in hybrid as their next car in order to save gas and money. If going whole hog and ditching gasoline entirely in favor of an all-electric car like the 2012 Nissan Leaf or 2012 Mitsubishi i isn’t an...

  • 2012 Tesla Model S beta vehicle, Fremont, CA, October 2011
    2012 Tesla Model S Winter Testing Video Mashup Released

    Over the past few years, it’s become almost customary for Californian automaker Tesla to release regular videos detailing the final developmental and testing stages of its 2012 Model S Sedan. So far, we’ve seen pretty videos of it moving under its own power, and even a trio test-track...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf plugged into an EVgo quick-charging station, Texas
    $100 Million For Electric-Car Charging: Devil, Meet Details

    You'd think that $100 million of electric-car charging stations in California would be a good thing, right? While an agreement announced last month may disturb California utility customers--the injured parties whose high power bills led to the deal--the state's electric-car drivers may benefit from...

  • Infiniti LE Concept at New York Auto Show, April 2012
    Infiniti LE Concept Electric Sedan: New York Auto Show Video

    The Infiniti LE Concept was one of the few pure concept cars at last week's New York Auto Show media days, a design study that wasn't a production model but just an indication of how a future car might evolve. In reality, though, Infiniti hasn't bothered to disguise the fact that the LE Concept is...

  • 2012 Nissan Leaf 4-door HB SL Instrument Cluster

    Ever since Nissan launched its Leaf electric hatchback in late 2010, owners around the world have struggled with its on-board Carwings telematics system. Responsible for everything from initiating remote charging and cabin pre-conditioning through to predicting remaining range and finding charging stations, Carwings hasn’t always been that reliable...or accurate. Now Nissan is promising an upcoming software update to the Carwings system found in every Nissan Leaf, drastically improving the range prediction algorithms that are responsible for what many Leaf owners have unceremoniously...

  • 2012 Tesla Model S beta vehicle, Fremont, CA, October 2011
    Abu Dhabi Sells Off 7-Percent Tesla Stake, Makes $133 Million

    Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, might be working hard to ensure that the oil-producing nation becomes more environmentally friendly--but that hasn’t stopped its state-owned utility company from selling its 7 percent stake in Californian electric automaker Tesla Motors...

  • 2012 Vauxhall Ampera
    Your Chevrolet Volt Needs A Charge Sustaining Mode: Here’s Why

    In a few weeks’ time, Vauxhall/Opel, a European arm of General Motors, will officially start sales of the 2012 Vauxhall/Opel Ampera. Essentially a Chevrolet Volt in disguise, the Ampera shares most of Volt’s features and, thanks to a lack of On-Star in Europe, loses some of the...

  • 2013 Smart ForTwo
    2013 Smart ForTwo: Fresh Styling, New Electric Drive Model

    The Smart ForTwo minicar has had a rough ride in the U.S. of late. After debuting to stupendous sales in 2008, as gas prices soared, its sales have plummeted to just a few thousand a year. But the little Franco-German two-seater is being lightly refreshed for 2013, under new distribution through...

  • 2012 Tesla Model S beta vehicle, Fremont, CA, October 2011
    Infiniti LE Electric Luxury Sedan: Tesla's Worst Nightmare?

    One of the surprise stars of the New York Auto Show media days this week was the Infiniti LE Concept. The design study for an electric four-door sedan is a close approximation of a car that will roll off assembly lines in Smyrna, Tennessee, in about two years. And it poses an intriguing question...

  • Fisker quality measures  -  from New York Auto Show presentation
    Fisker Emphasizes Its Focus On Product Quality

    Fisker wants critics to know that it takes quality seriously, and that the automaker is making an effort to offer superior customer service.

  • 2012 Infiniti LE Concept

    Yesterday, we got a brief glimpse of Infiniti's four-door sedan concept car; today, we have all the details of the Infiniti LE Concept. The four-door, all-electric sedan concept is really a thinly disguised production car that will reach Infiniti dealers within two years. It gives Nissan's luxury brand its first all-electric vehicle and an entry in the "sustainable luxury" category--when and if that develops. Leaf underneath Built on the underpinnings of the Nissan Leaf five-door hatchback, the LE Concept has the same 24-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery. Infiniti stressed the "immediate...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt Production Line at Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant
    After Record Sales, Chevy Volt Production To Resume A Week Early

    Buoyed by record monthly sales of its Chevy Volt hybrid electric plug-in car in March, General Motors will resume production of the Volt at the Detroit Hamtramck plant one week early, the United Auto Workers told Talking Points Memo on Tuesday night. “They’re adding a week of production...

  • Fisker Atlantic concept unveiling before New York Auto Show, April 2012
    Fisker Atlantic: Video, Photos From New York Auto Show Launch

    Despite the travails of Fisker Automotive, it's safe to say this: Henrik Fisker knows how to design striking cars. The Fisker Atlantic unveiled last night is a stunning mid-size sport sedan. Or, perhaps, sport sedan concept, since it wasn't shown in motion. The Atlantic range-extended electric...

  • Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Hall in an ad for the 2012 Nissan Leaf
    Nissan CEO On Leaf Sales: Take The Long View, It Will Happen

    It's the kind of question that makes every CEO roll his eyes. In effect, it translated to: Your sales of one model last month were lousy, so is that car a failure in the market? But if the model is the Nissan Leaf, the first battery electric vehicle sold in volume in the U.S. (and around the...

  • 2012 Chevrolt Volt Gas Station Advert
    Plug-In Car Sales Soar In March, Led By Chevrolet Volt

    Car sales overall continued their upward trend last month, but sales of plug-in cars soared in March to more than 3,800 units. The bulk of those sales came from a resurging Chevy Volt, which logged its highest-ever single-month sales figure, along with the debut of the Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid...

  • Men's Health 2012 Ford Focus Electric, to be driven from New York to Los Angeles, April 2012
    2012 Ford Focus Electric To Do Cross-Country Road Trip

    Men's Health magazine will drive a 2012 Ford Focus Electric from New York to Los Angeles, recharging 40 to 55 times along the way.

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