plug-in cars

  • LumineXence Lotus charging station

    So often in the world of Industrial design, form follows function. Then once in a while, a design comes along that turns a mundane object like an electric car charging station into something a little more artistic. Enter the leaf-shaped Lotus solar-powered electric car charging station. Designed by Luminexecne’s Giancarlo Zema, the solar-powered charging station looks like a giant lotus leaf, and combines a shelter, a night-time LED light and a charging station in one unit. Available in a variety of sizes, from a 43 square foot model capable of producing 500 watts of peak solar power...

  • Google-liveried 2012 Mitsubishi i
    Quick Snap: Google Goes All-Electric In Mitsubishi 'i'

    If you mention internet giant Google and "electric car" in the same sentence, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that the company was working on a car of its own. After all, the company is well-known for its work on autonomous vehicles, with a technology-heavy Prius that's now driven thousands...

  • 2011 Coda Sedan electric car
    San Diego Dealer First To Sell Coda Electric Car; Four More To Follow

    The long-awaited Coda electric sedan finally has its first confirmed dealership, located in San Diego, California. Marvin K. Brown Auto Center in the heart of San Diego is expected to be the first retailer to sell the 2012 Coda Sedan, when deliveries commence this year. According to Automotive...

  • SIM-LEI Video
    Japanese Electric Car Startup Explains Why Its Cars Look So Wacky

    We all know that most electric cars are more energy efficient than their gasoline counterparts, but just how do you improve on the limited range most electric cars have? For some automakers like BMW, the answer lies in making an electric car as lightweight as possible. For others, the answer is to...

  • GE WattStation Electric Car Charging Station
    Electric-Car Tax Credit Safe For Now, But Others Expiring Now

    For now, the electric-car purchase Federal income-tax credit remains safe. As we've written before, though, December 31 is the last day in which you can install an electric-car charging station and be able to deduct some of the costs from your income taxes. That credit allowed private individuals...

  • Dignitaries at Electric Highway charging station site in Bellingham, WA; photo: Washington State DoT
    First Fast-Charging Station On West Coast Electric Highway: Work Starts

    While dreams of a "Hydrogen Highway" along the West Coast have languished, the states of Washington and Oregon are moving ahead on plans to make Interstate-5 the first "electric highway" in the nation. Yesterday, a small ground-breaking ceremony took place in the Sehome Village Shopping Center in...

  • BYD e6 electric taxi in service in Shenzhen, China

    China's car market is one of the fastest-growing in the world, and the implications of that are huge for the car industry. They're huge for the environment too. With the sort of air quality that Los Angeles was experiencing back in the 1970s, cities like Beijing are keen to get people into zero-emissions vehicles. The issue is getting potential buyers interested, says the New York Times. Slow take-up Three years ago, the Chinese government set a target for the country to produce half a million hybrid and electric vehicles per year by 2011. With production of only several thousand, they've...

  • Black Current III Electric VW Dragster
    Electric Drag Racing Now Embraced By The IHRA

    The International Hot Rod Association has joined the National Hot Rod Association in recognizing electric drag racing as a sport.

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf - battery pack
    Tsunami-Damaged Nissan Leafs Show Strength Of Battery Packs

    When we wrote last year about the 2011 Nissan Leaf being waterboarded for your safety, little did we know an even sterner test was about to challenge the safety of Nissan's electric car. The devastating and tragic results of the March tsunami shook Japan to the core, and resulted in the country's...

  • 2012 Fisker Karma EcoSport
    Volt-Style Battery Nightmare Before Christmas Haunts Fisker

    What holiday gift do you give Fisker Automotive, the company responsible for the world’s first plug-in hybrid sports coupe? A Matchbox 2012 Fisker Karma perhaps? But a public suggestion that the battery packs inside the $106,000+ Fisker Karma luxury plug-in hybrid are at risk of a coolant...

  • GE WattStation Electric Car Charging Station
    Plan To Buy An Electric-Car Charging Station? Home Depot Has Five

    No, this isn't a paid ad. With roughly 17,000 plug-in electric cars sold in the U.S. this year, and likely a multiple of that number next year, many owners will be installing charging stations in their garages. Not all plug-in cars will need a 240-Volt Level 2 charging station, mind you. It all...

  • Kia Ray EV electric car
    Forbidden Fruit: Kia Ray Electric Car Not Due In U.S.

    Kia might be a car company growing in quality and reputation in North America, but it seems we aren't in line for every vehicle the company produces. While the U.S. is one of the strongest markets for electric cars, Kia's new Ray EV won't be hitting American shores, according to USA Today. Instead...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf at quick-charging station

    Yep, it's almost the end of the year, which means reams of roundup stories from all your favorite auto websites. Nope, we're not that different: We've got one too. Here's our take on the five most important stories--or perhaps themes--of 2011 in the growing world of green cars. New fuel economy rules: 54.5 mpg CAFE by 2025 The biggest story of the year is the new gas-mileage requirements jointly issued by the NHTSA and EPA--under the encouragement of the Obama White House, and with signoff from most if not all of the major automakers. (Auto dealers are still fighting the rules.) The new...

  • Amp Electric Jeep Grand Cherokee
    AMP To Bring All-Electric Jeep Grand Cherokee To Detroit

    The venerable Jeep Grand Cherokee, one of the longest-running SUV brands on the market, will be coming to the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit as an all-electric car. But it isn’t heading to Detroit as an official release on the Chrysler stand. Instead, it will be there...

  • 2012 Chevrolet Volt
    Matt Drudge's Idiotic, Uninformed War Against The Chevy Volt

    Recently named by Gizmodo as the second most viral person on the Internet (ahead of Ashton Kutcher!), Matt Drudge is the go-to guy for headlines guaranteed to feed red meat to the right-hand side of the U.S. political spectrum. And he hates electric cars. Boy, does that man hate anything with a...

  • Polar Charging Post and Nissan Leaf
    Polar CEO: Electric Car Owners Are Rich, Can Pay To Charge

    Remember Polar Network, the U.K.-based charging network that costs electric car owners upwards of $30 a month to gain access to charging points? Previously, Polar’s sales director Neil Sharpe said that its level 2 charging stations were not designed to help electric car owners travel long...

  • 2012 smart fortwo electric drive, 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show
    Next-Generation 2012 Smart ForTwo Electric Car Delayed

    Earlier this year Daimler unveiled the third generation Smart Fortwo Electric Drive at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show. Offering much improved acceleration, range and charging capabilities on the previous generation Smart ForTwo Electric Drive, it has the potential to be the first truly...

  • 2012 Tesla Model S beta vehicle, Fremont, CA, October 2011
    2012 Tesla Model S Prices, Options, Specifications Released

    The car won't reach Tesla Stores until at least next fall, but Tesla Motors has just released pricing and options for the various trim levels and models of its 2012 Model S all-electric sport sedan. Unlike various other plug-in cars, the base prices of the 2012 Tesla Model S have not risen. They...

  • Santa In A Tesla Roadster

    Still looking for a holiday gift for an electric car enthusiast who hasn’t yet experienced the sheer thrill of an accelerating electric sports car? If you live in Northern California, we might just have a last minute gift idea for you: a day’s rental of a 2010 super sexy red Tesla Roadster. And to help you make the decision to buy that special someone a Tesla rental gift certificate, Santa Claus himself has agreed to drop the standard rental rate from $500 a day to $300 a day -- or at least his elves at the online community peer-to-peer car-rental company Getaround have. Based in...

  • Mitsubishi i Delivery in Hawaii
    2012 Mitsubishi i Deliveries Have Started: Have You Seen One Yet?

    Look back a year, and you’ll probably remember the hype surrounding the first 2011 Nissan Leafs and 2011 Chevrolet Volts to be delivered to retail customers in the U.S. For the 350 or so lucky Volt and 10 Leaf owners, it meant they were among the pioneers: the first people to own one of a new...

  • 2012 Fisker Karma, offered for sale on eBay, December 2011
    2012 Fisker Karma In 3 Days? eBay Seller Wants It Gone--For Charity

    Just can't wait for a 2012 Fisker Karma, the first examples of which are now finally arriving at dealers? Well, you can always turn to eBay, that massive online repository for all things of all kinds. The auction site currently carries a listing for a 2012 Fisker Karma, one of two the seller says...

  • Smog in New York City
    A Brief History Of Smog, Which Led To Electric Cars: Recommended Reading

    Daniel Yergin is one of those authors who writes major works. His Pulitzer Prize-winning The Prize is nothing less than the definitive history of the rise of the petroleum industry, and his latest, The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, starts where that book left off...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf SL
    Is A $24,000 Price Needed For Electric Car Sales To Soar?

    This past January, many commentators hailed 2011 as the year of the electric car. But as we approach the end of the year, neither Chevrolet nor Nissan has sold as many plug-in cars as it had predicted a year ago it would--due to everything from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami (Nissan) to overly...

  • Rolls Royce Phantom 102EX World Tour
    Electric Rolls Royce 102EX Back Home After World Tour

    After travelling to points of interest across the world, the Rolls Royce 102EX, or Phantom Experimental Electric, is finally back home. It may not be the most realistic proposition for fans of electric cars, but like Tesla, it represents something of a figurehead for the breed and proves that...

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