plug-in cars

Price increases be damned, the 2012 Fisker Karma is finally here, and first examples are about to arrive in customers' driveways. Earlier in the week we posted our video driving impressions of the new four-door extended-range electric car from startup Fisker Automotive. Now it's time to expand on...

As we count down the days to the Detroit Auto Show media preview (24 days from today), the announcements of new cars and concepts are now coming in regularly. Or should we say announcements of announcements? Evoking Honda's logo release yesterday, Nissan says it will show off an "innovative...

When they're feeling confident, automakers boast about their specs, ratings, and performance with direct comparisons to the competition. It's horsepower for specialty cars like the perennial Camaro-Mustang duel, but increasingly for mainstream and green cars, it's miles per gallon. Yesterday, we...

Since the Nissan Leaf first launched a year ago, we’ve seen leaf enthusiasts produce a whole range of unofficial modifications for the all-electric hatchback, ranging from the extremely useful to the downright bizarre. We’re not sure which category a propane-powered gas-turbine range...

One year ago today, the very first 2011 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car was delivered to a retail buyer, in Denville, New Jersey. The Volt was intended not only to be the first production plug-in electric car from General Motors--erasing memories of the ill-fated EV1--but to serve as a...

The Japanese automaker Nissan has just celebrated the first birthday of its first all-electric production car, the Leaf family hatchback. Two years ago however, Renault Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn promised that there would be four all-electric vehicles coming to the U.S. in the near future. With cars...

Ford’s first all-electric mass-produced car, the 2012 Ford Focus, isn’t yet available to buy in the U.S., but Ford thinks the delay in bringing it to market will be well worth the wait. With what Ford claims will be a best-in-class fuel efficiency of 100 MPGe, and plenty of patented...

We’re not sure about you, but doing that last-minute holiday gift shopping can be a real pain, especially if you’re trying to buy something specific like an electric car charging station. But just like so many other gifts, books, gadgets and household items, the humble electric car...

In Hollywood films and TV shows, good cops often have to hand in their badge and gun when they’re accused of something terrible. Luckily, in the real world, that doesn’t happen so much. Not to cops, and not to cop cars. Enter the New York Police Department, which has just confirmed that...

With the 2012 Fisker Karma now, finally, arriving in volume at dealerships, Fisker Automotive should finally begin to record some retail sales this month. Still, we're not sure that raising your prices right as your first customers return to their dealers to take delivery is particularly gracious...

How do you mark the first year of sales of an electric car? You sing Happy Birthday to it, of course. At least, that’s what Nissan North America chose to do to mark the one year anniversary of the Nissan Leaf electric car being sold in the U.S. But it wasn’t people or polar bears...

After what feels like forever, the 2012 Fisker Karma electric car is finally about to go on sale. Last month, we showed you how to order a Fisker Karma. Now, we've been able to slide behind the wheel of a new 2012 Fisker Karma EcoSport to bring you some quick first-drive impressions of the car's...

One week ago, we heard the tragic story that Aptera Motors, which had planned to bring the ultra-efficient Aptera 3-wheeled vehicle to market, was closing for good. Then on Wednesday this week, YouTube videos surfaced showing what appeared to be Aptera Employees smashing prototype Aptera body...

December seems to be the month when new electric-car makers manage to squeak their first deliveries in under the wire. Last year at this time, Nissan delivered its first Leaf electric car in San Francisco on December 12, with the first Chevrolet Volt following on December 18. This year, it's the...

There are people around who'll tell you that "all cars look the same". They are of course talking baloney. We aren't living in the 1980s any more, where cars were differentiated largely by the badge on the front, their lines dictated by ruler and set-square. Today's automotive tapestry is a rich...

Sales of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and pure electric cars may have suffered over the summer thanks to dropping gas prices, economic woes and a drop in availability of cars, but last month sales of so-called ‘Advanced Drive’ cars reached an 8 month high. All in all, a little under 28,000...

Mitsubishi is so pleased with the reaction to its 2012 i electric car that it has decided to move its plans to launch the car nationwide forward by six months. The four-seat subcompact hatchback, which retails at between $29,125 and $33,915 before Federal or local incentives, wasn’t due to be...

Rinspeed's latest concept would add both range and functionality to the Smart Electric Drive.

At the end of last week we broke the news that Aptera, the company responsible for the futuristic three-wheeled electric car known as the Aptera 2e was closing down. Now a series of YouTube videos have surfaced showing people we assume to be Aptera employees wilfully destroying Aptera body shells...

Believe it or not, December 12 will mark one year since Oliver Chalouhi of Redwood City, California became the first U.S. owner of a production 2011 Nissan Leaf. For some Nissan Leaf fans however, December 12 marks the additional year that they’ve waited to be able to buy the all-electric...