plug-in cars

  • We're Going To Need Electronauts

    Over the years automakers have used a huge array of techniques to entice members of the public to become test drivers in their electric car test programs. Often however, high lease fees combined with the requirement that lesses give back the prototype or limited run electric car at the end of the program put people off taking part. But now BMW has innovative, if slightly cringeworthy way of enticing people to take part in its BMW Active E electric car test fleet. It wants to call the lessees Electronauts. And to attract a base of potential Electronauts to lease 700 of its BMW Active E...

  • Li-Ion Motors Wave II, Progressive Automotive X-Prize winner.
    What Part Of 'No' Does Electric-Car Maker Li-Ion Motors Not Get?

    A little over a year ago, a relatively unknown electric automaker called Li-Ion Motors Corp. won the $2.5 million Alternative Side-By-Side Class in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize. Since then, Li-Ion Motors has been putting out regular press releases and information about its two...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt on test in Little Rock, Arkansas, July 2011
    Woman Buys Two, 2012 Chevy Volts, Gives One Away

    When the second ever 2011 Chevrolet Volt made rolled off the production line at General Motor’s Detroit Hamtamck facility last year, it was destined to be auctioned off in order to help raise funds for the public school system in Detroit. In that particular auction, a brand-new Chevrolet Volt...

  • Traffic
    Electric-Car Owners To Lose If CA Carpool Lanes Get Tolls?

    State and local agencies are strapped for cash, and one source of income may be the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes on congested freeways. In Southern California, local officials plan to convert "carpool lanes" to toll lanes with variable pricing, allowing drivers to pay up to $10 for the...

  • 2011 Coda Sedan electric car, at 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show
    Coda Secures More Funding, Continues March Towards 2012 Sedan Production

    Californian electric automaker Coda Automotive might have recently opened its first showroom and signed a deal to open a final assembly plant in Benicia, California where it plans to install the electric drivetrain in its 2012 Coda Sedans -- but it has only just closed an eight-month funding round...

  • Coulomb Technologies ChargePoint
    Electric Car Charging: Coming To Central Parking Garage Near You

    Central Parking, a nationwide parking garage company responsible for 1.1 million parking spots -- and its Tennessee-based subsidiary USA Parking Systems -- will soon host electric car charging facilities at 2,220 of its parking garages. Under an agreement signed earlier this week, the Car Charging...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf, Nashville, October 2010

    When you’re researching your next new car it’s likely that you research not one but many different cars, comparing them on everything from fuel economy and features to reliability and interior space. Electric and plug-in hybrid cars are no different -- but the practicalities of cargo space are often overlooked in favor of range, price and performance. So which electric car offers the most cargo space, and which ones should you avoid if you want to carry a lot of luggage? Here’s just five plug-in hatchbacks you’ll see in 2012 along with their vital statistics. 2012 Ford...

  • 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid
    Cheapest Electric Car In The U.S.? It Depends How You Ask

    So what's the least expensive plug-in car in the U.S.? That ought to be pretty simple to figure out, right? Just compare the base price for every electric car, add in mandatory delivery fees, and see which comes in lowest. Which is why we got confused this morning when we read Toyota's Bob Carter...

  • Hyundai Blue-Will Concept, 2010 Detroit Auto Show
    Hoping For Hyundai Electric Cars? Won’t Happen, Says Executive

    Last week at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show we saw lots of new plug-in hybrid and purely electric concept cars from many different automakers. But mysteriously bucking the trend with not a single electric concept was South Korean auto group Hyundai Kia, choosing instead to represent electric...

  • 2012 Ford Focus Electric launch, New York City, January 2011 - charging point
    Everything You Need To Know About Electric Cars (With Asterisks)

    Although we’ve been covering electric and fuel-efficient green vehicles here at Green Car Reports for a long time now, a lot of first-time readers are completely new to the idea of buying an electric car. Exploring electric cars for the first time, these readers are looking for a simple...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    Chevrolet Volt: Ultimate Guide To Everything You Need To Know

    The Chevrolet Volt is now here, on sale in most states, and ready to plug in--and to answer all your questions about what it is, how it drives, how to buy it and how to wade through all its new technology, there's only one solution. Here, you'll find High Gear Media's comprehensive coverage of the...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf
    Five Top Accessories and Modifications For Your 2011 Nissan Leaf

    We pick five accessories and modifications that will dress up your Leaf electric car to make it more functional, more stylish, or just cooler.

  • 2012 Ford Focus Electric launch, New York City, January 2011 - Nancy Gioia

    Although it’s almost a year since the 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevrolet Volt officially launched in key electric car markets, the majority of the U.S. population have yet to see their first highway capable electric car. So its no surprise that automakers are spending a lot of time and energy trying to educate buyers in as-yet unexplored markets about electric and fuel-efficient cars. But at Ford’s Power of Choice roadshow -- a nationwide tour designed to showcase Ford’s best ecologically sound cars -- its staff struggled to answer even basic questions about using its 2012...

  • 'Revenge of the Electric Car' movie
    Electric Car Revenge is Sweet in Amsterdam With 100 Nissan Leafs

    The Amsterdam premiere of the move "Revenge of the Electric Car" is expected to attract fully 100 Nissan Leaf electric cars from all over Europe.

  • Rolls Royce Phantom Experimental Electric 102EX live photos
    Fancy An Electric Or Hybrid Rolls-Royce? It Might Just Happen

    While Rolls-Royce may have hit the headlines earlier this year with its all-electric 102EX Phantom Concept, its large customer base hasn’t been quite as welcoming. Despite a strong customer ambivalence to anything other than a throbbing 12-cylinder engine underneath the hood of its hand-built...

  • 2011 Coda Sedan electric car, at 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show
    Coda Signs Deal For Electric-Car Plant in Benicia, California

    It’s been just a week since Californian automaker Coda Automotive opened up its first showroom in LA’s Westside in the Westfield Century Mall -- but now Coda bosses have confirmed that it has signed a deal to open a final assembly plant in Benicia, California. The deal, which Coda has...

  • Mia Electric microbus
    2012 Mia Electric Microbus: First Drive Report

    Sometimes a clever inventor or a team of engineers changes the way we think about an appliance or a concept we’ve lived with for years -- producing a revolutionary new design that makes us wonder how we ever lived without it. But sometimes a supposed revolutionary new design is little more...

  • 2015 Infiniti electric luxury sedan teaser sketch
    Infiniti: We’ll Have An All-Electric Sedan Ready For 2015

    Infiniti -- the luxury sister brand of Nissan -- has been joining in the electric car hype at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show with talk of an all-electric subcompact car it will have ready for sometime in 2014. This isn’t the first time Infiniti has talked electric cars. Last year, Infiniti boss...

  • 2011 Brabus High Performance 4WD Full Electric concept car

    This year’s 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show has been heavily dominated by the drive towards greener vehicles, better gas mileage, and zero tailpipe-emissions motoring. So it’s no surprise that German tuning house Brabus has followed the trend set by most of the major automakers attending the show -- developing an all-electric, all-wheel drive version of the 2011 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Sedan which it plans to produce in small numbers sometime soon. With four in-wheel electric motors producing a combined 320 kilowatts of power and a claimed 2,360 pound-feet of torque, the all-wheel drive...

  • Opel Rak E concept car, Frankfurt Motor Show, September 2011
    2011 Frankfurt Auto Show: Opel RAK e Electric Concept

    At this year’s Frankfurt Auto Show there’s a very clear theme among concept cars: ultra-small urban runabouts. Now Opel -- the European arm of General Motors -- has joined Audi, Volkswagen, Smart and many others with its own take on a lightweight electric-powered urban runabout. Called...

  • THINK City on hire in the Alps
    Want To Buy A 2011 Think City? You Can (If You Live In New York)

    A few weeks back we nominated the diminutive Think City electric car as one of the five electric cars you’ll still be able to buy in five years’ time -- despite the roller-coaster fortunes of the firm which makes it. Arguing that the Think City had certain Blattodean qualities when it...

  • Brahms Plug-in Hybrid Hearse
    Plug-in Hearse Offers To Whisk You Silently To Your Grave

    Losing a loved one is never easy. Neither is planning a funeral afterward. Now a firm in the U.K. claims it can help provide an appropriate form of transport for electric car owners looking for a green way to make their final journeys. An engineering firm with several years of experience with...

  • 2012 Mitsubishi "i" electric car, powered by MiEV, launch event at 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show
    2012 Mitsubishi 'i' Electric Car Gets Pre-Sale Price Boost

    Price increases on electric cars seem to be the rule these days. First the 2012 Nissan Leaf got a $2,420 increase (for more standard equipment), then the 2012 Chevrolet Volt got a price reduction that actually proved to be an increase in disguise (comparing similarly equipped models). Not wanting...

  • 2011 Coda Sedan electric car
    2012 Coda Sedan: You Can’t Get One Yet, But You Can Visit The Store

    Where do you go to buy your next green car? For most consumers, the answer would be the local car dealer on the outskirts of town, but yesterday California-based Coda Automotive just opened up its first showroom -- in a shopping mall. Located on L.A’s Westside in the Westfield Century Mall...

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