Range-Extended Electric Vehicle

Via Motors, the extended-range electric truck conversion company with GM legend Bob Lutz on its board, announced today that it would use lithium-ion cells from A123 Systems in its battery packs. The startup company will show its full lineup of electric-drive pickup trucks at next week's Detroit...

Few things seem to set off a certain part of the political spectrum like the Chevrolet Volt, the extended-range electric car from General Motors. It's been on sale exactly one year, so we think it's rather too early to deem the Volt a success or a failure, though that hasn't stopped its critics...

So far, the range of electric vehicles offered for general sale has been fairly limited - most carmakers have been selling their technology in standard family cars, or city cars. In terms of efficiency, those vehicles are actually relatively good. Why not try and make improvements in the generally...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Engineers at General Motors are close to finalizing a set of design modifications to the Chevrolet Volt battery pack to prevent later fires in packs that have been severely damaged in accidents. The updates come in response to two fires in lithium-ion Volt battery packs that were compromised during...

While electric-car advocates may avoid the issue, some buyers simply won't choose a plug-in car that can't travel unlimited distances. That's where the Chevy Volt-style range extender comes in, though the Volt adds unlimited range by burning gasoline in a conventional engine to generate electric...

It's been a tough few weeks of publicity for the Chevrolet Volt, the extended-range electric car that's the green halo vehicle at General Motors. Now, despite sales below GM's announced target and an NHTSA inquiry into fires in the lithium-ion battery pack several weeks after they were involved in...

Phew. Yesterday was quite a day indeed in Chevy Volt land. A bevy of news items hit the wires, following Monday's offer of loaner cars to Volt owners who weren't comfortable with their cars' safety until the NHTSA finishes its investigation into battery-pack fires in cars that had been wrecked in...

Despite the NHTSA inquiry into battery-pack fires following severe crash tests of the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car, the car's 5,000 or so owners to date seem to be unworried. Comments on Volt owner forums largely dismiss worries about any risk of fire during accidents, and many owners...

While a handful of Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric cars have been destroyed in fires, potential Volt buyers are not deterred by sensationalist media reports around the blazes, says trade journal Automotive News.

All eyes might be focused on the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show, but luxury automaker Infiniti has decided to turn attention to the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, where it plans to unveil a range-extended, electric sports car concept. We don’t know anything at this moment about the car’s...

Every carmaker ramps up production on a new vehicle slowly. So Fisker Automotive struck back at the thesis of a GigaOm article yesterday that suggested the company was delaying the production schedule for its 2012 Karma extended-range electric luxury sport sedan into the middle of next year...

Year-end sales figures are looming ever closer, and the critics of the GM bailout and all thing electric-drive are already drafting wrapup stories about how the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car has been a sales disaster. So Chevy has taken off the gloves. The company said it would allow...

Have you ever dreamed about just walking into your local Fisker dealer and ordering a Karma plug-in luxury sport sedan? Very few of us have the funds to afford the $95,900 starting price of a 2012 Fisker Karma, but that doesn't mean we can't imagine doing it. The youngest member of the High Gear...