electric vehicle
First UK Fisker Karma Sells At Charity Auction For £140,000
For the honor of owning the very first Fisker Karma available in the UK, one lucky bidder paid £140,000 (that’s US$220,680). And yes, while you may think it’s an excessive price, you’ll be happy to hear that the money went to charity. Selling for over double its market value, the Karma is an extended range…
Lotus Ethos City Car To Arrive In 2013 With $45,000 Price Tag
Following in the footsteps of the Aston Martin Cygnet, Lotus will introduce their own City Car, apparently dubbed the Ethos, in late 2013. First unveiled at the 2010 Paris Auto Show, the Ethos will be powered by a hybrid powertrain or possibly a fully electric system like the Nissan Leaf. The concept used a 1.2L…
Nissan CEO Ghosn: Rising Yen Could Force Production Out Of Japan, Electric Cars To Be Built In China
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said that the Japanese government’s effort to keep the yen’s value under control had failed and that Nissan was strongly considering moving production out of Japan and into foreign countries. A weakened United States dollar has meant that the value of the greenback has shifted from 91 yen per dollar to…
Ford May Build Electric Cars In China
Ford may begin building electric cars in China via joint ventures with Chinese auto makers, replicating the tactics of rivals like General Motors and Daimler AG, parent company of Mercedes-Benz. China is looking to add 1 million EVs by 2015 as part of an effort to curb emissions and the dependence on fossil fuels. Ford…
CODA Automotive Opens First Dealership in LA Shopping Mall
CODA Automotive has opened its first consumer store in the Westfield Century City Shopping Center in Los Angeles, California, hoping to bring an innovative sales experience to their consumers. CODA Automotive is part of CODA Holdings, a California-based developer of advanced Lithium-ion power battery systems that are used to power their CODA sedan. The four-door,…
Audi A2 Concept Photos Drop Ahead of Frankfurt Debut
Audi‘s answer to BMW‘s i3 EV will be on display at the Frankfurt Motor Show, but they just couldn’t wait until then to show off what we can expect to see. Despite these photos being mostly computer generated renderings they give a good idea of Audi’s direction with their A2 Concept, which currently is rumored…
Nissan Leaf Arrives in Chicago Ahead of Schedule as Demand Surges
Nissan has announced it will launch the all-electric Nissan Leaf ahead of schedule in the city of Chicago, citing popular demand as well as preparedness by the city. Last February, Gov. Pat Quinn announced that $1 million would be invested to install state-of-the-art charging infrastructure for electric cars throughout the Chicago area. The City of…
Volkswagen To Unveil Single Seat Electric Car
Volkswagen is set to unveil a single seat electric car at a special event in Berlin next month, as the company explores the future of mobility and personal transportation. A VW spokesman confirmed that the vehicle would be shown at an event in Berlin on September 8th. VW said that the new car would surpass…
Morgan Builds High Performance Electric Sports Car
Morgan Motor Company and British technology specialists have teamed up to build a new, high-performance electric sports car prototype. The development project is being partially funded by a £100,000 grant from the Niche Vehicle Network CR&D Programme that supports companies active in the niche vehicle sector. The vehicle will use a new derivative of Zytek’s…
Ford Polling Facebook To Determine Focus Electric Car Sounds
Ford is taking advantage of their Facebook page by asking their fans which of the four possible warning sounds that will be used in the upcoming Focus electric vehicle is their favorite. All four sound clips are hosted on YouTube and feedback on their comments page will be used by Ford to help choose a…
Mitsubishi Slashes EV Price To Increase Sales
Mitsubishi is becoming much more aggressive regarding future EV sales in its home market of Japan. Currently Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV sells for 3.98 million yen which equals $49,200. Government subsidies bring the price down a million yen equalling $36,900. The i-MiEV’s chief rival, the Nissan Leaf costs 3.76 million yen which equals $46,500 before subsidies and is…
Nissan Begins Global Proving Tests For NV200 Based Electric Vehicles
Nissan has launched a global proving test program for their compact electric commercial vehicle NV200. The Japanese automaker began the test with Japan Post Service. The postal service will be provided with the NV200 to carry out postal collection for two months in Yokohama. The vehicle will be tested in real world conditions to help fine tune small aspects of the…
Norwegian EV Producer Think Goes Bankrupt For The Fourth Time
Evidently, the third time wasn’t the charm for Think, the Norwegian manufacturer of small electric vehicles. The company has gone bust for the fourth time in its 20 year history. Think attempted to restructure, but was ultimately not successful. “We needed some additional funding and although we had interested investors they were not able to…
Tesla Preps To Produce Next Generation EVs At The NUMMI Plant
Tesla Motors has planned to begin building prototypes of its Model S electric sedan in the third quarter at the NUMMI plant located in Fremont, Calif, which was acquired from Toyota last year. Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated the project will involve a $500 million investment. The Model S is slated for production in mid-2012…
GM May Test EN-V In Detroit
General Motors may be testing the EN-V mobility concept vehicles in its Detroit hometown. GM North America President Mark Ruess said that Detroit would be a “perfect” area to test the futuristic machines. EN-V, known as the Electric Networked Vehicle, is GM’s answer to changing transportation in traffic choked cities such as Tokyo. The vehicle is a battery-powered…
Nissan Leaf Gets Five Star Crash Test Rating In Europe
The Nissan Leaf became the first EV to get a five star crash test rating from the Euro NCAP program, after scoring well in all categories involving passenger safety, on-board safety systems and pedestrian safety. Also notable was the car’s lithium-ion battery system, which according to Nissan “completely withstood all the impacts.” “The Nissan Leaf proves that…
Ford Says 25 Percent Of Lineup To Be “Electrified” By 2020, Calls On Government Subsidies For Batteries
Ford Motor Company Chairman Bill Ford (great-grandson of Henry Ford) revealed to Fortune magazine that his namesake automaker will apparently launch a global line of electric vehicles, with 25 percent of Ford’s lineup available with some degree of electrification by 2020. Ford cited the electric Focus and both plug-in and fully electric versions of the…
Chevrolet Volt Attracts Celebrity Buyers
It was only a matter of time before the rich and famous began hopping on the Chevrolet Volt bandwagon, since the Toyota Prius is in imminent danger of becoming passé. The Volt has found owners among luminaries like Jeff Gordon, Jay Leno, Stephen King and Alyssa Milano. “I think it’s a great car,” said Leno in an…
Volkswagen To Launch New Brand Dubbed Kaili In Partnership With FAW, EV Coming
Volkswagen will partner with Chinese automaker FAW to launch a new brand, which will build and sell electric cars for Chinese consumers. Plans were submitted to the Chinese government, although details of the vehicle weren’t publicly disclosed. Honda, Nissan and General Motors have recently expanded into creating their own Chinese market brands in partnership with…
41 Dacia Logans For Sale In Iowa, Ready To Undergo EV Conversion
The Dacia Logan, intended to be sold in world markets as basic transportation, was never supposed to come to America, but somehow, 41 Dacia Logan station wagons found their way to Iowa, sans drivetrain. The fleet of Romanian-built compacts, engineered in collaboration with Renault, came without VINs as well, since the cars were intended to…
Land Rover Defender EV Built For Safari Driving
Land Rover South Africa has taken the brand’s iconic Defender off-roader and converted one to run on fully electric power, with an 80 horsepower motor good for 63 miles of silent, emissions free driving at speeds of up to 37 mph. The Defender EV also retains a full four-wheel drive system despite its electric drivetrain….
General Motors Executive Calls Nissan Leaf “Single Purpose Car”
With the Nissan Leaf beginning to outsell the Chevrolet Volt, the competition between the two is heating up, and General Motors North America President Mark Reuss had some not-so-nice things to say about the car when asked for his thoughts. Reuss said that the Leaf was “…has a finite range and requires infrastructure and charging…
Department Of Energy, Google Maps, Teaming Up To Map EV Charge Stations
Mapping out electric car charging stations onto an open source format like Google Maps seems like something totally self-evident, but the Department of Energy and Google are undertaking an official initiative to overlay EV charge points onto of a mapping application. The project will be known as the GeoEVSE forum, and comprise of a database…
New York 2011: Mitsubishi i Electric Car Priced At $20,490
The Mitsubishi i electric vehicle will start at $20,490 after a federal tax credit, coming in at nearly $5000 less than a Nissan Leaf. The $20,490 sticker price is for a base ES model, while the upgraded SE trim with an 8-speaker 360 watt stereo, leather wrapped steering wheel, 15″ alloys and fog lamps will…
