What BMW Has Learned from the MINI E Program So Far: That They May Need to Build EREVs

BMW started the MINI E electric car field test program from scratch in Spring of 2008 as a tool for their Project i plan to develop vehilces for sustainable mega cities of the future..
The trial has been ongoing since the first car was delivered in May of this year. Richard Steinberg of BMW group presented [...]

GM: EVs are Cool, but EREV’s are Really Cool

It is fitting that on the day the Nissan LEAF began its US viewing tour I happened to forget to plug in my MINI E electric car the night before, and only had a few miles of range left on it. Luckily, I have a third backup gas car for just these reasons.
The Nissan [...]

Mitsubishi Uveils PX-MiEV; EV, EREV and PHEV All in One

Like all recent auto shows before it, the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show will offer a showcase of new electrified vehicles.
Two examples that seem particularly important are entries from Mitsubishi and Honda.
Mitsubishi is unveiling what it calls the PX-MiEV. This crossover seems to be a conglomerate of all things; its is a plugin hybrid, a [...]

Nissan Expects 20,000 LEAF EV Pre-Orders

The LEAF is the 100 mile range pure electric BEV that Nissan plans on launching in North America in late 2010.  The car was announced last year and only named and revealed this Spring.
Carlos Tavares is Nissan’s chairman for the Americas. He revealed that Nissan plans on taking pre-orders for the vehilce beginning in [...]

GM Partners with Reva to Produce a Compact Electric Car

It is no secret that the words ‘affordable small car’ and GM are rarely heard in the same sentence these days, much less with the word electric added to the mix. I believe in India when those same words are formed as a sentence, and spoken in Hindi, it triggers earthquakes throughout the region…but don’t [...]

Nissan LEAF Will Emit Artificial ‘Blade Runner’ Engine Noise

One of many attributes of electric cars that distinguish them from those powered by gas is their silence.
This extremely blissful absence of gasoline exploding violently in steel chambers is a fringe benefit of EVs.  I can say as a daily EV driver it is indeed a pleasure.
There has long been consideration though to give EVs [...]

New Electric Car Concepts: From the Meek Twizy to the Mighty e-Tron

The electric car universe has expanded dramatically an in some unexpected ways since the Chevy Volt concept was first unveiled in January 07.
This year’s Frankfurt Auto Show in Germany has brought with it several new electric car concepts that demonstrate the range of expression cars that do not run on gas can display.
Audi

At one end [...]

GM May Partner With REVA to Produce All-Electric Chevy Spark

The Chevy Spark is GM’s new upcoming mini car that’s one step smaller than the Aveo.
It is a stylish little car that powered with either a 1.0 or 1.2 L engine will be able to deliver a combined fuel economy of about 50 MPG.
There are now reports that REVA, an Indian electric car company, may [...]

Hyundai i10 Electric Car Unveiled

Add another to the growing list. It really looks like this idea of driving without gas is taking off.
Hyundai Motors of Korea has unveiled its new EV called the i10 ahead of its being shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show later this month. The company has apparently been working on the vehicle “for [...]

3000 Miles of Driving the MINI E Pure Electric Car

I am one of the 100 people in New York who have leased a MINI E pure electric car. Since I can’t get a Volt yet, I figured this was the next best thing for now. I have just passed 3000 miles in over two months of driving it.
The car is a 2 seat [...]

Honda Finally Gives in: Will Unveil Electric Car This Fall

Since the Volt was unveiled in January of 2007, many automakers have subsequently begun their own electric car programs.  The most advanced so far is Nissan’s with its all-electric LEAF to be launched in late 2010.
Other automakers to commit to EVs have included Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, Mitsubishi and many others.
The last holdout has been Honda, [...]

Are Pure Electric Car Programs Having a Negative Effect on Volt Marketing?

When the Volt concept was first debuted it caught the world by surprise and was cause for inspiration. Sure there had been the EV-1 and the Tesla Roadster was in prototype stage, but most of the US population was not well exposed to the idea of electric cars.
Since the Volt subsequently garnered so much [...]