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Tesla Motors held the grand opening of its Northern California dealership in Menlo Park Saturday evening. A slew of valet parkers greeted. Then, I walked down the red carpet past an orange Tesla Roadster to the large showroom. Beyond the gazpacho cocktails and first of three full bars one entered the even larger service area where the Elon Musk and Ze'ev Drori mingled among the hundred or so invited guests.
The Japan EV Club drove a Mitsubishi i MiEV and a Subaru R1e from Tokyo to Hokkaido in the week before the G8 summit, for their "Challenge and Charge" event. Now they are sharing stats about the cars' electrical consumption and CO2 emissions and comparing them to a (presumably) typical Japanese gasoline car.
Halfway through Al Gore's challenge today calling for a 100% renewable electric grid within ten years is a call for plug-in electric cars. This represents a big change in his thinking, and will hopefully quickly push political and environmental leadership to coalesce around policies to push plug-in cars into the market as quickly as possible. The unfounded fear that large numbers of plug-in cars will overwhelm the grid and increase the use of coal and reinvigorate the nuclear industry to produce
Plug In America, a California-based nonprofit organization that advocates the use plug-in cars, has taken note of our crossing the threshold of a $4 per gallon national average for gasoline prices. The group, originally organized to fight the crushing of the electric cars produced to meet California's Zero Emission Ma
Another RAV4 EV is up on eBay. The last time one of these rare fully electric cars was put up on the auction block it sold for nearly $70,000. It was a 2002 with less than 50,000 miles on it. This time it's a 2003 model. The 2003 was stripped of a few perks. No heated front seats, and no heated front windshield for defrosting. But the battery was said to be improved for the last model year the
Many have seen the film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and become angry about a previously untold tale and frustrated by the lack of electric cars in the market. 14-year-old Liza Stoner of Minneapolis saw the film and decided to do something to carry its message further. This summer she will pedal from her home to Washington DC to deliver a petition calling on Congress to take action.
As ABG readers know, car makers large and small are considering electric cars once again. With gasoline hovering around $4 a gallon, greenhouse gas emissions soon to be regulated and national security jeopardized by petroleum, the need for electric cars has never been so obvious. But if you want a full-function, highway-capable 100+ mile range EV now, the options are few and far between. And pricey. The choice today is order a Tesla and wait a year, or wait for a used RAV4 EV to hit the market.
The Daily Times of Pakistan reports that the Canadian manufacturer of Neighborhood Electric Vehicles Dynasty Electric Car Corporation has been sold to Pakistani automaker Karakoram Motors. Dynasty General Manager Danny Epp told Canadian Broadcasting that Marc Geller
Bob Lutz, GM Vice Chairman and Volt booster, told Edmunds AutoObserver today that the Volt is achieving its 40 mile all-electric target in initial on-road testing. "It is reliably meeting its objectives," Lutz confirmed. "Even with a rough calibration, even with the wrong drive unit, the wrong body, etc. etc., it has been hitting its 40 miles on electric power."
It could be the quickest vehicle to go from concept to a public, drivable prototype in automotive history. As previewed, "Israelis got a first demonstration
A Wall Street Journal story today highlights the promise and potential problems with plug-in cars. More accurately, it highlights the problems and shoves most of the promise to the bottom. As automakers ready plug-in hybrids and electric cars for market, the sensational headline poses a clash of the titans: "Utilities, Plug-In Cars: Nea
Renault-Nissan's plans to build electric cars is looking more serious by the day. Nissan has announced its intention to build an electric car for Japan and the U.S., and said so in its presentation to the California Air Resources Board last month. Earlier this year, Renault made news signing on to Shai Agassi's Project Better Place plan to produce electric cars for Israel and, more re
Upstart lithium battery maker A123 is a lesson in how fast things can move in the battery space. The MIT Technology Review has a story, An Electrifying Startup, in its May/June issue recounting the tale.
London's iconic taxi cabs have long been comfortable, loud and diesel-belching. Now, one of the largest manufacturers of the taxi cabs, Manganese Bronze, has announced plans to produce an electric version with electric vehicle specialists the Tanfield Group. The company has been losing business as some cities refuse to buy the standard diesel version due to emissions.
As ABG reported earlier today, Th!nk has announced it will be coming to the U.S. market. More information has come out on Reuters via Th!nk's venture capital partners Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Rockport Capital. Ray Lane, a managing partner at Kleiner and chairman of Th!nk North America, said today "In a couple of
The outgoing President of Shell's U.S. operation has thrown some cold water on the latest GM and Toyota PR offensive for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Shell's John Hofmeister told a Sacramento, Calif., audience Monday at a conference on low-carbon fuels that widespread
The San Francisco Bay Area always leads in cultural trends, technology, and gas prices. It may be mocked and marginalized as unrepresentative, but eventually the country catches up. As tourists stroll up the Panhandle toward the entrance to Golden Gate Park admiring the quaint Victorians of the past, the future interrupts at the corner of Masonic and Fell Streets. Self-serve unleaded regular has reached $4.18 a gallon.
In a further sign of weakening demand for large, gas-guzzling SUVs, GM has announced it is idling its 54-year-old Arlington, Texas plant for three weeks. This comes only two weeks after a GM spokeswoman said this about Arlington: "We are currently running at full production and foresee continuing to run at full production indefinitely..." Workers at the plant had been producing 900-1000 Chevrolet Tahoes
Popular Mechanic's Senior Automotive Editor Mike Allen raises a question in his biweekly Mechanics Diary that is rarely broached by auto writers: How about cars with less power?
With all the attention being paid to alternative fuels, it is not surprising that Big Oil should launch a PR counteroffensive. The American Petroleum Institute (API), advertising itself as "the People of America's Oil and Natural Gas Industry," is running a new TV ad, Delivering America's Energy Security, which can be viewed at their website at energytomorrow.com. Their contention is that there is still so much oil under America that we can achieve energ
Dan Sperling, second from right, at press conference with Gov. Schwarzenegger in January.
