nissan

Better Place held a demonstration at the first of 20 Better Place battery-switching stations planned for Denmark over the next year, the company announced today.

The station was installed in Gladsaxe, a town outside of Copenhagen. Its inaugural battery swap was conducted on a Renault Fluence Z.E.

Better Place offers a subscription service in which drivers of electric cars have their depleted car batteries swapped for a fully recharged one at any member station, in lieu of waiting 15-30 minutes for a partial charge, or hours to fully recharge at a charging station.

The company launched its first retail … Read more

Editors' note: This article has been edited to include new information about the purpose-built Summit HER-02 electric car, and to clarify the Nissan Leaf's division.

The Nissan Leaf can add another trophy to its shelf full of awards, this one for a successful run in the Pike's Peak International Hill Climb. The race was held on Sunday, June 26.

The Leaf entered by Nissan was near stock, with no changes to the drive train. Required safety equipment was added to the cabin, and Nissan swapped the standard low rolling resistance tires for some a little more grippy. One … Read more

DETROIT--Although a technological breakthrough for batteries is unlikely before 2020, industry experts say the case for electric vehicles will improve significantly in the next few years.

Jon Bereisa, CEO of consulting firm Auto Lectrification, said at the Automotive News Green Car Conference here last week that costs of such items as the lithium ion batteries will drop as automakers boost production and achieve economies of scale.

Right now the battery costs are prohibitive for many drivers. For example, the Chevrolet Volt hybrid's battery, which holds the energy equivalent of about 1 gallon of gasoline, costs about $8,000, Bereisa … Read more

When you think subcompact, you're probably thinking giving up horsepower, cargo space, tech options, and safety. But this isn't so for the 2012 Hyundai Accent.

The new Accent comes in a smart four-door GLS spec and a sporty five-door hatch, in GS and SE trims. With a direct-injection 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine, the Accent offers 138 horsepower at 6,300rpm and 123 pound-feet of torque at 4,850rpm.

The Accent four-door is slightly larger than its predecessor (3.5 inches longer and a wheelbase that's 2.8 inches longer). It also bests the Toyota Yaris, Ford Fiesta, … Read more

Everyone's looking for an edge in the electric vehicle wars, and Nissan might have one. It's working on a system that would allow Leaf owners to use the car to supply electricity to their houses during power outages.

Lots of people buy generators for that purpose, but Hideaki Watanabe, head of Nissan's Global Zero Emissions Business unit, says his EV could handle the job.

The Leaf's battery can store 24 kilowatt hours of electricity, equal to about a day's worth of energy use in a normal U.S. household.

"In case of blackouts we … Read more

Car Tech Live 220: The Volt gets cheaper, the Altima Hybrid scarcer, your government hates your car tech, and we drive the Lexus CT200h (podcast)

• CNET drives the Lexus CT200h

• A CNET user's analysis of the real cost of a Chevy Volt

• Fed dude at DOT not a big fan of your car tech, smartphone

• What's next for the Nissan Altima Hybrid?

• Hyundai Blue Link priced and detailed

• CNET's LOLcars gallery!

When you run out of gas, you basically have two choices: hoof it to the nearest gas station to fill up a canister, or ask roadside assistance to bring the gas to you. Electric vehicles with a dead battery don't have that option, unless you're in Japan.

Nissan and the Japan Automobile Federation, the Japanese version of AAA, have launched a mobile battery charging unit to help stranded EV drivers on the road. The trial service is an attempt to curb range anxiety until EV charging infrastructure catches up to its gasoline counterpart. It will also "create … Read more

It's been a while since we've showcased a tuner car here on the Car Tech Blog, but after getting an eyeful of Japanese tuner Impul's take on the already love-it-or-leave-it stylings of the 2011 Nissan Juke, we couldn't help but take another look.

The Impul Juke benefits (or suffers) from a new front bumper with a more aggressive lower lip, side skirts, and a rear diffuser, as well as a restyled grill and a huge, aggressive rear wing. There are also larger wheels in a Hyper Black finish, side-window vent visors, and what look like small … Read more

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET News for Friday, June 3.

Five questions heading into Apple's WWDC Apple may have already declared what it's going to demo at next week's Worldwide Developers Conference, but what else does it have up its sleeve? More

Targeted attacks hit Web-based e-mail Attacks aimed at Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail point to weak spots in e-mail services that can let attackers into corporate networks, reports say. More

Sparked: Volunteer work, right in your cubicle Sparked, a recently rebranded version … Read more