electric-cars

At least some part of the automotive future will be electric, but that doesn't have to mean we all need to drive utilitarian appliances intended only to get you from point A to point B. They can be cute, fun, and even fast. At least, that's what Smart is trying to say with the ForSpeed concept it will show at the 2011 International Motor Show in Geneva next month.

The Smart ForSpeed is a take on the Smart ForTwo Electric Drive that's currently being tested in Europe and the U.S. The two-seater concept car has no … Read more

Get ready for a new kind of BMW. The German carmaker announced that it will develop a new line of fuel-efficient vehicles under the "i" sub-brand. BMW i will manufacture and market the yet-to-be-unveiled electric Megacity Vehicle, which will officially be called the i3. The i8, which is the Vision EfficientDynamics plug-in that debuted at the 2009 Frankfurt auto show, will also be produced by BMW i.

These future cars appear to be on opposite ends of the electric spectrum, with the i3 being a small commuter vehicle intended for densely populated cities and the i8 being something … Read more

Luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, a unit of German auto giant BMW, said over the weekend that it had developed a fully electric-powered car, but did not say when the model would enter production.

Rolls-Royce said the prototype, dubbed the 102EX and based on its top-end "Phantom" model, will be put through various tests during 2011.

The normal Phantom is powered by a 6.75 liter 12-cylinder engine, at least three to four times the size of the engine on a typical family sedan, and gets about 14 mpg.

Rolls-Royce said it will display the prototype at the … Read more

Toyota Motor will launch home battery chargers for electric and plug-in hybrid cars next year as it starts selling new models of environmentally friendly cars, the Nikkei business daily reported today.

The chargers, which will also be compatible with non-Toyota cars, will come in two types, the Nikkei reported, citing company sources. One would extend from the exterior wall of a home and the other would be for setting up in a garage.

The company expects to sell 20,000 to 30,000 units in the first year, with each costing about several tens of thousands of yen to 200,… Read more

Ford pays dealers for the pain of MyFord Touch, tomorrow's Hyundai could have a Samsung tablet dashboard, Obama loves EVs--not so much clean diesels. And we take you for a ride in the Jaguar XJ Super Sport.

• Ford paying dealers to teach you MyFord Touch

• Hyundai to integrate Samsung tablet in dash by 2013

• Comodo Console promises to make any car high tech, connected

• StreetBump app automatically reports potholes

• $7,500 rebate, not tax credit, on the move for electric cars… Read more

Early in the Toyota Prius' history, U.S. owners noticed it lacked the EV mode switch included in the Japanese market car. Thus was born the first Prius hack, restoring that button's functionality in the U.S. cars. Then, in 2004, CalCars took Prius hacking even further, adding the capability of charging up the battery pack from the grid. CalCars boasts that this hacked Prius gets 100 mpg.

That Toyota is now promising the public a plug-in Prius as a 2012 model should only beg the question of what took so long. As with most car companies, Toyota moves … Read more

Customers registered to buy a Nissan Leaf electric car will take delivery before summer is over, the carmaker said yesterday.

Nissan delivered fewer than 20 Leaf cars in the first month of sales in December and another 89 in January. The company has had to assuage customers who thought they would be riding in an electric car by now.

Nissan's U.S. sales chief Brian Carolin said yesterday that increased production in Japan will clear the bottleneck.

"We're now in the process of ramping up. Production is going to be peaking up in March and April, so … Read more

Tax cheats found lucrative ground last year with the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles. The IRS says that of the approximately 65,000 people that claimed the credit, 20 percent were in error.

The EV tax credit was claimed for such vehicles as the Hummer H3, Dodge Durango, and Cadillac Escalade.

According to the IRS, the credit only applies to vehicles primarily powered by an electric motor, and that can be plugged in to recharge the batteries. Further, the batteries must have a capacity of at least 5 kilowatt-hours. A vehicle that meets this minimum requirement would … Read more

To kick off the latest phase in their electric car program, Smart USA President Jill Lajdzia and Roger Penske, chairman of Smart USA parent company Penske Automotive Group, personally delivered the first Smart ForTwo Electric Drive to a customer in Maryland.

Mindy Kimball, a 36-year-old Major in the United States Army, is the first customer to lease a ForTwo Electric Drive, the all-electric version of the tiny two-seater. It's powered by a 30 kW electric motor with 16.5 kWh lithium-ion battery, and has an electronically controlled top speed of 60 mph. Although testing has shown the electric Smart … Read more