electricity

The secret to avoiding range anxiety while driving the Mini E may have less to do with how or where you drive, but in deciding which car to take in the first place.

BMW and the University of California, Davis, released a study of 120 families who leased the Mini E in California, New York, and New Jersey from June 2009 to June 2010. A majority of drivers reported that the Mini E met their daily driving needs, but they also said a second gas-powered car was key to avoiding the EV's shortcomings.

When asked to agree or disagree … Read more

The trend is on to unplug red-light cameras...Cambridge Crude could be the electric oil of tomorrow...Tesla turns a corner...and we take you for a run in one of the new four bangers that shame most hybrids.

• CNET reviews the 2011 Hyundai Elantra

• L.A. seriously considers dropping red-light cameras

• Can "Cambridge Crude" make electric cars more practical?

• What do you think of a mini-er Mini?

• Tesla ends production of Roadster, gets ready to sell Model S… Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Tesla Motors will begin building prototypes of its Model S electric sedan in the third quarter at the NUMMI plant in Fremont, Calif., that it acquired from Toyota.

The Model S, which is expected to achieve a 0-to-60 time of 6 seconds and a range of up to 300 miles, is on target for a mid-2012 launch, the company said.

The project involves a $500 million investment, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said at the first annual shareholders meeting since Tesla went public last July. He said the Model X crossover, scheduled to go on sale in late … Read more

General Motors is eyeing its hometown of Detroit [as a place] to test its so-called EN-V personal mobility concept.

In a speech last week to Michigan business and civic leaders, GM North America President Mark Reuss called Detroit a "perfect" spot to test the futuristic machines.

EN-V, which stands for Electric Networked Vehicle, is GM's answer to improving transportation systems in congestion-choked cities such as Beijing. The EN-V was unveiled in 2010 at the Shanghai auto show. It is a battery-powered, enclosed two-wheeled vehicle that seats two, based on the two-wheeled Segway scooter. It reaches speeds of … Read more

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance announced today that German auto manufacturers Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche, and Volkswagen have agreed to support HomePlug's Green PHY standard for electric-vehicle charging technology.

HomePlug is a technology that turns electrical wiring into data cable, hence eliminating the need for a separate set of wires for networking. Currently the most popular application of the power-line technology is in HomePlug AV-based devices used for home power-line networking, such as the WD Livewire, or the Linksys PLK300.

According to the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, the power-line standard that the five German car manufacturers--"after intense case studies … Read more

Power grid and building equipment supplier Schneider Electric said today has agreed to acquire Telvent in a bid to boost its smart-grid software portfolio.

France-based Schneider Electric said it will pay about $2 billion for shares of Spain-based Telvent, which makes software designed to run the electric grid more efficiently. Telvent's products, for example, collect information from meters or sensors and presents it to utility employees so power grid systems can be better managed. It also makes real-time analytical software for agriculture, oil and gas, and transportation companies.

The deal is a sign of how large suppliers of industrial … Read more

Ford wants the action of plugging in a new Ford EV to have an intuitive feel. The automaker today announced it has standardized the location of charge points on the Focus Electric and C-MAX Energi to the left front fender.

"After benchmarking multiple competitive vehicles, we found there wasn't much consistency in charge port location," said Susan Curry, Ford Electrified Vehicle Technology Integration supervisor. "We wanted to give customers a location that made the most sense for them and would seem as simple as filling up at the gas station."

According to Ford, EV owners … Read more

Given the hurdles they face in overcoming resistance to new technology, plug-in cars should show some solidarity. But in Nissan's latest ad promoting the Leaf EV, it takes a cheap shot at the Chevy Volt.

The Nissan Leaf ad, titled Gas-powered everything, imagines a world without batteries, where the sound of an alarm clock is eclipsed by the roar of its gas engine. A man talks on a cell phone spewing exhaust, and a jogger starts up an iPod with a pull start.

An office worker turns an ignition key on his computer, then revs it up with a … Read more

Tesla Motors and Electric Power Research Institute join U.S. Department of Energy, automaker research teams and energy companies to accelerate the development of new energy-efficient technologies for cars and light trucks and the infrastructure needed to support them.

According to the DOE, the collaborative effort formerly known as FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership, is now U.S. DRIVE--Driving Research and Innovation for Vehicle efficiency and Energy sustainability. The goal is to beef up research and development of not only new vehicle technologies, but to also work on a broad range of energy infrastructure technologies.

"Government-industry partnerships like U.… Read more