electrical

Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, but that doesn't mean you have to know how to make it. For many, a bowl of cereal or some type of food in bar form does the trick. Others opt for a short wait in a fast-food line. Somewhere, between the chaos of wrestling with ingredients and the order of ordering from a drive-through, there must be a happy medium.

The Nostalgia Electrics FTW200 2-in-1 Breakfast Treats Maker is a no-nonsense, easy-to-use morning machine. The countertop clamshell-type gadget consists of two sets of cooking plates; one set is … Read more

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) launched a site dedicated to the education of current and prospective electric vehicle owners in the San Francisco Bay Area. The site, called Bay Area PEV Ready, aggregates information useful to those electric vehicle owners.

For new buyers, the BAAQMD offers help to offset the high initial cost of owning an electric vehicle. Through available public funds, BAAQMD gives out grants to owners to help install charging stations at home. For those existing owners, the BAAQMD is fighting to secure more public EV charging stations. Already BAAQMD has allocated more than $6.… Read more

If cleanliness is next to godliness, then ecology must be right there beside it, as this week the Pope took possession of a new electric vehicle, built specially for his Holiness by Renault.

The new Popemobile is based on the Kangoo Max Z.E., an electric van-type vehicle not sold in the U.S. The drive system, composed of a 44-kilowatt electric motor and 22 kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery pack, is similar to that used in the Nissan Leaf. The Pope will be able to ride for about 110 miles on a charge.

Instead of the simple rear bench or … Read more

If you're in need of a little back pain relief and have $149 to spare, keep an eye out for the newly approved WiTouch by medical device developer Hollywog.

Putting a fresh spin on old tech, the device employs electrical stimulation (called transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation -- aka TENS) to ease back pain. But unlike its predecessors, this one is wirelessly remote controlled.… Read more

A team of researchers working for security company McAfee are considering the ways to protect vehicles from security threats, Reuters reports.

As automakers add more and more technology to their vehicles, they're also making them increasingly vulnerable to the same security flaws that affect PCs and mobile devices.

While the effects -- and likelihood -- of remote attacks are unknown, flaws in cars' systems could theoretically be exploited to steal the vehicle, eavesdrop on a driver's conversation, or even lead to navigation systems becoming confused and potentially cause accidents.

Studies have already proven that it is technically possible … Read more

When I took the wheel of the Toyota RAV4 EV during an event in Los Angeles, two things stuck out: a Prius shifter on the console and the all-digital instrument cluster. Clearly, this SUV would not be a typical RAV4. That feeling was accentuated when pushing the start button produced a silent system check, the car booting up, as opposed to the crank of an internal combustion engine.

The exterior of the RAV4 EV also offered a few clues to the nature of its drivetrain, not least of which were the EV and Electric logos on all sides. By comparison, the lack of a large front grille seemed almost subtle.

One cue that few would notice without a spec sheet was the LED low-beam headlights, tucked away in their casings next to standard projector high beams. Toyota made a smart move here, reducing energy usage of the low beams, while reducing costs on the high beams, which get less use.

Click here to read the rest of the 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV first drive. … Read more

Driving a blue Honda Fit EV down El Segundo Blvd. in Los Angeles, I began to feel a bit guilty. To my left stretched a massive complex, a big stretch of beachfront property devoted to a Chevron oil refinery. As the Fit EV whispered by this facility, which Wikipedia told me later was founded in 1911 and gave the town of El Segundo its name, I thought of all the oil workers the little electric car I was driving would put out of a job.

Lacking a gas tank and exhaust pipes, this Fit EV would never need to sully itself at one of the many gas stations I passed on this drive through Los Angeles, except maybe to top off the air in the tires.

The Fit EV represents one of the new breed of electric cars, which current battery technology is making more practical for daily use. And in my drive I found the Fit EV the best of the bunch.

Click here to read the rest of the 2013 Honda Fit EV first drive. … Read more

In the last decade, BMW's motorcycle division dabbled in scooters as a green solution for crowded urban centers, producing the C1 for a few years. Now BMW is showing off the final fruits of a new project, an electric scooter designed to achieve the performance specifications of a gasoline-fueled scooter.

The C Evolution is the third generation of an electric scooter that BMW has previously shown in concept form. This two-wheeler uses an electric motor and an 8 kilowatt battery pack to drive the rear wheel. BMW says that it can go 62 miles on a full charge. Although … Read more

If you're still enjoying the dog days of summer, sitting by the pool drinking lemonade (hard or otherwise), good for you. But here in CNET-land, we're already gearing up for the fall rush. This week, we've had our noses to the grindstone reviewing Samsung's most lovely laptop, as well as do-it-all NAS drives, among other tech products. We had a little fun too, though, with an iPhone case you can use in that pool should you decide you absolutely have to surf the Web while you surf the waves. (You don't by the way, but … Read more