vehicles

Bluetooth speakers are ideal accessories for outdoor activities where music is a must, but only the Soundmatters FoxLv2 wireless speaker features custom vehicle and bicycle mounts designed by ProClip.

The in-vehicle mount attaches easily to any vehicle model by clipping into the seams of the dashboard. The speaker can rotate freely in the mount to achieve the best angle for listening, and ProClip claims the average installation time is approximately 2 minutes no matter what kind of car you're driving. We imagine this bracket would come in handy for someone who already has a SoundMatters FoxL player and wants … Read more

Nissan has just launched a pair of apps for the Android and BlackBerry platforms that put control and information about the automaker's electric Leaf at owners' fingertips.

The app connects to the vehicle via the CarWings system that is present in all Nissan Leafs (Leaves? Leafii?) and features a tabbed interface that is broken into six major sections. The Home tab is where you can view your Leaf's current battery level, whether the car is plugged in or not, and how long a quick, normal, or trickle charge will take. The Home screen also displays a graph with … Read more

Tesla's Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen and Model S Program Director Jerome Guillen announced on the company's blog that they've begun working on Beta versions of the Model S sedan.

Tesla is breaking up the vehicle's development into two stages: Alpha and Beta. Earlier this year Tesla revealed the Alpha version of the electric sedan. In a recent blog post on the company's Web site, von Holzhausen and Guillen said that they've begun assembling the Beta versions of the vehicle to help them prepare for the preproduction of the vehicle that is expected to … Read more

California's rebate program for electric and hybrid cars has run out of money for this fiscal year.

The Clean Vehicle Rebate Project has been offering California residents who purchase an electric or hybrid vehicle a rebate of $1,500 to $5,000, depending on the type of vehicle purchased.

The state budget had allocated $5 million for the program for the 2010-2011 fiscal year with an additional $2 million coming from the state's Energy Commission. However, as with the federal Cash for Clunkers program, citizens responded much more enthusiastically than anticipated.… Read more

Tesla Motors can design cool-looking electric cars. Now it has to show the world that it can steer its finances just as well.

CEO Elon Musk said this week that Telsa's iconic Roadster electric sports car will no longer be on sale in the U.S. within a few months, marking a turning point for the company which helped catalyze an industry-wide technology shift to electric propulsion.

The move will cut off Tesla's main revenue source and start a transition to a new product--the Model S electric sedan. Whereas Tesla has still sold fewer than 2,000 Roadsters, … 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

General Motors said today that dealers in all 50 states can take orders for the 2012 Chevy Volt, which will come in a model priced just below $40,000.

The plug-in hybrid Volt is now available in six different models, rather than three, with the lowest listed at $39,995, or about $1,000 less than the 2011 price. The high-end model with leather, backup camera, navigation system, and other features is $46,265. Prices include the destination fee but not other taxes and fees.

Buyers can benefit from a federal tax credit of $7,500 for plug-in vehicles with … Read more

Count this as another perk of working for Google: free fuel for your electric car.

Google today said that it counts itself as the largest electric-vehicle charging station operator with about 200 chargers installed and another 250 ordered. The company's goal is to have 5 percent of its parking spaces equipped with electric-vehicle chargers, made available for free to Googlers.

"Our expanded charging system has already helped several Googlers decide to buy new EVs of their own, and we hope others will, too," wrote Rolf Schreiber, technical program manager for electric transportation at Google, in a company blog. … Read more

NASA today announced its plans for its next-generation deep space crew exploration vehicle.

President Barack Obama last year pulled the plug on the space agency's long-planned and multibillion dollar Constellation program. That system, which was expected to replace the Space Shuttle after its retirement this year, was thought to be central to bringing humans back to the moon, and possibly even to Mars.

But today, the space agency unveiled its plans for what it called the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), a new spacecraft based on the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle that was related to the Constellation program.

While Obama'… Read more