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Daimler subsidiary Car2Go is expanding its car-sharing business to San Diego, but it's taking the green concept one step further by making its vehicle fleet all-electric.

Car2go currently operates in Austin, Texas with a fleet of 300 two-seater gas-powered Smart ForTwos, which are produced by parent company Daimler. Members can rent the vehicles by the day, hour, or minute, and unlike ZipCar, they don't have to specify a time by which they will return the vehicles. To rent a car, participants locate an available vehicle using the Web site or mobile app. When they're finished using the … Read more

To reduce air pollution, carbon emissions, and gas consumption, New York City is adding electric cars to its vehicle fleet.

 Mayor Michael Bloomberg, along with several other officials, announced that the city purchased 10 electric Ford Transit Connect cargo vans, 10 Navistar eStar electric utility trucks, and 50 Chevrolet Volts that will be shared by several agencies, including the police and fire departments.

"This is the latest and largest-ever addition of electric vehicles to the City's fleet, which is already the largest municipal clean-air vehicle fleet in the nation," said Mayor Bloomberg.

The city believes that … Read more

Some of New York City's finest will soon be driving some of New York City's cleanest vehicles.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday from a press conference in Queens that the city is adding 70 electric vehicles to its municipal fleets.

New York City departments participating include: Citywide Administrative Services, Correction, Environmental Protection, Parks and Recreation, Sanitation, Transportation, Fire, Police, and the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

The addition of the 70 electric vehicles--50 of them Chevy Volts--will bring the city's EV total up to 430 vehicles.

This latest move is part of New York's push to curb … Read more

Recognizing that work and family time often overlap, Renault announced plans to debut an electric compact van that doubles as a family car at the Frankfurt auto show this fall.

The Renault Frendzy concept combines the utility of a cargo van with a comfortable interior that works for personal use. A sliding door on the passenger side and carriage doors on the driver side give the Frendzy the look of a Ford C-Max and Honda Element mashup. The front passenger seat and rear two-seater bench stow away to make room for cargo, and the Frendzy's fabric roof stretches to … Read more

Toyota's tiniest car could also be its first electric car in the U.S., according to news reports. The carmaker told its dealership franchise owners last month that an electric version of its Scion iQ is scheduled to hit showroom floors in 2012.

The Scion iQ is a pint-size city car currently being sold in Japan and the EU under the Toyota brand. Using a 1L engine, the iQ achieves an impressive 65 mpg. Toyota introduced the car to the North American market last year, and doubled down on the city car this year by revealing an electric prototype … Read more

Mitsubishi Motors today launched two new versions of the i-MiEV electric car, slashing the price on one and extending the range on the other to appeal to more consumers in the nascent zero-emission field.

Mitsubishi became the first major automaker to mass-produce pure electric cars with the egg-shaped i-MiEV and leads the segment so far with 10,000 vehicles sold globally since mid-2009. It has exported another 4,000 electric cars for sale under PSA Peugeot Citroen's brands.

Japanese rival Nissan Motor, which wants to dominate the electric vehicle (EV) market with its French partner Renault, has sold 8,… Read more

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said on his blog today he is teaming with another co-founder of the microblogging service, Evan Williams, to restart the company that gave life to Twitter.

The Obvious Corporation will be run by Stone, Williams, and former Twitter product chief Jason Goldman. The trio will "develop new projects and work on solving big problems aligned along a simple mission statement: The Obvious Corporation develops systems that help people work together to improve the world. This is a dream come true!" Stone wrote on his blog.

That means Stone will leave his daily duties at … Read more

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

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