Members of the press took BMW’s X5 eDrive PHEV for a test drive at an event in Germany this week. BMW also presented several elements of its EfficientDynamics strategy, which depends on a combination of ever-more-efficient gasoline and diesel engines with eDrive electrified drive technology developed by the BMW i sub-brand. BMW plans to develop… Read more »
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Golf GTE plug-in hybrid to debut in Geneva
Volkswagen will present its new Golf GTE plug-in hybrid at the upcoming Geneva International Motor Show. This is a significant milestone for the European automotive market, as the Continent’s most popular model line will now be available with a range of powertrains (gas, diesel, CNG, PHEV and fully electric). The Golf GTE has a 1.4-liter,… Read more »
Tesla does it again: sales, revenue, stock price take off
Tesla has done it again. Financials for the fourth quarter of 2013, released this week, show record sales, growing revenue and dwindling net losses. Wall Street dug it. TSLA stock has broken out past the $200 mark and set a new all-time high. By the way, the stock market utterly ignored last week’s report of… Read more »
Echo Automotive offers aftermarket PHEV powertrains for Ford and GM vans
Echo Automotive, a developer of aftermarket plug-in hybrid powertrains, plans to extend its EchoDrive system to GM 2500 and 3500 vans, including the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana, model years 2010-2014. EchoDrive is already available for Ford E-Series vans – orders are currently being accepted and production is scheduled to begin later this year. Production… Read more »
IHS Automotive: global plug-in production will increase 67 percent this year
According to IHS Automotive, EV sales are about to take off like a Model S on a freeway onramp. The research firm predicts that worldwide production of plug-ins will soar to more than 403,000 in 2014, a 67% increase. The Europe, Middle East and Africa region will account for the largest share of production at… Read more »
TSLA soars on promising news out of China
Tesla’s stock (Nasdaq: TSLA) is off to the races again – it hit new all-time highs this week, briefly poking its nose above the $200 level. Quite a feat for a stock that was trading in the $120s in November in the wake of the Model S fire incidents. Various tidbits of good news ahead… Read more »
Georgia legislators introduce bill to let Tesla sell more cars direct
The next battle in the war between Tesla and the auto dealers is shaping up in Georgia, where legislation has been introduced that would let the company sell more cars directly to the public in the state. Currently, Tesla is allowed to sell up to 150 cars a year under an exemption to the state… Read more »
Brammo announces 2014 Empulse and Empulse R electric motorcycles
Oregon-based Brammo has released details of its 2014 Empulse and Empulse R electric motorcycles. With a top speed of 110 mph, the Empulse claims to be the world’s fastest electric motorcycle in serial production. It sports a water-cooled motor and a six-speed gearbox that translate 90 Nm (66 lb-ft) of torque to over 880 Nm… Read more »
Musk and Straubel talk charging and new features at European town hall meetings
Tesla bigwigs Elon Musk and JB Straubel are on tour in Europe, having question and answer sessions with Tesla owners and fans. At the Amsterdam and Oslo meetings, they covered a number of interesting topics. Version 6.0 of the software, which is now in beta testing, and should be rolled out in a few weeks,… Read more »
Cambridge researchers get a close-up view of silicon expansion in Li-ion batteries
Researchers have been interested in silicon as a replacement for carbon in battery anodes for many years, as it has roughly ten times more storage capacity. However, there’s also a tragic flaw: silicon atoms absorb lithium atoms, causing the silicon to expand up to three times in volume, degrading the battery. Now a team at… Read more »