Back in 2012, battery startup Envia was the toast of Silicon Valley. Its innovative battery technology had achieved the highest energy density ever recorded for a lithium-ion cell – a breakthrough that could halve the costs of EV batteries – and the company already had a deal to supply cells to GM. Today, the company… Read more »
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Tesla wins Buckeye state battle as dealership war spreads
Ohio was the site of the latest battle in the war between Tesla and the auto dealers, and the subversives from Silicon Valley seem to have won the day. The Ohio Dealers Association got an anti-Tesla amendment added to Ohio Senate Bill 137 – an unrelated bill that requires drivers to change lanes when highway… Read more »
November sales: LEAF edges into lead, Prius falls back
It’s a nail-biting battle for the lead in the plug-in sales race. The Nissan LEAF barely edged into the lead for November, selling 2,003 units – one more than in October. Sales of the world’s most popular pure EV have already more than doubled 2012’s figure. The 2014 LEAF is in production now and should… Read more »
Prototype Mazda EV features rotary range-extending engine
Mazda doesn’t often make the EV news, but the Japanese brand does have an electric program – it has leased some 100 units of the Demio EV (the Demio is known outside of Japan as the Mazda 2), which has a 20 kWh lithium-ion battery and a 200 km range, to local government bodies and… Read more »
Tesla vs auto dealers: Model S test drive trumps campaign cash
In its battle with auto dealers across the nation, Tesla has begun deploying its own lobbyists to take on the dealer groups’ well-financed troops. At the same time, another tactic may be even more effective – letting lawmakers drive a Model S themselves. Letting the car speak for itself seems to have done the trick… Read more »
European safety agency gives BMW i3 four stars
The European New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) has published the results of its crash test of the 2014 BMW i3, in which the new EV Bimmer scored four out of five possible stars. While that might not sound so bad, it does compare unfavorably with other popular plug-ins such as the Volt, LEAF and Model… Read more »
Fisker finally files for bankruptcy, reveals creditors
Fisker Automotive finally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week, some 18 months after building its last car. Hybrid Technology LLC, which bought the automaker’s outstanding $168 million DOE loan for $25 million in October, said that the purchase of the government loan was a first step toward restarting production of the Karma. “As… Read more »
Via Motors presents solar tonneau for its plug-in pickup
The first question the “average Joe” asks about an EV is often, “Why don’t they put a solar panel on it?” Leaving aside technical details about surface area, insolation, voltage levels and the requirements of vehicle design, the simple answer is that it wouldn’t produce enough energy to justify the cost. However, Via Motors’ VTrux… Read more »
NHTSA: There’s no such thing as a safety score higher than 5 stars
A perfect score ought to be good enough for any car – that’s the message from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which has issued new marketing guidelines that explicitly prohibit automakers from promoting safety scores higher than 5 stars. The updated guidelines also say that NHTSA safety scores are always whole numbers. The… Read more »
ChargePoint network grows to 50,000 users
This week, the ChargePoint network reached a milestone as driver number 50,000 joined up. Unsurprisingly, the 50,000th ChargePoint member resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. Less than an hour after signing up, the new user plugged in a Tesla Model S to a ChargePoint station at the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael…. Read more »
