Tag: ELECTRIC CAR

When everyone was going hybrid, taking baby-steps toward an alternative-fueled future, Mercedes jumped into its prototype Hydrogen-powered machines and buzzed off toward the horizon. Now, perhaps realizing that it moved a bit too quickly for the distribution infrastructure to keep up, the company seems to be pulling back a bit, introducing the BlueZERO line of autos that all share the same shell ...

That's not really a "your mom" joke, more of a statement that your mom is pretty neat and has good taste in electric cars -- like this here MINI E. BMW just unveiled the first production MINI E to roll out of its magical electricity-imbuing factory, the first in a limited series of 500 for lease in California and metro New York to people way better looking than you. The bad news is that the ...

Sure, you've got a couple Neil Young CDs and maybe a battered Farm-Aid T-shirt, but if you're really into ol' Shakey, you'll pick up one of his hotrod electric Lincoln conversions. Yep, Neil's started a company called Linc Volt to develop electric car technologies, and he's already converted his own personal '59 Lincoln in an attempt to win the Automotive X-Prize -- a process that's the subject ...

With an electric MINI Cooper just around the bend, a Twin Drive hybrid Volkswagen landing in 2010 and Chevrolet's Volt rolling into showrooms in a matter of months, Audi's ten-year plan is looking a little awkward. Though we've yet to hear that it's actually speeding things up, Peter Schwarzenbauer, who sits on the management board at Ingolstadt, recently confirmed that the company would be ...

We've been hearing about vehicle-to-grid (V2G) for quite a while, and now a team at the University of Michigan is conducting an extensive study on the technology as part of a national sustainable energy solution. While current electric plants are good at generating power, they often fall short when it comes to storage -- which can be a problem when there's a power surge or when demand ...

Nissan's Nuvu is making its debut this week at the Paris motor show, and while it isn't the all-electric vehicle that the company has promised for 2010, it's a step in the right direction. Resembling something from a Pixar movie, the Nuvu has that special mix of "vaguely futuristic" and "somewhat impractical" that we look for in a concept car: it's less than ten feet long, seats three ...

Seeing that General Motors left a gaping hole of opportunity for other automakers to produce a new EV by 2010 that isn't uglier than sin itself, it's no real shock to see Chrysler champing at the bit. Just this week, the company has introduced a trio of advanced electric-drive vehicle prototypes (simply coined Chrysler EV, Jeep EV and Dodge EV for now), one of which will mysteriously surface in ...

Check it, Cooper fans -- that electric MINI we've been sporadically hearing about is for real, and we've seen the spy shots that prove it. Car has hosted up a slew of non-blurry (gasp!) snaps of the eco-friendly whip cruising around Munich, and just in case the complete absence of an exhaust pipe wasn't evidence enough, maybe the "Hybrid Test Vehicle" decals will make you a believer. Also of ...

The Chevy Volt had its big debut last week, and although the official pictures were far cooler than those leaked dudes-in-suits shots we saw a while ago, there's something about this slow-motion video of the all-electric-drive car in motion accompanied by some soaring Coldplay that pulls at our jaded heartstrings -- now if Chevy would just add in one of those fake engine sounds audio systems, ...

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/autos/Bricycle_electric_tricycle_actually_cooler_than_it_sounds'; Compared to the almost universally-embarrassing home-built electric vehicles we've seen pop up so far, the Bricycle electric recumbent bike is up there with the Tesla Roadster in terms of sex appeal -- even though it kind of looks like a futuristic delivery truck. Designed to transport one person as ...

Not that electric MINIs are anything new, but unless you were willing to pay for all the mods yourself, procuring one wasn't exactly simple. Now, however, we're hearing that MINI itself will be bringing scads of these buggers to American streets in the summer of 2009. Yeah, like, one year from right now. MINI USA VP Jim McDowell was the source of said statement (so it's pretty much official, ...

Who needs to be "green" when you can go really, really fast? Well, Shelby Supercars figures it can have it both ways, with an all-electric version of the Ultimate Aero, the Ultimate Aero EV. Seeing how the Ultimate Aero is already the world's faster production car (at least officially, sorry Buggati), they don't see it as much of a leap of faith for this new version to carry that mantle into the ...

We've seen more silly homemade electric vehicles than we care to remember, but Ben Nelson's electric motorcycle manages to retain some of its original two-wheel charm while using only a penny of juice per mile -- roughly the equivalent of 300mpg. Nelson bought the bike for $100 and swapped out the original engine for a Briggs and Stratton 8HP DC motor he picked up on eBay for $500, using four ...

ZAP didn't have much more than some shiny renders to show for itself when it snapped up the hundred-year-old Detroit Electric brand earlier this year, but it looks like the company has now finally turned out an equally shiny prototype, which recently made its debut on the local news in Ohio. Unfortunately, the car apparently isn't capable of moving off the parking lot on its own just yet, with ...

Hybrid cars and electric cars are great for the environment, but they pose a potential danger to pedestrians. Electric engines make almost no noise when running, so that familiar sound of an on-coming combustion engine isn't there to warn absent-minded pedestrians or the blind that a vehicle is approaching. Members of Congress are now considering a bill that would establish minimum noise levels ...