Plug-In

The upcoming Chevy Volt is going to have the ability to communicate with you via an Iphone App.  The application will sync with the Volt's OnStar system, allowing its owner to monitor everything from the charging schedule to pre-set temperature settings inside the car (!).  A list of the functionalities can be seen below: * Display the car’s charging status and schedule charging. There is also an immediate ”charge now” override option * Display of the car’ state of charge, as well as electric ... Discover More

REVA, an automobile company based in Bangalore, India,  is preparing to launch its own plug-in models, except with a twist.  Shown off at last year's Frankfurt Motor Show, and scheduled for production early this year, the NXR, a 3-door, four-seater hatchback, will have a range of about 100 miles and a top speed of 65 mph.  The NXG (shown above) will sport a top speed of 80 mph and a range of 125 miles.     Both of these car models will feature ... Discover More

Late in 2011, Toyota Motor Corp will launch a hybrid sub-compact and broaden its electric car line-up. The vehicle will be available for 1.5 million yen, or $15,760. Government tax breaks, subsidies on cleaner technology, and an increasing demand for gasoline-electric vehicles have promoted EVs in Japan greatly.  Toyota may have future plans to produce the new hybrid model in France as well, to cater to a European market. According to a Japanese newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, the new hybrid compact by Toyota will ... Discover More

The All-Electric Mini E The exclusive leasing program of BMW's all-electric vehicles (Mini Es) has created quite a buzz. After all, only 450 models exist. Now, through a draw in a lottery, 4 lucky Californian municipalities, including Glendora, Diamond Bar, West Covina and Azusa, hit the jackpot as they were selected to participate in BMW's first ever EV pilot program. Each township will receive two of the two-seater Mini Cooper look-alikes. Moreover, while other lessees shell out $850/month, the winners will only be ... Discover More

Former race car driver Morris Clement is all set to develop his own electric car. He will be building a low-speed, battery-operated vehicle: a less-exciting, greener approach than the toys he used to play with.  In 1998, the National Traffic Safety Administration classified the cars as neighborhood electric vehicles, or NEVs, and they are certified "eco-friendly". As for specifications, Clement said that the car would offer speeds up to 25 miles per hour, therefore making these 4-wheel NEVs not suitable for highways. He ... Discover More

Londoners are about to welcome an all-electric vehicle pod, according to a recent announcement by Zipcar, the world's largest car-sharing service provider.  As part of a pilot program, the pod will be used to test the profitability and durability of plug-in cars as they are incorporated within their fleet.  The statement comes soon after the company partnered with Westminster City Council, the government municipality that is backing the car club with £200,000.   Members who sign up for the program will also ... Discover More

The New Mercedes-Benz Supercar For those with the patience and the pocketbook, a powerful car is about to hit the markets in the year 2015.  Without a doubt, Mercedes-Benz has ambitions to lead several other high-end auto companies, should the race for plug-in automobiles really take off.   To that end, company representatives have announced a  zero-emission supercar, which is a newer version of the SLS AMG,  that will be publicly unveiled on September 15th of this year. The development of the car ... Discover More

Not to be outdone by its competitors, Volvo has announced its own hybrid electric car due in... 2012.  This would put it behind four other auto companies we're tracking that have a release date of 2010, however in return for an extra couple of years of waiting, users will have the ability to drive a plug-in with a diesel engine. The engine will release less than 50 grams/km.  of carbon dioxide emissions (using the NEDC standard).  According to Volvo, this would qualify it ... Discover More

California-based CODA Automotive unveiled a new all-electric sedan that it plans to have ready by the fall of 2010. The little-known company had not issued any prior press releases hinting at an unveiling, and there is not much information about them publically available at the moment. Their website only shows that their management team and Board of Advisors include former finance executives from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, and several engineers from a variety of industries. Obscure No More It ... Discover More

Questions loom over the fate of the Chevy Volt as General Motors prepares to file for bankruptcy tomorrow, June 1st 2009.    Based on GM's worldwide assets of $91 billion and liabilities of $176 billion, the bankruptcy would be  the third largest in U.S. history, behind Lehman Brothers and Worldcom. There have been several prominent speculations over whether GM will abandon its plug-in program.   Keith Johnson, writing for the Wall Street Journal, has come out saying he believes the Volt will be ... Discover More

The bankrupt Chrysler has submitted a proposal to the Department of Energy to match the $224 million that it and its partners plan on devoting to the development and production of plug-in automobiles.  The funds would fall under the DOE's program designed to promote the United States' electric vehicle infrastructure. Of the $448 million total allotment, Chrysler plans on using up to $83 million to construct an R&D/manufacturing hub in Michigan. The remaining $365 million would be used towards unveiling ... Discover More

- With an electric car plug standard about to be finalized, and charging stations beginning to pop up in the U.S. and Europe, an important question to ask is: How long will it take to fill up a car battery? And like most matters, the answer is, “It depends!” Automobile batteries, whether they are nickel-metal hydride or lithium-ion, can be made up of many cells, with larger cell quantities capable of a larger storage capacity. The tradeoff, however, is that cars with more ... Discover More

As the price of oil spiked to $150/barrel, car shoppers and the media began focusing on fuel efficiency ratings. For gasoline-powered vehicles, the number that is important is the ‘Miles per Gallon’ (or ‘Kilometers per Liter’ outside of the US and UK), the distance one unit of gasoline takes you. The United States EPA has a protocol that it follows to test the MPG ratings of various automobiles, providing a convenient way for making comparisons. However, when considering electric vehicles, the ... Discover More

Honda Motor Co. President, Takeo Fukui, indicated in an interview on April 23rd that the current administration's incentives are causing the company to refocus their strategy.   "We understand the situation, in terms of government and incentives," he said.  "Naturally, we’re going to have to accommodate that too.” Honda had originally sought out to be the leader in manufacturing cars based on hydrogen fuel-cell technology.   They began leasing the FCX Clarity to drivers in California in 2008, the same year they built ... Discover More

EV Innovations, incorporated in Nevada and with an R&D subsidiary in India, recently showed off two pre-production electric vehicles at the New York Auto Show.   Pictured to the left and below, the Wave and the Inizio EVS are aimed at different market segments and have very different performance profiles. The Wave is a 2-seater vehicle that offers an electric range of 170 miles on a single charge.   It travels from 0-60 mph in a lumbering 12 seconds and tops out at ... Discover More

In an interview with Prabhakar Patil, the Chief Executive of Compact Power, the battery maker claims that his company is on track to providing lithium-ion batteries to power GM's upcoming Volt plug-in vehicle. Despite the financial troubles of the U.S. automaker, Patil says that he has not noticed any loss of commitment, claiming that "From GM's side, it's their highest priority program."  Compact Power is a subsidiary of  LG Chem, Ltd., a South Korean battery supplier. This statement, coming from a close supplier with ... Discover More

At the 2009 Auto Show in Shanghai (the heart of China's automobile industry), executives from most of the world's top auto companies appeared to showcase their newest products and keep an eye on the competition.   Especially notable at this year's event was that almost every major manufacturer, as well as several smaller companies, had a pure electric vehicle on display.   The number of electric vehicles by Chinese companies?  Eight.  And perhaps the most notable of those companies is BYD (Build ... Discover More

The United States Council for Automotive Research is set to formulate new standards for the high-voltage wiring and connections in plug-in automobiles.   The alliance, which includes Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation,  will be meeting to discuss the details at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) conference in Detroit  on April 20-23. The new standards will cover specifications for systems running up to 400V, replacing the old standards for wiring capacities of only 20V.   This will allow plug-in ... Discover More

The new concept car by Bright Automotive is set to be unveiled in a few days in Washington D.C.   Eschewing the design practices of traditional auto makers, the hybrid vehicle will be built with lightweight, aerodynamic engineering as its core concept. This means stearing clear of large steel purchases and focusing on reducing the size and weight of its battery back. The plug-in car is said to have a 30 mile all-electric range and will be coupled with a small ... Discover More

At the 2009 Seoul Motor Show (April 2-12), Hyundai released further details of its new hybrid concept.  With a release anticipated towards the end of 2012, this vehicle represents the latest company to catch up with the electric-vehicle movement. The "BLUE-WILL" is expected to have an electric-only driving distance of 40 miles (64 km). It contains a 1.6L direct-injection gasoline engine providing 152 horsepower coupled with a 100 kw electric-motor.   Like the Fisker Karma, the automobile will carry a panoramic roof fitted ... Discover More

Standing for P.ersonal U.rban M.obility and A.ccessibility, a prototype was released Tuesday, April 7th in New York for a public demonstration.  This unlikely off-spring of the two disparate companies is either a visionary solution for the crowded streets of urban areas around the globe (claims made by the earlier Segway owner), or a hail-mary project that the executives of GM hope can attract some positive coverage and help their current dismal situation. General Motors is currently preparing for bankruptcy,  as a ... Discover More

In an excellent preview of what we can expect out of the next generation Toyota Prius, New York Times editor, Jerry Garret, takes the 2010 model out for a spin. Before getting into his personal hands-on experience with the machine, he first mentions the "iconic" status of its predecessor:  asking the almost rhetorical question of, how can something that is a) comfortably bigger, b) faster, c) possessing an upgraded battery pack, and d) more energy efficient than a vehicle that already had so ... Discover More

Toyota has announced that it will be releasing about 100 plug-in hybrids in France in a serious effort to optimize its battery technology and learn more about the infrastructure requirements of a large-scale deployment.   EDF Energy, one of the UK's largest energy companies, will monitor all operational aspects of the charging process, taking into account safety, communication between the plug and the vehicle, vehicle identification as well as energy consumption. EDF, along with its subsidiary, Electricité de Strasbourg, will also be setting ... Discover More

Here is the breakdown for the funding released by the Obama initiative: $2 billion from the stimulus plan pushed through earlier in the year is set aside for electric-vehicle production. Out of that package, $1.5 billion is for battery manufacturing within the U.S. The remaining $500 million is slated for related technologies that compliment these vehicles, such as electric motors. The Department of Energy (DOE) is setting aside a further $400 million for the infrastructure of plug-in automobiles. One of the stated goals of these ... Discover More

Although the company has not committed to a formal timeline, Piaggio Group Americas' CEO has suggested in interviews that this highway-legal scooter is expected to be on the road relatively soon. The new plug-in will be a modified version of the company's Piaggio's MP3 500. According to CEO Paul Timoni, the plug-in scooter will get up to 140 mpg, have an all-electric range of 40 miles per charge , and will be priced between $8000 and $9000.  There is also a  European ... Discover More

With one of the biggest challenges of mass-adoption of plug-in vehicles being the possibility of overloaded power grids, many utilitily companies feel that they already have the solution: Install upgraded transformers in areas where the demand for electric vehicles is the highest, and charge consumers different rates according to peak hours of demand. Pacific Gas & Electric is already implementing a tiered system, charging electric car owners 5 cents per kilowatt hour between midnight and 7 a.m., and 30 cents per kilowatt hour ... Discover More

It's not just the U.S. and multinational automobile CEOs, the advertising executives and car dealerships, the auto magazines and the eager consumers that are anticipating the shift from gas-powered engines to battery-powered electric vehicles, but nationwide, power companies see the upcoming change as a great opportunity, as well as a need for adjustments. The major boon that a surge of plug-ins bring to utilities is as follows:  Their "surplus" power, which is all those electrons that their power sources produce and send through ... Discover More

Based on the Concept cX (pictured above), Mitsubishi has announced it will release a plug-in hybrid called the Concept zC.  A prototype vehicle will be shown at this year's Tokyo Motor Show in October. According to Autocar, the new zC will utilize a hatchback rear-end based on the company's Racing Lancer as well as raised ground clearance, and it will be built on the GS platform that is currently in use in the Lancer and the Outlander. Production for the new vehicle will take ... Discover More

Green Car Advisor has delved a bit further into the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, revealing many of the numbers that were designed to jumpstart the product of hybrid and electric vehicles. Conventional hybrid manufactuers will continue to enjoy a $3,400 tax-credit for their first 60,000 hybrids, followed by a %50 drop each of the following 6 months.   Of course, companies like Toyota have already used up all of these tax-credits, while General Motors still has its full reserve available. State ... Discover More

Though not as pricey and not as forceful as the Tesla Roadster (Sport Model: $128,500; 0-60 mph in under 4.0 seconds), the Fisker Karma certainly carries the looks and performance of a new breed of "green" status symbols.   Fisker Automotive describes its vehicle has having "The height of a Porsche 911, length of a Mercedes Benz CLS and the width of a BMW 7 Series." With two electric motors that produce a peak output of 408 horsepower and 959 ft-lb. of ... Discover More

Ford Motor plans to have plug-in electric vehicles in its showrooms by 2012.  Powering these vehicles will be lithium-ion battery cells, manufactured by Johnson Controls-Saft, a U.S.-French joint venture.  Nancy Gioia, Ford's hybrid chief, indicated that enough battery purchases will be made to produce about 5,000 plug-in vehicles a year.  However, there is no indicated what form such a vehicle will take. Apparently, the technology will be showcased in a 2009 Escape SUV.  Referring to prices, Gioia stated that gasoline-electric hybrids sell from ... Discover More

Speaking at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, James Lentz, the president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., announced that Toyota would release its version of a plug-in hybrid towards the end of 2009, a year ahead of schedule. This would put its release date ahead of the Chevrolet Volt, perhaps giving it a first-entrant advantage over the American counterpart. Toyota plans on releasing only about 500 vehicles for commercial customers at the outset, with 150 of those plug-ins destined for ... Discover More