The electric car is still a hard sell for a significant part of the population, and for those who are still skeptical, Nissan has something geared towards them, with a massive campaign designed to get “thousands” of people test driving the Nissan Leaf. The test drives will occur alongside traditional media buys. The buzz for...
Continue Reading...
Inside Line was awarded a plug-in hybrid version of the Toyota Prius, well in advance of official production, and after reaching the 500 mile mark, some observations have begun to surface about Toyota’s newest hope for green motoring. The plug-in Prius delivers about 62 mpg combined, an impressive figure, but according to Autoblog Green, something...
Continue Reading...
Los Angeles based rapper J Brave describes himself as an “MC, poet, activist for peace, and visionary…”, so we can understand why he would shun Maybachs and Bentleys in his lyrics in favor of the eco-friendly, uber-liberal chariot known as the Tesla Roadster. Unfortunately for J Brave, his rap song “Dippin In My Tesla” doesn’t quite...
Continue Reading...
Despite never turning a profit and selling as few as just 1,000 vehicles, Silicon Valley electric car maker Tesla Motors has raised $226 million in an initial public offering. Even more amazing is the fact that Tesla was able to generate such investment in the midst of a still shaky economic recovery that has seen...
Continue Reading...
Glass’s Guide, car valuation experts from the UK have studied the long-term ownership costs of EVs, such as the forthcoming Nissan Leaf (shown, above.) The news isn’t looking good. Glass’s reports that after 5 years of ownership, EVs will retain only about 10 percent of their value, as opposed to the 25 percent residual value...
Continue Reading...
A Nissan GTR powered by something other than a traditional gasoline engine will arrive in the future, but tree-huggers looking to go fast will have to wait a while. Kazutoshi Mizuno, chief engineer of the R35 GTR admitted that the car will have to move to switch to alternative fuels, but that’s far as as...
Continue Reading...
American electric car maker Tesla is about ready to launch its IPO and go from a small niche market automaker to possibly a large international electric vehicle powerhouse. But in order to make hat next big step CEO Elon Musk needs money, and lots of it. So before he opens up his company to the...
Continue Reading...
Mercedes has just unveiled a new fully electric and emissions-free version of its SLS AMG flagship supercar, delivering 526-hp and a 0-60 mph time of just 4.0 seconds. To achieve this impressive output, the SLS AMG E-Cell is bursting with batteries, which are placed in the front firewall, center tunnel and behind the seats. This...
Continue Reading...
The Canadian province of Ontario announced that the Nissan Leaf will qualify for the full $8500 rebate on electric vehicles sold in Ontario. The provincial government offers incentives of $5,000 to $8,500 Canadian dollars will apply to electric vehicles sold in the province. The incentives vary based on the size of a cars battery, but...
Continue Reading...
Audi has been hard at work on it’s E-Tron electric sports car, and it’s paying off, with new plans to deliver the car to market ahead of schedule. According to a report by Car & Driver, the E-Tron will arrive in 2012. The vehicle won’t be for sale, however, but for lease. Lexus recently announced...
Continue Reading...
With the production Chevy Volt set to debut later this month and sales to start by the end of the year, General Motors is announcing that up to 4,400 early adopters could receive free home charging stations. Its not GM that will provide the charging stations, but rather the U.S. Department of energy, with two...
Continue Reading...
Gordon Murray is eager to stress that his firm, Gordon Murray Design, is not in the business of producing cars, especially not his new T25 city car. “We’re not a car company; our business is selling intellectual property for the production process,” Murray told Auto Express. Murray’s proclamation comes on the heels of his announcement that he...
Continue Reading...
General Motors is preparing to announce at the end of the month that its revolutionary Chevy Volt is complete. According to a Micky Bly, GM’s executive director for electric vehicles, the American automaker is planning a big event some time in June. Currently, GM is making last minute adjustments to the car’s software, and recently...
Continue Reading...
However with the German government seeking to enter new negotiations, GM has pulled the plug on external fundling.
Continue Reading...
The end goal for most venture-capital financed start-ups is to issue an IPO and help get some money into the hands of those investors brave enough to give the company money at the early stages. Tesla Motors, perhaps the first Silicon Valley car company(and headed by Elon Musk, a former dot-com executive), is about to...
Continue Reading...
It looks as though Tesla’s IPO filings with the SEC may have been intended to draw attention away from the company’s recent tie-up with Toyota. In those filing Tesla commented that while there is an intention between both automakers to work together towards building a new electric car, “we have not entered into any agreements...
Continue Reading...
It seems as though the biggest issue facing electric cars isn’t the big bad oil industry, but rather over zealous mileage claims by the manufacturers that build them. As Nissan prepares to launch its new Leaf EV, the company is sticking to its claim that the vehicle will be able to achieve 100 miles on...
Continue Reading...
Ahead of any possible legislation requiring electric cars and hybrids to come equipped with noise-makers, Nissan is announcing the introduction of what it calls the ‘Approaching Vehicle Sound for Pedestrians’ system for its new Leaf electric vehicle. The system finds a balance between driver comfort and alerting pedestrians of an approaching vehicle. The “sine-way sound...
Continue Reading...
It appears as though last month’s much-touted tie-up between Toyota and American electric car maker Tesla Motors was more of a publicity stunt than the start of a brave new electric world. In a recently filed IPO statement to the SEC, Tesla says that while there are a lot of good intentions to work together...
Continue Reading...
Nissan sure knows how to target future customers for the Nissan Leaf. At Steve Jobs’ keynote speech this week, the Apple CEO unveiled the new 4th generation iPhone, and what product made a prominent appearance to display the new iAd system? Why, the Nissan Leaf, of course! The Apple demographic is probably more open to...
Continue Reading...
Much like student government elections, it’s hard to put much stock in things like numbers of web hits or Facebook fans, but people will talk about them anyways. The newest bit of gossip in the ongoing Chevrolet Volt versus Nissan Leaf rivalry concerns who is winning the web war, with the aforementioned statistics being the...
Continue Reading...
A new 400-horsepower sports car is in the works at BMW, but if you ask executives at the German car company, they’ll tell you that the most promising new product is at the other end of the spectrum. Speaking at a meeting in London, Ian Robertson a BMW board member told Inside Line that they...
Continue Reading...
With BMW set to launch its revolutionary Megacity electric mini car in the next few years, there’s now word that the new sub-brand could include more models – like an electric sports car. In an interview with AutoCar, BMW’s sales and marketing boss Ian Robertson admitted to as much, commenting that the Megacity brand won’t...
Continue Reading...
sidebar...