Better Place raises another $200 million for electric cars and charging network
Electric vehicle infrastructure startup Better Place has raised $200 million of Series C financing from a consortium of investors including GE Capital and UBS, the company announced today.
Better Place is working with Nissan/Renault on the production of electric cars with swappable batteries that can be charged at home, or taken to battery-swapping stations where fresh batteries are inserted within minutes. Vehicle owners will rent the batteries from Better Place, and pay only for the … Continue Reading
Electric car range anxiety evaporates after 3 months
“Range anxiety” for pure battery-powered electric car owners wears off quickly as a driver begins to understand the capabilities and charging patterns of their car, according to a new study by the Technology Strategy Board.
Around 35 percent of electric car owners were concerned about reaching a destination before running out of juice three months after buying a car, compared to 100 percent of car owners when they first bought the electric car, according to … Continue Reading
Extended-range hybrids pick up steam
A clear trend is emerging among electric car manufacturers: Plug-in hybrids are a better near-term bet than purely battery-powered cars.
Ford today unveiled the latest in its series of electric cars, a plug-in hybrid electric car called the Evos. The car has a battery-powered engine that can travel between 30 and 40 miles before switching over to an engine powered by gasoline. (Drivers can also choose whether they want to power the car solely off … Continue Reading
Meet the Cadillac ELR, General Motors’ luxury extended-range electric car
General Motors today unveiled its first luxury extended-range electric vehicle, the Cadillac ELR Coupe. It’s the company’s second extended-range electric car and the third extended-range car unveiled in the past 30 days.
The new high-end vehicle features an electric motor that will travel for about 35 miles when the car’s battery is fully charged. When the battery runs out, the car uses gasoline to power a generator that recharges the battery, extending the distance the … Continue Reading
Nissan Leaf trounces Chevy Volt in July sales, but will it last?
The Nissan Leaf once again outsold General Motors’ Chevy Volt in July after GM slowed production of its electric car last month, giving Nissan a nearly 2,000-car edge in total sales.
Nissan sold 931 all-electric battery-powered Leafs in July, bringing the total number of electric cars the company has sold to 4,806. General Motors only sold 125 Volts after shutting down its Detroit-based plant to retool it, bringing its total vehicles shipped to 2,870. General … Continue Reading
BMW lays down its cards in electric car market
Car manufacturer BMW today unveiled its next wave of electric cars — the i8 sporty hybrid-electric coupe and a smaller i3 electric mini, both of which use a range-extending hybrid electric model.
The i3 is designed as a pure electric car, while the i8 is a high-end electric hybrid sports car similar to the Fisker Karma. BMW is also selling a range-extended version of the i3 that uses gasoline to recharge the battery and extend … Continue Reading
General Motors invests $7.5M in rooftop-solar company Sunlogics
Car manufacturer General Motors has made a $7.5 million strategic investment in solar-panel provider Sunlogics, which will install solar panels on several GM facilities.
Sunlogics specializes in developing and installing rooftop solar panels that generate small amounts of electricity — enough to charge an electric car, for example. That’s useful to electric car manufacturing companies because it helps emphasize the clean-energy benefits of driving an electric car or hybrid electric car, like GM’s Chevy Volt.… Continue Reading
Volt cruises into North Carolina and South Carolina
General Motors today announced that it is ramping up sales of its plug-in hybrid electric car, the Chevy Volt, in two new states: North Carolina and South Carolina.
Like other new electric cars, the Volt is only available in a few states. Before today’s announcement, it was available in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut, California, Michigan and Texas, a representative of the company said. The Leaf initially rolled out in California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona … Continue Reading
Nissan Leaf stomps Chevy Volt in June sales
Nissan’s all-electric Leaf is now the clear leader in low-end electric car sales.
Nissan sold 1,708 Leaf cars in June. That puts it well ahead of General Motors, which sold 561 of its hybrid electric Volt cars in the same month. Nissan has now sold 3,875 Leafs compared to General Motors’ 2,745 Volts sold in the first half of the year.
It’s the first indication that Nissan has taken an early lead in the fiercely … Continue Reading
California electric car rebate program runs dry
A California program that gives hybrid and pure-electric car buyers a rebate between $1,500 and $5,000 has run out of funding for the remainder of the state’s fiscal year ending June 30.
The state of California allocated $7 million last year for rebates to qualified electric car buyers. The popularity of the federally-mandated Cash for Clunkers program sent car buyers out in droves. Spurred on by high gas prices, early adopters were eager to go … Continue Reading
Japan earthquake could delay U.S. production of Nissan Leaf
A 9.0-magnitude earthquake that rocked Japan in March could delay the start of U.S. production of the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle until late 2012, according to Automotive News.
The costs of getting production back up and running in Japan after the massive earthquake and tsunami forced Nissan to take its Japanese production plant offline. The company was slated to build a production plant for the Nissan Leaf in Smyrna, Tenn., that will produce up to … Continue Reading
