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

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

U.S. DOE: Wind power production fell in 2010

Only around a quarter of the new electricity capacity introduced in 2010 came from wind power, down from 42 percent in 2009, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The average cost of installing new wind power held steady in 2010, while the cost of other forms of electricity fell, according to the report.

The cost of installing wind turbines and transmission lines also hasn’t yet caught up with the declining prices … Continue Reading