U.S.-backed electric car maker Fisker misses early goals, delays production

Government-backed electric car company Fisker Automotive is delaying plans for production after missing its early manufacturing goals. According to a report by the Washington Post, the delays are being blamed on regulatory issues, and the company is brushing off any comparisons to Solyndra, another clean-energy company that received half a million in government loans, which filed for bankruptcy in September.

Fisker has already received $529 million in loans from the U.S. Department of Energy to … Continue Reading

29 electric car makers ready to rule the streets

Some crazy concept cars have emerged since the electric car frenzy hit the market in 2008. Where are they now?

We caught up with 29 electric car manufacturers and developers to find out what they’re doing today. Some are still going strong, some have begun actively producing their cars, and some … well, not every startup can survive.

Most major car companies have begun working on a hybrid electric car or a pure battery-powered electric … Continue Reading

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Elon Musk on starting small, blowing up education and reaching the stars in 3 years (video)

Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk was the final keynote speaker at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2011 conference in San Francisco this week. He’s a longtime entrepreneur and one of the co-founders of PayPal, along with Max Levchin and Peter Thiel.

Musk told entrepreneurs at the conference to start smaller companies with lower capital costs instead of jumping straight into a large market (watch the video below). The ante for a car company, for example, is … 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

Ford and Toyota begin work on joint electric car powertrain

Car manufacturers Ford and Toyota announced today that the companies will collaborate on a hybrid-electric car powertrain for sport utility vehicles and light trucks.

Ford and Toyota will jointly develop a rear-wheel drive electric powertrain and then introduce the powertrain in separate vehicle lines for each company. The light trucks and SUVs should arrive sometime later this decade, the companies said in an official announcement.

“The companies are likely looking to reduce cost of the … Continue Reading

Electric car maker Fisker Automotive raising $200M at $2.2B valuation

Electric car manufacturer Fisker Automotive is in the process of raising a $200 million funding round that would value the company at $2.2 billion, according to a report by Fortune.

It would be the company’s third funding round in six months. Fisker Automotive raised $190 million just five months ago to help fund the production of its electric cars. The company finished off a recent $100 million round in May, led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield … 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

Electric powertrain manufacturer Mission Motors nets $9M

Mission Motors, a manufacturer of electric powertrains that go in electric cars and motorcycles, announced today that it has raised $9 million in its second round of funding.

Mission Motors makes powertrains, which are the drive units for electric cars that include a battery, charging system, inverter, motor, gearbox and associated software. The company then sells those powertrains to original equipment manufacturers like car and bike manufacturers. It has released some prototypes bikes like the … Continue Reading

Has cleantech investing lost its glamour? Khosla Ventures loses two partners

Two partners are leaving storied cleantech investment firm Khosla Ventures, as excitement has started to peter out in the once-buzzing clean technology space.

Khosla Ventures partners Jim Kim and Alex Kinnier have followed former partner Gideon Yu in leaving the cleantech investing firm. The turnover has clouded the future of clean technology investment firms, which are exposed to higher risk and lower returns now that the initial excitement has died down.

“Not unlike most sectors, … Continue Reading

SunPower packages rooftop solar panels with Ford electric cars

Solar panel manufacturer SunPower and Ford announced today that they will give Ford electric car buyers the option to buy and install a residential solar panel array that will charge the electric car.

Focus Electric car buyers will have the option to buy a rooftop solar charging system that costs around $10,000 after federal tax credits. The panels generate around 2.5 kilowatts of power, which is enough to charge an electric car to the point … Continue Reading

Tesla CEO: Model X unveil coming in December

Tesla Motors will unveil its sport utility electric vehicle sometime in December after finishing up development of an alpha model of the car, chief executive Elon Musk said in the company’s quarterly earnings call today.

The Model X uses the same powertrain and technology as the other electric cars Tesla produces. That helped the company cut the development time for the Model X in half. It also required about a third as much in upfront … Continue Reading

Tesla Motors ‘sold out’ of custom U.S. Roadsters

Tesla Motors is no longer taking orders for the sporty Tesla Roadster electric car in the United States, but will continue to sell the car in Europe and Asia until the third quarter next year.

“We’ve sold out of all custom orders for the roadsters, there are some spec cars available but otherwise we’re sold out,” Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk said on the company’s quarterly earnings call today. “You can’t actually buy a … 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

Tesla begins assembling beta models for Model S electric cars

Electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors has begun assembling beta models of its second electric car, the lower-priced Model S sedan (pictured right), the company said.

“We have started assembling the Beta vehicles,” Tesla Motors’ Model S Program Director Jerome Guillen said. ”While most Betas are intended for testing to prepare for production, a few are earmarked for visits to North American Tesla stores later this year.”

The Model S sedan (shown in an image above) … 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

Solar-leasing startup SolarCity sells subsidized electric car chargers

Solar panel leasing company SolarCity announced today that it will begin selling 240-volt electric car chargers manufactured by ClipperCreek for $1,500 for customers that currently lease solar panels.

The “Level 2″ 240-volt chargers can charge an electric car like the Nissan Leaf to an 80-percent charge in around 3 hours. SolarCity sells the chargers outright, but gives their solar leasing customers a discount. So residents who lease solar panels are essentially getting subsidized electric car … Continue Reading

Kleiner Perkins partner: Loan guarantees could be next government cut

The next victim of the United States debt crisis could be conditional loan guarantees, says a prominent venture capitalist.

The loan guarantees are one of the financial engines powering many cleantech investments in Silicon Valley.

“I think the loan guarantee programs could go away,” Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers partner Ray Lane told VentureBeat. “I think everybody is concerned about the loan guarantee program, fewer are concerned about (the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program) … Continue Reading

Check out Ray Lane of Kleiner Perkins’ new ride, the Fisker Karma

Hybrid electric car manufacturer Fisker Automotive delivered its first production model electric car for consumers, the Fisker Karma, to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Ray Lane (pictured right) on Tuesday.

Fisker Automotive has produced 54 cars and is revving up it production of the high-end luxury electric car. Lane’s Karma marks the first car that was manufactured for consumers and delivered. That means the company might soon be another player in the electric car … Continue Reading