USA: Chrysler files for bankruptcy

Chrysler LLC filed for bankruptcy Thursday. But a deal has been reached to combine the company with Fiat in order to allow Chrysler to stay in business.
Source: CNN Read More...

UK: First Retro-fit Plug-In Hybrid system will help the unconverted

A collaboration between the UK’s leading automotive engineering facilities, including Cranfield University, has resulted in the development of the first retro-fit hybrid conversion of a combustion engine vehicle. Known as the Affordable Add-on Zero Emissions Vehicle (ADDZEV), the technology that has been developed demonstrates how it may be possible to convert much of the UK vehicle fleet into hybrid vehicles.
Source: cranfield.ac.uk Read More...

UK: The Electric Car Corporation Launches the Citroën C1 ev’ie – The UK’s First 4 Seat All-Electric Production Car

With a range of 60-70 miles when fully charged and a top speed of around 60mph, it provides the driver with a pleasant and completely “normal”, yet silent, driving experience, but at a fraction of the running costs.
Source: theautochannel.com Read More...

USA: Smart Charger Controller simplifies electric vehicle recharging (w/Video)

Developed at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the controller automatically recharges electric vehicles during times of least cost to the consumer and lower demand for power. Widespread use of these devices could help advance a smart power grid.
Source: physorg.com Read More...

China: New motor giant emerges

And where do the vast majority of laptops come from these days? China the country that boasts the second-largest battery company in the world, BYD, which also happens to be a prominent car maker. A picture begins to form of how China intends to drive automotive innovation.
Source: stuff.co.nz Read More...

USA: Chevy Volt Owners Get $7500 Electric Car Tax Credit

General Motors Corp confirmed last Monday that it’s still on-target to release the Chevy Volt in 2010.
Source: newsoxy.com Read More...

Japan/USA: Nissan plans to start selling electric car in Seattle next year


The new plug-in vehicle will be able to exceed highway speed limits, go 100 miles on a charge and recharge in four to eight hours using a 220-volt line, similar to those for clothes dryers, said Mark Perry, director of product planning for Nissan North America
Source: seattlepi.com Read More...

USA: Cash for Clunkers Paves the Way to Retrofit Gas Guzzlers

Analysis compares two policy options for vehicles already on the road — 250 million in the U.S. and 900 million globally — that will continue to burn fossil fuels for decades. Large-scale, properly tuned policies can substantially reduce these vehicles’ carbon footprint. Two solutions focusing on older low-efficiency vehicles are scrappage programs, which are gaining increasing support in many countries, and conversions to plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and all-electric vehicles (EVs), an emerging new option.
Source: calcars.org Read More...

USA: Green Star to Demonstrate Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle

FRANKFORT, Ky.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Green Star Products, Inc. (OTC: GSPI) announced today that within the next four weeks it plans to publicly test its plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV)
Source: businesswire.com Read More...

USA: Electric car competition heats up with that other green city

The mayors of San Francisco and Portland have a lot in common. They’re both striving to make their respective cities the greenest on earth, they both Tweet to their constituents and they both have snazzy Web sites, among other things.
“If we were able to put a man on the moon, we most certainly can create a new generation of cars that do not run on fossil fuels,” Newsom wrote in his blog entry Read More...

Honda and Nissan Consider Plug-in Hybrids

For both companies, the plug-in hybrid is seen as the next stage of hybrids and as the key to the technology’s longevity.
Source: hybridcars.com Read More...

Japan/USA: Seattle welcomes Nissan electric car in 2010

Nissan plans to introduce plug-in electric vehicles in 2010 in Seattle, along with other markets including Oregon and Tennessee, and mass market them globally two years later.
Source: newsource.com Read More...

i MiEV Has World Domination on Its Mind


These three test fleets are in addition to the i MiEV’s presence in Japan, New Zealand, Australia, California, and Europe. The car will actually go on sale for the first time — after obviously extensive on-street testing — in Japan this summer.
Source: Read More...

China: Auto Shanghai 2009: The sleeping giant awakes

In the first quarter of 2009, China sold more cars than the world’s largest car market, North America. China has already been outselling Europe, Japan and Korea for a few years now.
Other Chinese carmakers that showcased impressively large exhibits with technologically up-to-date models included Chery, BYD Auto, Geely and Great Wall Motor.
BYD Auto and Geely showcased electric and hybrid concepts, in addition to a growing array of higher-end luxury models.
Source: philstar.com Read More...

USA: Lexington plugs in to battery research

The state will spend between $5 million and $8 million to convert this old office building in northern Fayette County into the new Battery Manufacturing Research and Development Center.
Source: kentucky.com Read More...

Nissan electric car: silent, quick off the line

Nissan’s prototype of a mass-produced, all-electric car drives much like a mass-produced, gasoline-powered car, with a couple of major exceptions – there’s no drive-train noise and there’s no lurching from gear to gear.
Source: sfgate.com Read More...

Honda May Develop Plug-In as Obama Alters U.S. Policy

Honda, Japan’s second-largest carmaker, last week began building a lithium-ion battery factory with joint-venture partner GS Yuasa Corp. in Japan’s Kyoto prefecture to make packs for gasoline-electric hybrid cars. Tokyo-based Honda plans starting producing the vehicles in late 2010.
Source: bloomberg.com Read More...

Nissan Sees Higher Oil Prices Spurring Demand for Electric Cars

“When GDP growth comes back on a worldwide basis, there will be again attention on the oil market, which will trigger an oil price increase,” Carlos Tavares, a Nissan executive vice president, said in an interview on April 24. “We will be in the right tempo to face that environment.”
Source: bloomberg.com Read More...

USA: Chrysler Unveils Electric Minivan for US Postal Service

Chrysler is celebrating Earth Day by unveiling an electric minivan… that you won’t be able to buy (yet). They’re making them for the US Postal Service, and so far 4 out of an eventual 250 have been built. The electric minivan is based on the Chrysler Town & Country EV that we wrote about last year, and the powertrain will be very similar except that the USPS version is a non range-extended version because postal routes generally are only around 20 miles
Source: tgreehugger.com Read More...

Japan: Mitsubishi Motors surprises with profit forecast

Mitsubishi Motors is looking to strengthen its lineup of small cars to ride a global trend towards fuel-efficient vehicles, such as by developing what it calls a “global small car”.
In July, it will roll out the i-MiEV electric car to fleet customers in Japan,
Source: guardian.co.uk Read More...