Europe: VW and Porsche go Electric in Geneva

Listening to the hype coming out of the Geneva Motor Show one has to wonder where the global auto industry is headed. Every one of the major car makers released details of new hybrid and new all electric vehicles, admittedly some in concept form like VW and Porsche but still accompanied with some grandiose projections on sales figures down the road. None more so that Renault-Nissan the struggling French-Japanese group who’s chief executive, Carlos Ghosn is reported to have claimed they will be producing half a million electric cars by 2013-14. We hope they have a big enough field to park them all in. After being available for 13 years, hybrid cars made up just 2.8% of the US car market in 2009 according to Hybrid Cars.com, equivalent to about 300,000 vehicles. Renault-Nissan are starting from scratch with electric cars and yet they are projecting 500,000 in three years time. Of course it is possible Renault know something we don’t. Maybe the French government is about to launch a massive electric car subsidy scheme as a catalyst to encourage buyers to switch. Certainly Renault have identified some of the markets concerns. They propose leasing the battery packs to car buyers, not selling them as part of the vehicle. At the end of practical life they intend to recycle them as power storage units. Read More...

USA: GM Volt test drive discusssion (Texas)


I am down here in Austin and John calls me up saying, hey you want to do
something special? I said sure. We met at Highland Park Mall and they had a
Chevy Volt there to test drive. They were doing test drives and ride alongs!
hahahaah at the Dallas Auto Show they wouldn’t let you within 10 feet and here
they are letting us drive the car! I got video of John driving the car around
their test track they had setup. They let him stop the car and stomp on it when
in sport mode to see it really take off. I’ll see about posting the video some
time on YouTube, but it was a cool show and tell. John and I got to talk to the
electronics guys for a while and he was all interested in our opinion since we
are EV drivers. Got lots of good info on the car and nice to see one actually
working. Read More...

USA: Aptera North County Appreciation Day, March 27,2010


Contact:
Aptera Marketing
Aptera Motors Inc. Read More...

USA: GM Exec: Chevy Volt Effective Price Easily Less Than $30,000


Those were Bob Lutz’ words back in 2007 when he first stated GMs intention to sell the Chevy Volt comfortably below $30,000. Read More...

USA: FISKER AUTOMOTIVE EXPANDS TO ACCELERATE DEVELOPMENT OF NEXT-GEN PLUGIN

Fisker Automotive is expanding to accelerate development of its next generation plug-in hybrids,
code named Project NINA.
Beginning March 1 Fisker Automotive’s global headquarters in Irvine, California will house all
design, engineering, sales, marketing, and administrative operations.
The company expects the number of new hires to expand dramatically.
Read more at
Sourcer: fiskerautomotive.com Read More...

USA: Aptera’s EV: A Hot Car with Cooling Prospects


Two years ago, the battery-powered Aptera was on track to be the Next Big Thing. In 2008, the San Francisco Chronicle said that the Aptera “looks like as if it could soar.” The verb was appropriate because the two-seat car resembles an airplane without wings. The newspaper said that the cars would begin to roll out of the San Diego County factory in a few months. Read More...

USA: Top 10 X-Prize Contenders Show Off Their MPG Tech

The Progressive Automotive X-Prize, closing in on its May 2010 competition start date, held a technical summit of the participating 43 teams at the 2009 SEMA show in Las Vegas. Twelve of those teams brought along vehicles to display at the show, each one in varying degrees of completeness. This technical summit comes on the eve of the announcement that it will receive up to $5.5 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy. The award outlines specific tasks for the Auto X Prize to follow including vehicle telemetry integration, technical assistance to qualifying teams and the addition of technical staffing. The locations for the acceleration, hill climbing, slalom and fuel economy competitions haven’t been announced yet, but we’ve heard that Indianapolis and Washington, D.C., will be two of them. We also hear Auto X Prize fans will be able to watch real-time videos of the $10-million prize competition online and even see instantaneous fuel economy and performance of the entries. Read More...

India: Future of electric cars in India

Carmakers have realised the importance of using alternate fuels to power cars. Research and development is being done in this direction to come up with a technology so advanced that it is both efficient and economical. Read More...

UK/USA: D.C. region may win electric truck production plant for Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. Corp.

Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. Corp., a Kansas City, Mo.-based producer of zero-emission trucks for commercial shippers, could make its first foray into the East Coast with a 50,000-square-foot production and sales facility in the Washington area. Read More...

Europe: Electric Car Evolution!

MANCHESTER, England, March 11, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Manchester City Council chief executive, Sir Howard Bernstein and Juergen Maier, Head of Industry at Siemens plc, took to the streets of Manchester today in an electric powered sportscar – looking to the future of a city using zero-emission electric cars. Read More...

Upcoming Electric And Hybrids Cars In India In 2010

The Indian car market is growing rapidly. It has overtook Japan and emerged as the largest small car market. It is slowly becoming a hub for luxury cars as well. Moreover, in near future the Indian car market will witness a slew of electric and hybrid car launches. Most of these green cars will be displayed at the upcoming Delhi Auto Expo. Below listed are the electric cars and hybrid cars that will be displayed at the 2010 Auto Expo. Read More...

USA: Elkhart could go from RV capital to EV capital

The so-called “RV Capital of the World” may soon be able to bill itself the “EV Capital of the World.” What a difference a letter makes. Read More...

USA: Fisker says 100,000 plug-in hybrids a year could be built at Delaware plant

Fisker Automotive CEO Henrik Fisker gave a presentation at the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce’s annual dinner Monday night about his compnay’s plans to build plug-in vehicles (PHEVs) in Delaware. Over 450 people from the community where Fisker’s new plant (and General Motors’ old plant) is located heard Fisker speak about the Karma and the upcoming Project Nina vehicle. Nina, of course, is the lower-cost ($50,000?) plug-in hybrid that Fisker wants to build in and export from Delaware. Read More...

USA: Mystery Electric Car Maker Wants to Take Over Toyota’s Nummi Plant

An electric car maker in the Bay Area has proposed a plan to build electric vehicles at Fremont’s NUMMI plant — but the proposal faces mammoth hurdles, including getting $1 billion in financing. Read More...

Over 700,000 Electric Vehicles Sold in 2009

ROCKVILLE, MD–(Marketwire – March 10, 2010) – MarketResearch.com has announced the addition of SBI’s new report “Electric Vehicle (EV) and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) Markets Worldwide,” to their collection of Electric Vehicles market reports. For more information, visit http://www.marketresearch.com/redirect.asp?progid=67618&productid=2496608 Read More...

Europe: Mercedes-Benz S-Class plug-in hybrid aiming at 81 mpg, on Euro hybrid cycle

Back in January, it was reported that Mercedes-Benz will offer the next-generation S-Class with a plug-in hybrid variant. At the time, insiders said that with the help of weight reduction and aerodynamic improvements, the S-Class plug-in hybrid sedan will be able to return an estimated 67 mpg. Read More...

China/USA: Chinese auto firm BYD reportedly to build plant in California


SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Chinese car maker BYD Co. may build an assembly plant and open its North American headquarters in Los Angeles County, according to a report Tuesday. Read More...

UK/USA: Tanfield accelerates after US offer for its electric car business

Shares in Tanfield are motoring after the group received a conditional offer for its electric vehicles business from its US partner. Read More...

USA: AT&T Becomes Lead Customer for Ford Transit Connect Electric


Vehicle is Powered by Azure Dynamics ForceDrive(TM) electric drivetrain Read More...

Electric Car Race Slated For Barcelona

Autopia Planes, Trains, Automobiles and the Future of Transportation Electric Car Race Slated For Barcelona
By Tony Borroz March 9, 2010 | 3:17 pm | Categories: EVs and Hybrids Read More...