Electric cars are too quiet? Are customized "car tones" the answer?
Currently the Auto Industry is coming up with unique sounds to alert pedestrians that electric vehicles (EV's) are approaching. According to an article that appeared in the NY Times today, “Working with Hollywood special-effects wizards, some hybrid auto companies have started tinkering in sound studios, rather than machine shops, to customize engine noises. The Fisker Karma, an $87,900 plug-in hybrid expected to go on sale next year, will emit a sound

BMW Revives C1 Scooter in Electric Form: PHOTO
BMW has resurrected the epically failed C1 scooter as a one-off concept vehicle, equipping it with one substantial modification. It's electric. The original C1 never quite caught on, due in part to some confusing helmet and bike laws in both Sweden and the U.K., and perhaps also due to its motorcyle-meets-golf-cart aesthetic. Its new electric replacement, the C1E , is almost identical in design, with the same roll cage, windscreen, and seatbelt. The lithium ion-powered electric engine tops out...

Tesla's Tax Boost To Create Jobs: PHOTO
Electric car maker Tesla Motors just got a new charge. According to State Treasurer Bill Lockyer , a new California tax incentive will help the car startup stay in the state,  expand its new Palo Alto headquarters, and even hire as many as 1,400 people.  An agreement was recently reached between Tesla and the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority.  It's an agreement Lockyer calls "a critical weapon in our fight against climate...

Cadillac Converj: GM has Given Green Light for the Electric Car
Cadillac Converj: GM has Given Green Light for the Electric Car

THE SEXIEST CAR EVER INVENTED HAS BEEN INVENTED: PHOTO
Shelby has announced that they are making an electric car that goes from 0 to 60 in two seconds and recharges in ten minutes. It's called the Aero. And that is sexy. But what's sexier?

Energy Dept. awards money for electric cars
The federal government and some states are plugging into the future of Electric Cars with Subsidies to develop charging stations. But their plans are generating opposition.

SEAS brings back the electric car
The electric car, which was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was phased out with the introduction of the gasoline car in the 1930's. Now, faculty and students at the School of Engineering and Applied Science are working to bring it back. Engineering professor Karen Winey is developing electric car technology that uses fuel cells that harness electricity from chemical reactions. If successful, her research would phase out the need for gasoline in automobiles. An electric car...

Electric car firm eyes Salinas
A mammoth industrial warehouse in Salinas where tires once were made for yesterday's cars stands to become the manufacturing home for an electric car maker. Green Vehicles announced Tuesday that it plans to lease 80,000 square feet in the Firestone Industrial Park to assemble its all-electric vehicles. Based in San Jose, Green Vehicles says on its Web site that it offers a full line of electric vehicles, including a commuter model, work trucks and "chic city vehicles." The model names are...

Paging Dr. Tesla? Automaker to make house calls
Taking a cue from house-call services like Best Buy's Geek Squad, electric carmaker Tesla Motors is launching a maintenance plan where mechanics travel to owners' homes or offices to perform repairs and tuneups. Tesla, which makes the $109,000 Roadster electric car, said the plan is convenient for customers who won't have to bring their vehicle to a showroom, while cutting costs by making a large network of Tesla service locations unnecessary. "You know how there's a Chevy dealer on every block...

Repsol eyes electric cars in Basque County
Madrid, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Spanish oil and gas company Repsol agreed with Basque officials to form a network to recharge electric vehicles in the Basque County autonomous community. Repsol Chairman Antonio Brufau and Basque Regional Minister for Industry and Energy Bernabe Unda agreed to develop the network for Electric Cars. "Repsol shares society's concerns, and for this reason we participate in the development of new technologies for transport," said Brufau. Repsol and its Basque partners will...

Electric cars may be in North Texas by next year
Planners are focused on providing infrastructure.

Program could spark Columbia's green efforts
Columbia officials are preparing to install charging stations for electric or partially Electric Cars in seven city parking garages - and let electric car owners use the juice for free over the next three years. Columbia is one of four S.C. cities being offered part of a $240,000 federal grant to install the charging stations, on the condition that city taxpayers pay for the electricity for the first three years. It will cost about $1 a day for each car to be charged, said John Spade,...

WashPost Auto Columnist Hails $19k, 40-mile Range Electric Car As Choice of 'Visionaries': PHOTO
Although he spent 14 paragraphs fleshing out all the ways that lightning-fast (25 mph) $19,000 retail-priced Wheego Whip LSV is "a tough sell" to readers in the nation's capital region, Washington Post auto columnist Warren Brown concluded his November 1 review by hailing the electric car as a ride "meant for visionaries." That's right, although the Wheego is a puny two-seater that gets an average 40 miles per full charge, and its range could be "negatively affected...

Wesley Clark Deems Electric Cars 'National Security' Issue: PHOTO
Retired U.S. Army General and former Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark has upped the ante in the ongoing National discourse on Clean Energy. Speaking before Auto Industry professionals and suppliers at a Detroit conference last week, Clark characterized the transition to Electric Cars as crucial to both environmental friendliness and, more surprisingly, National Security. Noting the United States' desperate need to kick foreign oil, Clark described the production of Electric Cars...

Project Movele: Spain's Electric Car Plan
While an electric vehicle plan called Better Place has gotten a lot of attention for its lofty goals in Israel, Denmark and elsewhere, other plans deserve a little love, too. In Spain, according to Spanish-language auto blogs, the Ministry of Industry and the Institute for Diversifying and Saving Energy have come up with a plan that they're calling Proyecto Movele . Under Movele, the government would install an electric car infrastructure in several cities and subsidize private purchase of a...

9 of Top 10 Most Fuel Efficient Cars Are Hybrids
The latest fuel economy ratings for 2010 models have been published, and nine of the top 10 are hybrid Electric Cars. No. 1 is the Toyota Prius (51 MPG city; 48 highway). "This list proves that hybrids have gone mainstream," said Bo Saulsbury, who heads up the ratings project from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Environmental Sciences Division. "There's now a hybrid for everyone. The 32 hybrid models available in 2010 offer car buyers the choice of an SUV, passenger car, economy or...

GM to put Converj into production: PHOTO
General Motors Co. has decided to produce the Cadillac Converj, an extended-range electric car using the same technology as the Chevrolet Volt, The Detroit News has learned. Cadillac included the Converj, a concept car that wowed industry critics and the public at the 2009 North American International Auto Show, in a presentation made to the automaker's board of directors Nov. 2, according to sources familiar with the production plan. A production date has not been set, and it likely will be a...

Electric car corridor from Eugene Oregon to Vancouver coming soon
The initial phase of the program will put approximately 1,000 electric vehicles (EV's) darting about Washington's Puget Sound area within a year. Washington is one of only five states with metro markets that were selected to participate in this study. The first corridor to be developed will run between Phoenix Arizona and Tucson, approximately 100 miles. Other corridors that could be developed will run between San Diego and Los Angeles, California, and Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga in...

AFP: Japanese car makers out to electrify Tokyo show
Tokyo — Move over hybrids -- the biggest buzz at this year's Tokyo Motor Show looks set to come from Electric Cars as The Dream of affordable zero-emission vehicles moves closer to reality. Japanese automakers, pioneers in hybrid cars powered by a mixture of petrol and electricity, are now looking to take fuel-efficient motoring to the next level with vehicles that run on rechargeable batteries. Nissan will put its electric car, the Leaf, on display to the public for the first time at...

Brad Pitt Is a Ladykiller Planetkiller: PHOTO
Back in 2001, in the wake of 9/11, Brad Pitt said the following about America’s dependence on Foreign oil: “We keep going back into the history of these extremists, these fundamentalists, and understanding the Islamic culture, and understanding Foreign Policy. We’re embracing religion, which is a beautiful thing to see, but the thing no one is talking about is oil. Why don’t we set ourselves free? We have the technology for Electric Cars, and we have other power sources....

Tesla gets tax break, hopes to open plant in Southern California
Tesla Motors will get tax credits that will allow it to expand its production of Electric Cars and create 1,400 jobs in California, State Treasurer Bill Lockyer announced Wednesday. The agreement with the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority will help Tesla avoid paying close to $30million in sales tax. "By helping Tesla stay and expand in California, this agreement will create valuable jobs for our battered economy," Lockyer said in an e-mailed...

Fisker to build hybrid cars at idled Del. GM plant
WILMINGTON, Del. -- Luxury automaker Fisker Automotive is buying a shuttered General Motors assembly plant in Delaware to produce plug-in hybrid Electric Cars, officials said Tuesday. The California-based company has signed a letter of intent with Motors Liquidation Co. (MLC), formerly known as General Motors Corp., to purchase the Wilmington plant for $18 million after a four-month evaluation period. Fisker, which recently won approval for $528.7 million in government loans to develop...

Brad Pitt: Off the Bandwagon and Onto the Bike
Why does Brad Pitt want all the polar bears to go glub-glub? Quick reminder. Way back in 2001, Pitt said this : “Why don’t we set ourselves free? We have the technology for Electric Cars, and we have other power sources. Yes, it would be expensive to make the switch over, but we could, and we would have complete autonomy from our need for oil. We would not have to Rape Alaska, and we wouldn’t have to be dependent on those guys over there. In the long term, if we could free...

GM Pioneered Electric Cars
A Q&A with the Chicago Tribune's Jim Mateja, in which he answers auto-related questions on hybrids, auto shows, turn signals, and more.

Fisker to build hybrid cars at idled Del. GM plant
WILMINGTON, DEL. — Luxury automaker Fisker Automotive is buying a shuttered General Motors assembly plant in Delaware to produce plug-in hybrid Electric Cars, officials said Tuesday. The California-based company has signed a letter of intent with Motors Liquidation Co. (MLC), formerly known as General Motors Corp., to purchase the Wilmington plant for $18 million after a four-month evaluation period. Fisker, which recently won approval for $528.7 million in government loans to develop...