Volkswagen tests mobile DC fast charging station for urban network gaps

Volkswagen mobile DC fast chargerAutomakers face some daunting challenges in selling electric vehicles to urban apartment-dwellers, who are often without a home charging point. As a partial response, Volkswagen has shown a portable DC fast charging unit aimed at urban environments or temporary use at events or in parking lots—and it could be a very useful part of a strategy...

Iron Man 2 reunion: Musk friend Larry Ellison named to Tesla board

Tesla Motors, Palo Alto, CaliforniaTesla announced Friday that it has added two independent directors to the company's board: Kathleen Wilson-Thompson and Larry Ellison. Yes, it’s that Larry Ellison—the Oracle founder, and one of the richest men in the world, who made a cameo alongside Musk in Iron Man 2. Ellison lives a jet-setting lifestyle—including a lot of...

California white and green carpool stickers expire New Year’s Day

Carpool lanes I-5, Seattle, Washington [Credit: SounderBruce-Wikimedia Commons]California plug-in car drivers with white or green carpool stickers can no longer use carpool lanes starting Tuesday. The state passed a new program last March that invalidates both the white stickers for electric cars and the green stickers for plug-in hybrids with the start of 2019. For many of those drivers, the state provided a way to extend...

Pickup drivers target Tesla Superchargers in “ICEing” incidents

Dodge flatbed blocking a Tesla Supercharger in Tennessee, fake charging [CREDIT: freckletan, Reddit]People are jealous of things they can't (or don't) have. In a spate of incidents reminiscent of "rolling coal," truck drivers have begun seemingly intentionally blocking whole banks of Tesla Superchargers across parts of the South. Photos shared across Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit over the weekend showed all kinds of trucks blocking...

Plug-in hybrids to charge again in Beverly Hills

EVgo charging station in Union City, California with resused BMW i3 battery backupBanning plug-in hybrids from public chargers is no good. That's the conclusion of a new California law signed in September, which forbids cities from restricting access to public chargers for any type of electric vehicles in the state. After making a big splash by banning plug-in hybrids from its public chargers last April, the city of Beverly...