Chevy Bolt EV reviewed by BMW i3 driver: electric cars compared

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV Premier and 2017 BMW i3 electric car, Aug 2017        [photo: Tom Moloughney]Owners of specific electric cars sometimes tend to become boosters and fans for their particular EV as well as plugging in to drive in general. So it was with Tom Moloughney, whose purchase of the very first 2014 BMW i3 REx range-extended electric car in the U.S. he wrote about for us three years ago. That car was regrettably totaled in an...

Hyundai-Kia: eight electric cars by 2022, dedicated EV platform

2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric - frame from video road testIt's long been said in the auto industry that Hyundai-Kia is the only competitor that truly scares industry colossus Toyota. Thirty years ago, the Korean company was a bit player, producing designs adapted from obsolete Mitsubishi technology. Today it's a major global player, reacting fast to market swings—and its goal is to be second only...

European electric and plug-in hybrid sales for Jan-June 2017

2017 Renault ZoeThe numbers are in, which means it's once again time take a look at European electric and plug-in hybrid sales. Delivery and registration data is compiled from January through June of 2017, and once more, it remains clear Europe has a favorite electric car. The Renault Zoe walks away with an even higher market share than it had in May and leaves...

Gas stations aren’t a model for electric-car charging: ChargePoint CEO

ebee streelight charging stationFor more than a century, motorists have been accustomed to gas stations, which provide places to stop and fill up a car with fuel, in recent years with larger and larger convenience stores attached. The model is so commonplace, it may mean drivers don't know electric-car charging stations even exist, since they often lack signage or branding...

San Diego utility offers $10,000 off Nissan Leaf, BMW i3 electric cars

2017 Nissan LeafFor southern California residents, it's an excellent time to start considering the purchase of a BMW i3 or Nissan Leaf electric car. San Diego Gas & Electric has joined a host of other utility companies in the state in offering incentives towards the purchase of an i3 or a Leaf. In total, the incentives slash $10,000 from the purchase price of...

Does Tesla Model 3 compete with Bolt EV and Leaf, or BMW 3-Series?

2018 BMW 3-SeriesThere's a new generation of the BMW 3-Series sport sedan coming next year, and rumors suggest there will be an all-electric version in 2019 or 2020. If so, there's only one car that it would be targeting: the Tesla Model 3, the 220-mile or 310-mile electric sedan from the Silicon Valley carmaker that says it will be making 5,000 of them by the end...

Is the Tesla Model 3 really ‘Car 2.0’? Maybe not: here’s why

2017 Tesla Model 3 and 2011 Nissan Leaf, Half Moon Bay, California, Aug 2017  [photo: Scott Forrest]Like the company's three previous electric cars, the Tesla Model 3 launched into production with a splashy media event during which owners received the keys to their new cars and the company's fans applauded. Like the Model S and Model X, production is starting at very low rates, with the rate of increase—to 5,000 cars a week by December 31...

Baojun E100: GM’s tiny, two-seat electric car for China

Baojun E100 electric carMost North Americans and Europeans will likely never have heard of Baojun, but it's one of many brands operated under General Motors' SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture in China. Its portfolio is mostly made up of small sedans, multi-purpose vehicles (small minivans), hatchbacks, and a crossover utility vehicle, but the brand recently undertook its...

Electric cars after 46 years: Chevy Bolt EV vs lunar rover

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV vs Lunar RoverPresident John F. Kennedy challenged the United States to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, and the country's space agency met his challenge with five months to go. However, in 1971, NASA sent a remarkable piece of equipment into space with astronauts—the Lunar Rover—which was actually designed and built by General Motors...

Will Formula E Racing Boost Electric Car Sales By 77 Million? Erm…

Nick Heidfeld in a Mahindra M4Electric Formula E race car at the 2017 Goodwood Festival of SpeedThree years ago, an all-new motor racing series began. Called Formula E, the series pits battery-electric race cars from teams around the world in competition on circuits in the heart of some of the world's most iconic cities. The third season has just wound up, and the list of carmakers fielding electric-car race teams is growing: Audi, BMW...

Tesla Model 3 battery cells will turn a profit for Panasonic by next year

Tour of Tesla battery gigafactory for invited owners, Reno, Nevada, July 2016Relatively few people focus on it, but the huge Japanese electronics company Panasonic is a minority shareholder in electric-car maker Tesla. The deal dates all the way back to November 2010, the same year that Tesla completed its initial public offering after Toyota took a stake in the company and sold Tesla its Fremont assembly plant in...

Bollinger B1 electric utility truck: 6,000 signups in two weeks

Bollinger B1It seems as though online signups are all becoming all the rage among electric-car makers. The practice probably started with Tesla, but it really accelerated in April 2016 when the company revealed the Tesla Model 3 electric sedan in a hugely publicized event watched around the world. The company's first lower-priced model was unveiled in front...

Tesla semi truck to test self-driving, capable of ‘platooning’: report

Teaser for Tesla semi truck debuting in SeptemberWith Tesla, there's always something new coming up to keep owners, buyers, and fans excited. The company's main task over the next year is to get its lower-priced Model 3 electric car into volume assembly at high quality, a process CEO Elon Musk has called "production hell." But there's more to come, one of the new products being Tesla's promised...

Tesla Model 3 Performance version coming, after ‘production hell’ ends

2017 Tesla Model 3, in photo tweeted by Elon Musk on July 9, 2017Now that the Tesla Model 3 has officially entered production, the electric-car maker's main goal will be to ensure the manufacturing process ramps up smoothly. With 1,800 new reservations reportedly placed each day for the affordable electric sedan, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to confirm the company needs to get through six months of...

Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, July 2017: Golf season

2017 Volkswagen e-GolfThe Volkswagen e-Golf launched in Canada in late June, tallying 39 sales before the month’s end, and followed that with 84 units in its first full month of availability. Aided by the e-Golf, the Toyota Prius Prime and the soon-to-arrive second-generation Nissan Leaf, plug-in electric vehicles may push above 1 percent of the market for...

Faraday Future gets $14 million; factory moved to CA from Vegas

Artist’s impression of Faraday Future’s proposed plant in Hanford, CaliforniaElectric-car maker Faraday Future has received an emergency injection of $14 million to move its FF 91 luxury electric car closer to market. The rescue funds come in the form of a loan from Innovatus Capital Partners, after Faraday Future pledged its California-based headquarters as collateral. For now, the $14 million will keep the company afloat...

Tesla Model 3 electric car: what’s your take? Poll results

2017 Tesla Model 3 With the Tesla Model 3 electric car now in early production and an aggressive ramp rate targeted, it's getting lots of media attention. Part of that is due to the allure of the Tesla brand and fascinating with company CEO Elon Musk. Some more may be due to the widespread misapprehension that the Model 3 is the first long-range electric car for...

Nissan Leaf electric car platform to spawn more models, SUV included: report

Teaser for 2018 Nissan Leaf debuting on September 6, 2017The 2018 Nissan Leaf apparently won't be the brand's lone electric car for much longer, if a new report with details on plans to expand the electric car's underpinnings to additional models proves accurate. Following the introduction of the second-generation 2018 Nissan Leaf, the electric car's platform will spawn multiple models, and an electric...