Nissan Leaf S quietly gets 30-kwh battery upgrade, higher price

2016 Nissan LeafFor 2016, the model year just ending, the Nissan Leaf electric car got a larger-capacity battery for all but its lowest trim level. The Leaf SV and SL models this year have been fitted with a 30-kilowatt-hour battery, up from the previous 24-kwh capacity, that boosts their EPA-rated range from 84 to 107 miles. The base Leaf S version, the only one...

Chevy Bolt EV allocations: dealer in California gets electric-car update

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, road test, California coastline, Sep 2016As its new electric car gets closer to public sale, General Motors has apparently made its first allocations of 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EVs to Chevy dealers. The news comes via a posting on the GM-Volt forum from a southern California dealership. Rick Alpern, the general manager of Keyes Chevrolet in Van Nuys, California, wrote that the dealer had...

2017 BMW i3 preview

2017 BMW i3The 2017 BMW i3 represents the first significant update of BMW's electric car since it went on sale in the U.S. back in May 2014. This mid-cycle refresh includes several updates, most notably a much larger battery pack and a corresponding increase in its EPA-rated range. Battery capacity rises 50 percent, from 22 to 33 kilowatt hours, and BMW says...

2017 Chevy Bolt EV review consensus: car is good, range is real

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EVThe 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car isn't on sale yet, but quite a lot of useful information is already available to potential buyers. General Motors recently confirmed the $37,495 base price (before Federal, state, and local incentives), and an EPA-rated 238-mile range—meeting its original promises. Several media outlets, including this...

Plug-in electric car sales in Sept: Volt steady, Leaf higher

2017 Chevrolet VoltSales of plug-in electric cars in September chugged along steadily, with steady sales from both the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid and stronger totals for the Nissan Leaf battery-electric car. Chevrolet logged 2.031 deliveries of its Volt hatchback, likely now almost all the new second-generation model, raising the year-to-date total to 16,326. That's...

Nissan electric subcompact below Leaf in future electric-car lineup?

2016 Renault Zoe electric carThe 2011 Nissan Leaf was the first mass-priced modern electric car when it launched in December 2010. Nissan has since sold close to a quarter of a million Leafs, and together with its alliance partner Renault it has now sold more than 350,000 all-electric vehicles. But the Leaf is still with us, albeit with a slightly longer range, whereas the...

Volkswagen electric-car concept teased before Paris Motor Show

Teaser for Volkswagen electric car concept debuting at 2016 Paris auto showToday, Volkswagen sells one all-electric car under its own brand in multiple markets—the e-Golf electric variant of its well-known five-door compact hatchback—and another in Europe only, the e-UP, a battery-electric minicar. But in the wake of continuing fallout from the Volkswagen diesel scandal, the company is wrenching itself toward...

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV first drive: 240 miles in an electric car

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, road test, California coastline, Aug 2016We drove a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car 240 miles on a single charge last week. And that was the lowest range achieved among four journalists driving four Bolt EVs along the California coast. One driver covered essentially the same trip with fully 32 miles remaining, according to the car’s display. DON'T MISS: 2017 Chevy Bolt EV...