As automakers produce electric cars in greater numbers, public charging infrastructure will become even more crucial to lure new buyers and convince them the cars can be practical. Some automakers have already invested in charging infrastructure, while others are just starting to contemplate public charging stations for the electric cars they plan... Daimler invests in ChargePoint to grow electric-car charging in Europe, joins BMW
As automakers produce electric cars in greater numbers, public charging infrastructure will become even more crucial to lure new buyers and convince them the cars can be practical. Some automakers have already invested in charging infrastructure, while others are just starting to contemplate public charging stations for the electric cars they plan... 
Following successful trials, Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler plans to produce a small run of all-electric large commercial trucks for the European market. These trucks will be made available to a small number of European test customers for 12-month trials, with the deliveries slated to begin later this year. The decision to go forward with a... 
In addition to automakers and policymakers, battery-electric cars can count on support from a variety of advocacy groups. But grassroots support for hydrogen fuel-cell cars hasn't germinated to quite the same extent. So, in the absence of a large cadre of individual consumers to act as advocates, a mix of automakers, infrastructure companies, and... 
It takes people to make cars: to lift and install parts, check quality, test-drive them after assembly, and so forth. Automation has eliminated many of the jobs performed by humans a century ago on the Ford Model T line, and made the rest much less physically punishing for line workers. But electric cars pose a new threat: they will require even... 
Since its launch eight years ago, Daimler's Car2Go car-sharing service has expanded to multiple cities across Europe, the U.S., and China. Daimler—parent company of Mercedes-Benz, Smart, and a handful of other brands—was one of the first automakers to get involved in car sharing, but several other manufacturers are showing interest as... 
Many governments across the globe have enacted stricter emissions standards to curb air pollution and greenhouse gases; others plan to do so. Some have also drafted incentives and other policies to promote zero-emission vehicles, especially electric cars, to encourage the market and help achieve these emissions reductions. Germany's government... 
With a slew of 200-mile electric cars planned for 2018 and later, the question of how their drivers will be able to make long-distance trips is coming to the fore in a big way. Silicon Valley electric-car maker Tesla Motors laid out the template with its Supercharger network, which now numbers 327 sites in the U.S. and more than 400 sites outside... 
While it plans to launch 10 new electric cars by 2025, Mercedes-Benz is far from done trying to improve the efficiency of internal-combustion engines. The German luxury automaker is giving its lineup of engines a major overhaul, in fact. It plans to introduce a new family of 4-, 6-, and 8-cylinder engines, with the new engines starting to arrive... 
The redesigned 2018 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive debuted just before the recent the 2016 Paris Motor Show. It switches over to the current-generation ForTwo platform, introduced as a gasoline-powered coupe version for the 2016 model year. As with the outgoing-generation model, the 2018 ForTwo Electric Drive will be available as either a coupe or... 
One of several new electric cars and concepts at last week's Paris Motor Show was the electric version of the second-generation Smart minicar. As Smart pointed out, it's the only maker that offers the option of gasoline or electric powertrains in every model it makes. Those are the ForTwo two-seat coupe, the ForTwo cabriolet with its roll-back... 
Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler is pushing for more electric cars, and that has the company's labor leaders thinking about how such a shift might affect its workers. Electric motors and drivetrains require far fewer components than internal-combustion engines, meaning fewer workers are needed to assemble them. The technical knowledge needed to design...