Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, September 2016: new record?

2017 Chevrolet VoltThe past week has brought a "hat trick" of good news for Canadian plug-in electric vehicle owners. The Toronto Blue Jays made the major-league baseball playoffs, the Canadian government announced a national carbon price to come by 2018, and a spectacular September almost certainly shattered monthly electric-car sales records. DON'T MISS: U.S...

Plugless charging for 80 percent of electric cars by end of 2017: Evatran

Evatran Plugless wireless charger for Tesla Model SWireless charging for electric cars has been talked about almost as long as modern electric cars have been on sale. The thought of charging an electric car without having to wrestle with a bulky charging cable can certainly be appealing. So far, though, wireless-charging systems have only been available in limited quantities from a handful of...

CA to restrict use of term Autopilot: Tesla-owning pilot weighs in

Tesla AutopilotA recent news item from California aimed directly at Tesla's Autopilot system has me musing on words, meanings, and life and death. Last week, that state's Department of Motor Vehicles published the draft of a proposed new regulation that “…prohibits the advertisement of lower levels of automated systems, where the human driver is...

Fisker is coming back, he says, with 400-mile electric car

Henrik FiskerHenrik Fisker has designed some remarkable cars, among them Aston Martins, the BMW Z8, and of course the striking Fisker Karma range-extended electric luxury sedan. That vehicle, launched in 2012 by his namesake company, saw production of less than 3,000 units before the company collapsed in bankruptcy. The same vehicle will relaunch next year as...

Electric Citroën e-Mehari open-air utility vehicle now on sale in France

Citroën e-MehariIn 1968, Citroën unveiled a rather curious utility vehicle. Called the Mehari, it featured minimalist bodywork made of ABS plastic, and an air-cooled two-cylinder engine and front-wheel-drive components shared with the Citroën 2CV. It went on to become something of a cult classic, with around 150,000 built before production ended in...

LG Chem logs another electric-car win: Faraday Future to buy batteries

wireframe of possible Faraday Future production vehicle, from company promotional video at CES 2016South Korean firm LG Chem is one of the largest suppliers of lithium-ion battery cells for electric cars. It already counts 25 separate auto brands among its clients, and parent company LG contracted with General Motors to provide extensive development work on the Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car. Now LG Chem is adding another, much new carmaker to...

Was Paris a tipping point for electric cars? We mull it over

Longer-range Renault Zoe electric car, introduced at 2016 Paris Motor ShowAuto shows are sometimes hot, sometimes not. A lot of it has to do with what cars are shown, whether they're pure design studies, concepts pointing toward future vehicles, or actual production cars. And whether a show has "buzz" largely depends on the cadence of when automakers choose to release those different types of vehicles. DON'T MISS: 2017...

When will plug-in electric car sales exceed hybrid sales? Poll results

Jen Smith with her new 2016 Toyota Prius FourThe questions of whether and when sales of plug-in electric cars will resume their climb after a static 2015 are much on the minds of green-car advocates these days. It's taken as an article of faith that cars with plugs will grow as a proportion of the global market, ultimately supplanting large parts of the current gasoline fleet in decades to...

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...