Volkswagen ID R sets new EV lap record at Nürburgring

Volkswagen ID R at NürburgringVolkswagen's new ID R electric race car continues setting records. After obliterating the record climbing Pikes Peak—not just for electric cars, but for all cars—last June, on Monday, the car set the lap record for electric cars at Germany's famously demanding Nürburgring race track. At the Nürburgring, the electric ID R...

Electric car ads: Latest from Nissan and Audi take very different approaches

2019 Nissan Leaf PlusDoes driving an electric car feel like flying? Nissan has released a new ad campaign for its Leaf electric car suggesting that—and featuring professional wingsuit flyer Roberta Mancino. At one point, with the road turning electric blue below and behind the car, the car turns into a wingsuit, allowing Mancino, the driver, to glide down from a...

First all-electric airline could soar with converted old seaplanes

Harbour Air De Havilland DHC-2 Mk III Beaver flying out of Vancouver, B.C. (Credit: Harbour Air)By land, by sea, and by air, battery power is expanding to drive all kinds of transportation. The most challenging of these modes may be air travel. It's harder to loft several thousand pounds of batteries into the air, to make them last potentially an hour or more. And if they run out of juice, pilots can't just pull over and call for a tow...

Aston Martin Rapide E makes first public appearance at Monaco e-Grand Prix

2020 Aston Martin Rapide E at the 2018/2019 Formula E Monaco ePrixThe Aston Martin Rapide E just made its public debut sitting on a stand at the Shanghai auto show last month, but the company didn't wait long to show it off blasting around a track. The car appeared Saturday racing around the street circuit set up for the Formula E Monaco Grand Prix, which was run on Saturday on a shortened version of the Monaco...

YouTube-famous Tesla rebuilder opens shop in “coopetition” with Tesla

Rich Benoit and Chris Salvo, founders of the Electric Garage [YouTube screen capture]Without dealerships, service has been a regular challenge for Tesla and its owners. Reports are so rampant about months-long wait times for Tesla service that CEO Elon Musk has acknowledged that addressing service complaints is his No. 1 priority for 2019, especially after the company's sales exploded as Model 3 production ramped up. Now the...

1960 Henney Kilowatt electric car was a junction box of 20th century future

1960 Henney Kilowatt [for sale on Hemmings]If your historical knowledge of electric cars goes back to the first Tesla Roadster, the GM EV1 or, perhaps, one of the many intriguing manufacturer conversions from the 1980s or ‘90s, you have many decades of what-ifs to catch up on. Case in point: There’s something far geekier and steeped in what could have been, in this electric...

Epic electric road trip: After 3 years and 33 countries, it’s a wrap

Wiebe Wakker finishes electric-car tourWiebe Wakker took one very long drive in an electric car—for a total of 1119 days, covering 59,000 miles and traversing portions of 33 countries on the way from the Netherlands to Australia. It was, by just about any standard, an epic road trip. Wakker reached Sydney last Sunday, April 7, and was welcomed with a parade of EVs, across the...

2019 Audi E-tron ads take aim at electric myths

Audi e-tron quattro ad: One reason that electric-car adoption hasn't taken off faster is that, while automakers market the heck out of the benefits of SUVs and crossover vehicles, they launch EVs with nary a peep. Now Audi is on the cusp of launching its first all-electric model and is taking direct aim at many of the concerns that potential buyers have about electric...

New electric motor could eliminate transmissions

Linear Labs Hunstable Electric Turbine motorIt isn’t just batteries that are making big strides in electric cars. Several companies are also striving to make electric motors more efficient and powerful. Now a new Texas company claims it has a new motor technology that can generate twice the torque, three times the power, and 10 percent more range for electric cars in the same weight...