Showing posts with label Electric Vehicles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Electric Vehicles. Show all posts

Thursday, February 17, 2011

BMW to Release Details on New Sub-Brand on February 21st


The BMW Group will finally reveal full details on its new sub-brand in a press conference on Monday, February 21st, 2011. From what we know up until now, the Bavarian company’s yet-to-be-named sub-brand will be applied to a new family of radical electric vehicles, the first of which will be an advanced, electrically driven and lightweight hatchback currently known by its codename, Megacity.

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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The Biggest Threat to the Chevy Volt are...Rats?!


Okay, readers: hands up if you like rats. No, not the cute white ones you see in science labs or can buy at pet shops. I’m talking about the sewer-dwelling, disease-carrying ones that invade your house to eat, poop and scare your misses.

What if I told you those same feral rats are not only a danger to your home but also to your brand-spanking-new plug-in hybrid extended range electric vehicle? How’s that grab you, hmm?

So a month ago , the automotive mavens at Kicking Tires were handed the keys to a new Chevrolet Volt. What’s that got to do with rats, you ask? Well, in a move that some at the office have labeled, “karmic justice” and others have labeled, “bloomin’ rats”, a member of the repressed rodent classes has attacked Kicking Tires’ futuristic loaner and rendered it befuddled. *Gasp!*

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Rinspeed gets Real with its BamBoo EV Study, Could Enter Production


Rinspeed, the Swiss design house that dares to be different, has released real-life photos and additional information on its 2011 Geneva Salon-bound BamBoo, a concept study for a pure-electric beach cart. The latest creation from Rinspeed was jointly developed and built with Swiss engineering firms 4erC and Esoro, and features several innovations.

These include the canopy-like inflatable roof tent, which is covered on the outside with a water-resistant coating while the inner side is made from bamboo threads, and can be used as a beach mattress. In addition, both rear seats are inflatable and stored in two aluminum cases on the open cargo bed, and – they too can be taken to the beach.

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Porsche Quietly Rolls Out Pure-Electric Boxster E Prototypes


In a German-language only press release and without much fanfare, Porsche announced the introduction of a trio of electric-powered Boxster E prototypes. Over the next few months, these pure-electric test vehicles will be trialed in and around the city of Stuttgart to provide feedback on the feasibility and usability of the concept in everyday use.

Porsche is keeping mum on most of the details surrounding the three prototype Boxster roadsters simply stating that the cars are equipped with two-electric motors that deliver up to 180kW or 241-horsepower, and are fed through a 29-kWh battery package.

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Monday, February 14, 2011

Opel Ampera EV Police Cruiser: Volt's European Cousin Getting Ready for Patrol


If there's one way to kick-start sales of specialty vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt and its European counterpart, the Opel Ampera, that's by enlisting the government as one of your clients. And with a starting price of €42,900 (about US$58,000 at the current exchange rates) in Europe, GM's Opel division will need all the help it can get to sell the Ampera.

Well before the Ampera hits European showrooms at the end of the year, Opel is already exploring the possibility of a police package for its range-extended electric vehicle. According to the company, the Ampera could be the perfect police car for urban use.

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Thursday, February 10, 2011

VIDEO: Nissan Esflow Sports Coupe Concept in Some Tron-Like Digital Action


Leaving aside the name which sounds like something a German (no offense) would say to an English bloke that stole his parking space, Nissan's Geneva motorshow-bound Esflow concept is a very interesting proposal for a pure-electric sports coupe. It uses the Leaf's battery technology but with a lot more juice from the electric motors that motivate the rear wheels and a dramatic coupe styling. Following an initial release with photos and preliminary details (see here), Nissan has now published a CGI video of the sports coupe study that you can watch right after the break.

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BMW ActiveE: Production Version of All-Electric 1-Series to Debut at Geneva Show


The ActiveE is the production version of BMW's 2010 Detroit Motor Show EV concept of the same name and it will share the limelight with the Vision CD Roadster study at the Bavarian firm's Geneva Salon stand. BMW plans to build a test fleet of more than 1,000 units of the fully electric version of the 1-Series Coupe, and lease them to select customers in the USA, Europe and China. The ActiveE will serve as a test bed for technologies that will be incorporated into the into BMW's future electric models such as the Megacity EV, due in 2013.

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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Nissan Esflow is a Small RWD Sports Coupe Concept that runs on Electricity and it will Debut in Geneva


The time has come for Nissan to release its plans for the rapidly approaching Geneva Salon. For this year's edition of the show, the Japanese automaker has prepared an impressive sports coupe concept named the ESFLOW. It has most of the right ingredients to satisfy purists, including a rear-wheel drive layout, a 0 to 100km/h [62 mph] sprint time of under 5 seconds, two seats and an aggressive design, but there's a catch: it runs purely on electricity.

The Japanese automaker claims it has "captured the excitement of a sports car and the environmental benefits of an electric vehicle and blended them into one dramatic two-seater concept".

The ESFLOW has been created from the ground up as a pure electric vehicle using technology introduced in the Leaf EV. The concept model runs on two electric motors with an unspecified output that are placed above the axis of the rear wheels, in a mid-ship position. These motors independently control the left and right wheels, with Nissan claiming that the torque is optimized to ensure vehicle stability and control as well as efficient power regeneration.

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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Citroën E-3POD Antistatic Concept for a Futuristic Electric Vehicle


This here is the E-3POD Antistatic design study and it was revealed at the Royal College of Art’s Interim Degree Show in London as part of the Double Challenge project sponsored by Citroën and aerodynamic simulation software company EXA. The task of the second year students was to envision an ultra-compact vehicle that could influence the design language of the automaker’s future electric cars.

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Ford to Unveil a "Groundbreaking New Vehicle" Along with European Premieres at Geneva Show


As we're nearing closer to the 2011 Geneva Salon, automakers are providing us with more details about their plans. Today, Ford announced that it will display a number of new production and concept cars including what the company simply described as a "groundbreaking new vehicle" without getting into any specifics.

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Monday, February 7, 2011

Geneva Preshow: Infiniti Outlines New Concept for Entry-Level Model


A pair of black and white sketches outlining the shape of what appears to be a hatchback model and a statement from Infiniti's Vice President, Andy Palmer, in 2010 saying that the brand is exploring the development of a new entry-level vehicle, is all we get about the Japanese luxury brand's new concept car that will debut at the Geneva Motor Show in the beginning of March.

However, we'll remind you during the September 2010 announcement, Mr. Palmer had shown a more revealing teaser rendering of an all-electric model capable of seating up to five passengers, which he said would enter production in 2013.

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Wednesday, February 2, 2011

BMW and PSA Peugeot Citroën Form Joint Venture to Produce Hybrid Components


Already partners in developing 4-cylinder petrol engines, BMW and PSA Peugeot Citroën have decided to set up 50-50 equity joint venture named the BMW Peugeot Citroën Electrification, which will primarily focus on developing hybrid components. Sharing the cost of research and development as well as production and component purchasing, the two companies expect to achieve significant economies of scale.

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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Tesla to Extend its Lineup with an All-Electric SUV by 2014

*Opening Photo: Tesla Model S
Lately, the folks over at Tesla have been very busy developing the upcoming Model S sedan and, together with Toyota, the all-electric version of the RAV4 compact SUV. But there’s more, as according to an LA Times report, the California-based automaker is also working on a small SUV of its own, currently named Model X.

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Friday, January 28, 2011

Poll: Should GM give in and call the Volt a hybrid?


Apart from the humorous articles and the plethora of eBay finds we come up with, Carscoop’s bread and butter is automotive news straight from the manufacturer. And as such, we read a lot of press releases. In all the ones I’ve read, General Motors refuses to call the Chevrolet Volt a hybrid. It’s a range extended electric vehicle.

I speculate that it might have something to do with hybrids being uncool (so sayeth GM CEO Dan Akerson) or to avoid comparisons with that other hybrid. You know, the one made by the world’s other biggest car manufacturer.

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Thursday, January 27, 2011

EV Owners in California to Feel the Shock of Higher Electricity Rates


Woe betide the electric car. Outpaced by their petrol-powered cousins in the 1900s, saddled with heavy and potentially dangerous batteries in the 1970s and crushed in the name of the Almighty Dollar in the 1990s, it’s been a rough road from there to here.

And now, on the dawn of a new age where electric cars seem poised to take their rightful place alongside gasoline cars, the electricity companies are about to throw a wrench into the works. If you live in California and intend to buy a plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius or Chevrolet Volt or an all-electric Nissan Leaf, you could be in for a...shock.

If the energy giants have their way, the Chevy Cobalt, which would have to rate on my list as one of the least desirable cars built by GM, is more economical to own or operate than any of the above. The reason?

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Chevrolet Speeds Up Volt Rollout, will be Available Nationwide by the End of 2011


The Chevrolet Volt is currently available for sale only in a few states across the U.S., the reason being that GM was initially cautious and wanted to probe customer interest first. It turns out customers like the plug-in hybrid / extended range model (take your pick) more than anticipated, so Chevrolet today announced that it’s fast-tracking the national roll-out to match customer interest.

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Nissan Picks Up 2011 COTY Trophy for Leaf


Now, before someone adds a comment of the sort "in other related news, Audi unveiled the new A6", let us make it clear that we're not reporting on the actual Car of the Year (COTY) 2011 results, which were announced in late November 2010, but on the special ceremony that took place at the Pavillion Gabriel in Paris earlier this week to hand over the trophy to this year's winner, the new Nissan Leaf.

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Volvo V60 Diesel-Electric Plug-in Hybrid Returns 125 MPG, will Debut at Geneva Show

* Standard 2011 Volvo V60 shown in photos

The 2011 Geneva Motor Show will host the world premiere of the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid, a near production-ready model that is said to return a very impressive 125 mpg US (1.9 lt/100 km), with CO2 emissions under 50 g/km. In order to achieve this, engineers entered a new variable into the plug-in hybrid equation: a diesel engine.

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Proposed Bill to Increase Number of Plug-in Hybrid and EVs Eligible for Federal Tax Rebate


Michigan congressmen Sander Levin and Carl Levin proposed a new piece of legislation on Wednesday, which would potentially increase the number of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles eligible for the $7,500 tax credit from 200,000 to 500,000 per manufacturer.

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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Green for Green: The Truth About America’s Car Buying Habits


At the Society of Automotive Analysts' (SAA) 2011 Automotive Outlook Conference in Detroit, J.D. Power released some statistics on U.S. light vehicle sales in 2010. The figures make an interesting reading.

86% of vehicles sold were gasoline-powered, 8.7% were flex-fueled, 2.6% were diesels and 2.4% were hybrids. Their forecast for 2020 is perhaps even more stunning. An estimated 71.5% of vehicles sold will be gasoline-powered, 10% will be flex-fueled, 9.5% will be hybrids and just 1% will be pure electric.

More than seventy percent will be gasoline powered in 2020? Whatever happened to my Hydrogen-7 or Tesla Model S? As Rebecca Lindland, Director of Strategic Review for IHS Automotive explains, nothing.

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