The Obama administration has kicked off its electric car and battery offensive with a report laying out the facts and figures for its investments in advanced vehicles and batteries so far under the Recovery Act. Here’s the digit-by-digit highlights. Read more »
General Motors pulled back the curtain today on the warranty for the most expensive piece of its upcoming Chevy Volt: the lithium-ion battery. GM said today it will guarantee the battery for eight years or 100,000 miles, a fair stretch longer than the standard. Read more »
In the world of personal computers, you might say the problem exists between keyboard and chair. With Toyota’s cars, preliminary evidence suggests that in at least some cases, the problem arose between foot and accelerator. Read more »
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President Obama’s visit to Smith Electric Vehicles in Kansas City, Mo. last week was just a warm-up for what’s shaping up to be a full-on electric car and battery offensive by the White House this week. Read more »
For Quantum Fuel Systems, the road to electric car riches will be paved by deals with Fisker and government funds. That’s the hope of the company whose powertrain and software control systems lie at the core of Fisker’s upcoming plug-in hybrid Karma. Read more »
The Department of Energy has treated some companies unfairly in their bids to win loan guarantees for innovative energy tech, and risked “excluding some potential applicants unnecessarily,” according to a new report from the the watchdog arm of Congress. Read more »
Today the DOE has awarded $92 million for 43 new projects under the highly competitive ARPA-E program for high risk greentech research, marking the last of the ARPA-E grants to be funded under the Recovery Act. Read more »
Phoenix Motorcars hopes to rise from the ashes of bankruptcy to show a “newly configured” electric truck at a conference in Phoenix, Ariz. this month, and start making deliveries to commercial and government fleet customers toward the end of this year. Read more »
Bill Gates and Vinod Khosla have just turbo charged diesel engine startup EcoMotors International with a “substantial” amount of second-round financing. EcoMotors announced today that Khosla’s venture capital firm Khosla Ventures and Gates are the “two exclusive investors” in this round. Read more »
Some of the fog is lifting on the details of a partnership between Tesla Motors and Toyota, as Tesla has said that by the end of this month it plans to deliver two electric vehicles to Toyota, both converted from current Toyota models. Read more »
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Many of the best practices for keeping lithium-ion batteries healthy and happy for longer in electronic devices, like laptops, can also apply to their super-sized and fast-approaching cousins: electric cars. But with cars there’s a whole lot more at stake. Read more »
Motiv Power Systems aims to break into the nascent market for electric trucks and buses through the back door of the diesel truck market, providing a mix-and-match library of batteries and motors, and the electrical and communication system to tie it all together. Read more »
If Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. is already an 800-pound gorilla in the solar panel industry, it’s now seeking a more than $5 billion credit line to become one heavy beast. Read more »
“I think Apple changed the world in numerous ways. I think Tesla’s going to do the same,” says George Blankenship, who helped shape Apple’s retail strategy and has just joined Tesla in a similar role. Blankenship filled us in on what’s next. Read more »
KLD Energy Technologies, an Austin, Tex.-based startup developing motor systems for electric vehicles, has just raised about $4.9 million of a planned $6 million equity financing round , according to a new filing with the SEC. Read more »
Absent from Obama’s speech today at Smith Electric Vehicles was any mention of the energy bill now languishing in the Senate, in contrast to his speech at the government-backed factory site of solar startup Solyndra in May. Read more »
Tesla Motors, the electric car maker that has taken pains to distance itself from auto companies and cultivate an image as a tech innovator, has now hired Apple’s former real estate chief to head up development of Tesla’s retail strategy and network. Read more »
ZAP, the Santa Rosa, Calif.-based developer of low-speed electric vehicles, says it has closed a deal to buy a 51 percent stake in China’s Zhijiang Jonway Automobile Co. for $29.03 million in cash. Read more »
President Obama on Thursday plans to swing by Smith Electric Vehicles, a company working with government backing on electric trucks for commercial fleets and eying an IPO. Read more »
If six research projects awarded funding by the Department of Energy this week pan out, they could enable tons of captured carbon to be put to use as a building block for chemicals, fuels, concrete and other products. Read more »
Folks in commercial and public buildings will see the light by 2014 — next-gen light, that is, thanks to adoption of technologies including advanced fluorescent lamps, light emitting diodes (LEDs) and automated controls, according to a report out today from Lux Research. Read more »
When it comes to solutions for greener transportation, one size does not fit all. Here’s the latest rundown on which plug-in models are scheduled to roll out when and where, how much range they’ll deliver and the expected pricing. Read more »
Tesla’s stock has sunk for the first time below its $17 IPO price, shedding more than 16 percent today to close at $16.11. At one point the stock traded as low as $15.83, a significant drop from last week’s peak above $30. Read more »
Today Nissan popped the hood on five vehicle technologies set for deployment in the 2010 fiscal year, offering a glimpse of some of the oft-overlooked tools for reducing vehicle emissions long before electric cars go mainstream. Read more »
Toshiba and Mitsubishi Motors have teamed up to work on battery systems for electric cars, the laptop and electronics giant announced on Friday. But if everyone needs multiple sources, then Toshiba is hardly a shoe-in for a contract to supply Mitsubishi with the battery systems. Read more »
What does the future of urban mobility look like? Well, according to the designers and engineers behind BMW’s Megacity Vehicle it will be lightweight and electric with a bit of luxury. Read more »
As Google’s ongoing standoff with Chinese authorities has demonstrated, doing business in China can be a labyrinthine task. Who do greentech entrepreneurs need to know to start doing business in China, and how can you start making those connections? Read more »
Is this the beginning of a trajectory for Tesla’s stock that will echo battery maker A123 Systems’ slide from levels above $20 after going public in September, to around $9 today? Read more »
Nearly half of all truck fleets are measuring their emissions, according to a new industry survey from the fleet management and leasing services company PHH Arval. So is the glass half empty or half full? Read more »
In a new supply deal between energy behemoth ConocoPhillips and A123 Systems, whose batteries are slated to power upcoming plug-in vehicles from Fisker Automotive and Chrysler, Big Oil meets little lithium-ion. Read more »
As Tesla’s stock keeps on rising, Ray Lane, the Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist and former Oracle executive who has backed plug-in hybrid startup Fisker Automotive, says he sees an IPO for Fisker down the road. Read more »
A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday gave the green light to Fisker’s $20 million deal to buy a plant in Wilmington, Del. where GM once built Saturn, Pontiac and Opel GT models, and where Fisker aims to build its second-gen cars. Read more »
How much is an electric car maker worth? Some of the world’s largest automakers have invested significant sums into plug-in vehicle development efforts, but Tesla’s IPO gives us the first real glimpse of how the market values an electric vehicle business. Read more »
Tesla Motors’ shares ended their first day of trading up 40.5 percent over their $17 offering price, at $23.89. The electric car maker saw most of its gains late in the day, when the stock surged as high as $25. Read more »
Tesla delivered a solid Nasdaq debut amid a tumbling global market, with its stock opening at $19 a share. It pulled back to $17.62 per share by late morning, but had zoomed upwards of $20 per share by mid-afternoon. Read more »
China has historically been a tough market to crack for foreign companies, and cleantech companies, too, face a number of hurdles in that space. Here’s what you need to know to start doing green business in China, and how to make the right ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
UPDATED Here’s the rundown on who owns what portion of Tesla Motors, who will and won’t be selling shares at the IPO, and what their stakes will be worth (on paper, at least) at Tesla’s debut price of $17 per share. Read more »
Tesla has upped the ante on its IPO. According to an update posted this morning with the SEC, Tesla plans to sell 13.3 million shares tomorrow, up from the 11.1 million shares previously planned for the initial public offering. Read more »
Tesla Motors, the electric car startup scheduled to debut in public trading on Tuesday, could deliver the biggest IPO for a U.S. car company since Ford Motor. It will also reveal the degree of public confidence in electric vehicles at this early stage of the market. Read more »
As we come within months of cars like the Nissan LEAF, Coda Sedan and others becoming available for sale and lease, will uncertainty about these models’ long-term value give cold feet to prospective buyers? Read more »
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