Even though Tesla’s second electric vehicle the Model S is still about two years away, Tesla CEO Elon Musk laid out the company’s road map for two more new electric cars at an event in Palm Springs: the Model X SUV and a $30,000 EV. Read more »
At the Cleantech Investor Summit in Palm Springs, Calif. on Wednesday, GM Ventures President John Lauckner highlighted how GM Ventures could help entrepreneurs and startups, and also what GM Ventures is looking for in terms of its investments. Read more »
Tesla’s next-generation electric sedan, the Model S, won’t be out until 2013, but the EV maker has already started testing the alpha version of the car on the roads. And Tesla has just released this video of the alpha Model S in real world driving tests. Read more »
It’s a driverless pod that runs on a battery pack along tracks guided by magnets in the ground. Getting a ride on the car was an apt introduction to the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates. Read more »
Electric vehicle drive train system maker KLD Energy is looking to raise $10 million in debt and securities, and has closed on a little over $2 million of that round. The startup has planned to build its business via electric scooters in Asia. Read more »
The argument against electric cars is that if the grid is powered by mostly coal, then so are our cars. But the long term goal is to move the grid over to clean power. However, here’s the bumpy road ahead for these transitions. Read more »
The new wave of electric cars will be connected cars, both via a power cord, but also through the increased use of communication networks. The latest example of this comes from Sprint, which is providing the connection for Ecotality’s Blink electric car charging stations. Read more »
The Inhabitat crew hit the Detroit Auto Show and checked out some of the hottest hybrid, fly-wheel and all electric cars. Watch their footage: Read more »
The chief engineer behind the electric RAV 4, which is under development by electric car startup Tesla Motors and auto giant Toyota, sits down with us to chat about the future of the deal and the details of the car for this week’s Green Overdrive Show. Read more »
Here’s the bad news from next-gen biofuel producer Range Fuels: The company has let some workers go. But the good news the company wants you to know is that Range Fuels is still planning to produce enough cellulosic ethanol to meet a government estimate for 2011. Read more »
Electric vehicle makers are trying to tackle that EV battery safety issue with design, technology and rhetoric. You can see some good examples at the Detroit Auto Show this week, like Volvo, and Tesla. Read more »
If you’ve ever used a networked road tolling service then you know how convenient it is. Well, what if cars had connections in them at all times that turned them into driving credit cards. That’s the idea behind a Toronto-based startup called Skymeter. Read more »
A new study out from IBM offers some insights into consumer attitudes toward EVs, disparities between consumers and auto industry executives on the relative importance of things like government incentives and oil prices, and about how much consumers are willing to pay for charging equipment. Read more »
Swiss grid giant ABB has put $10 million into car charging company ECOtality and linked a North American manufacturing agreement. Looks like ABB is picking its preferred winner for the U.S. car charging network to come. Read more »
It’s that time again, when automakers haul their wares out to Detroit for the North American International Auto Show. The event, which kicks off on Monday, will include an array of concepts for more efficient and less polluting cars, including hybrids, plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles. Read more »
Ford’s first consumer all-electric car, the Ford Focus Electric, will go on sale by the end of 2011. It’ll have a range of between 80 to 100 miles, a lithium ion battery from LG Chem, and a 3 to 4 hour charge time. Read more »
GM and LG Chem are licensing a broad suite of patents from Argonne National Laboratory to develop lithium-ion battery cells and packs for next-generation electric cars. LG Chem will use the IP to make cells in Michigan starting next year. Read more »
Tesla shows off the design of its Model S, next-gen electric sedan, via a series of videos. It’s some Model-S porn for ya, since we’re going to have to wait almost two years to buy one of these. Read more »
The Volt plus wireless charging is an early adopter power match made in heaven. At CES, GM said it will offer wireless charging in some cars — including the Volt — via startup Powermat. GM has also backed Powermat with $5 million. Read more »
For this week’s Green Overdrive show, we take Volkswagen’s Blue-e-motion Golf for a spin. It has four driving modes to tweak the regenerative braking, which I liked, but it won’t be on the market until late 2013, or 2014, which I didn’t like. Read more »
Electric car startup Coda has been in the process of raising $125 million — so now that the company has pushed back its launch date, how far along is the fund raise? Out of a planned $125 million Coda has raised $76 million. Read more »
Leave it to cooler-than-thou electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors to know its mobile graphic chips. Tesla announced this morning that it will use two NVIDIA Tegra chips to power the 17-inch screen and the instrument cluster for Tesla’s next-gen electric sedan the Model S. Read more »
Zipcar had until the end of 2010 to decide if it wanted to buy majority share of Spanish car sharing company Avancar, which it invested $300,000 in for a minority share. The answer? Undecided. Zipcar has extended the option to buy majority share another year. Read more »
Cutting electric vehicle charging time from hours to minutes is a holy grail of the car charging industry. But plenty of bumps lie ahead for the dream of a gas station equivalent for the EV market. Read more »
Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. will step into 2011 with a much larger footprint — ownership of Smith Electric Vehicles UK. The result could be a big IPO potential for Tanfield, parent company of Smith. Read more »
After 6 months and almost 30 Green Overdrive shows, we’re taking the excuse of the new year to look back on some of my favorite — and some of my not-so-favorite — test drives. Read more »
Car sharing is a particularly high capital business to be in. You might say “Duh,” but as of September 2010, Zipcar had 8,541 cars in its fleet, most of which it leases, but 1,692 of which it owns outright. Read more »
After 6 months and close to 30 shows on green vehicles, we’re ready to ring in 2011 with a brand new year of eco-vehicle content for the Green Overdrive. Here’s my personal favorite 10 (+1) episodes from the Green Overdrive Show in 2010: Read more »
With a fresh blanket of snow covering the East Coast, the electric cars that have just been delivered to consumers in the U.S. will have their first chance for a winter driving test. Will GM’s Volt and Nissan’s LEAF maintain their battery range? Read more »
Electric car maker Tesla Motors is about to hit a public company milestone: the company’s 180-day lock-up period is reportedly up on Monday, and some analysts think that means the stock is headed for a major slide. Read more »
Over the course of 2010, a rich ecosystem of services, startups and innovations began to take shape around the idea of sharing cars and bikes. Here’s seven steps taken this year toward shared transportation: Read more »
Do not pass go, do not collect $24 million: That’s the card played by auto supplier Tenneco, which withdrew from a Department of Energy loan program in March 2010, less than six months after securing a coveted conditional loan commitment from the agency. Read more »
The “other” electric sports car company, Fisker Automotive, has bumped up the price of its inaugural vehicle the Fisker Karma — yet again. According to Green Car Reports, the Fisker Karma will now cost $95,900 for the baseline price. Read more »
This year saw some improvements in public market investors’ appetite for cleantech companies, but not enough to make it a good year. As always, the hopes are that 2011 will prove a better one. Check out our picks of top 10 IPO candidates. Read more »
Not many big auto makers are producing fuel cell cars, but that isn’t stopping Mercedes-Benz, which has produced 200 of its F-Cell vehicles. For this week’s Green Overdrive show we take the F-Cell to the streets of Los Angeles. Read more »
While Uncle Sam has tapped a select few companies as winners for its green car loan program, it has left a much longer list of loan applicants disappointed or stuck in limbo. Here’s the state of the ATVM awards at the end of 2010: Read more »
According to filings via the Lobbying Disclosure Act Database, GM outspent Nissan North America when it came to climate and energy-related lobbying in 2010. Will that give either company an edge in the U.S. market with their inaugural EVs? Read more »
Despite Mission Motor’s delays of its Mission One high-performance electric motorcycle, the company is unveiling a new racing version of its electric super bike the Mission R, which has 141 horsepower, 115 ft-lbs of torque and speeds of 160 mph. Read more »
Everyone’s favorite DOE Chief Steven Chu was mighty busy today — he ushered in a report that establishes “solar energy zones” on public lands, as well as an announcement that the DOE will give out $184 million in grants for efficient vehicle technology project. Read more »
Tesla is showing off an investor presentation this morning that, while not earth-shattering, has a few tidbits of information, one of which is that a result of the Panasonic’s deal will be a custom-made battery cell that will have improved life cycle, performance, safety and cost. Read more »
