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Whether you like the Chevy Volt or not, if you are a supporter of electric cars, you should be disheartened by the news that the Volt won’t meet its 2011 sales goal after all. Not hitting the goal will have a greater impact beyond GM. Read More »

Coda sedan

One of the big hurdles in engineering electric cars is to figure out how to effectively monitor and control the battery systems. For Coda, that means buying EnergyCS to beef up its battery management system development and expand into the grid energy storage market. Read More »

 
 

Fisker Automotive, which finally began delivering its first plug-in electric hybrid car this summer, has begun promoting its second model in earnest as well. The company announced Thursday that its next car, dubbed “Project Nina,” will come with engines and other parts by BMW. Read More »

We’ve heard of bullish forecasts for electric cars, but we also have seen reports about the coming of an oversupply of lithium-ion batteries. Managing the supply and demand can be tough for any industry, but it might be extra difficult for the new, electric car market. Read More »

The team approach is becoming popular in the electric car development space. General Motors and LG Group announced Thursday a plan to co-develop electric vehicles in order to speed up their deployment. Read More »

Will electric vehicles provide a big market for lithium-ion batteries? A report by IHS on Monday says yes and predicts that carmakers will take over laptop manufacturers as the biggest customers of lithium-ion batteries by 2015. Read More »

How do you encourage consumers to switch to electric cars? Here’s two not-so-obvious ways, according to an Accenture survey released on Wednesday: offer free parking and get more utilities to build charging networks. Read More »

Fallbrook Pulls IPO, Still Revving for China

The blockbuster IPO by Tesla Motors revved up the public profile of electric cars over the past year. But Fallbrook Technologies, which makes transmission systems for bikes and EVs, pulled its $50 million IPO plan because of “unfavorable market conditions.” Read More »

The electric car has encountered a number of hurdles in its ongoing path to the mainstream, and they haven’t all been technical. More human challenges, like range anxiety, have served as hindrances in the wide-scale consumer adoption of electric vehicles (EVs.) As big carmakers move … Read More »

Google Links With DOE for Electric Car Charging Maps

The federal government, which is one of the biggest boosters of electric cars, announced two initiatives on Tuesday: a Google Map project featuring charging stations nationwide, and $5 million in funding for cities to come up with plans to popularize electric cars. Read More »

Tesla to Become the 4th American Automaker… Really?

Tesla Model A Alpha Electronics Version

Are we underestimating the electric car market? A bullish outlook from Morgan Stanley and President Obama’s energy speech apparently have raised that question, even though neither has made a good case for the answer to be “yes.” Read More »

The U.S. Department of Energy issued a report Tuesday that outlines how President Obama will achieve his goal of seeing 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015. The answer: combine the stimulus funding, with fuel economy standards, and more incentives. Read More »

More Must Reads

In case you missed the Super Bowl game last night, GM debuted another Chevy Volt ad focused on historical innovations. Instead of the “more car than electric” tagline, GM went with a simpler approach, highlighting how important the Volt technology will be for transportation. 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 »

New flash: Consumers aren’t so quick to embrace electric cars. After creating a flurry of news reports and test drive videos to get the word out, the carmakers, media and the government haven’t convinced the masses that alternative-fuel cars are the more environmental-friendly choice. Read More »

GM’s plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt has cost more than $1 billion to develop and can run on electricity alone for 40 miles or more. Yet California regulators have rated its emissions on par with conventional gas cars like the Toyota Tundra. What gives? Read More »

Nissan formally began production of its electric LEAF in Japan, a milestone in the trek to see a global automaker cranking out tens of thousands of electric vehicles. Now a long list of companies are racing to get their own EV factories up and running. Read More »

The green car battery recycling bandwagon just got a bit more crowded. General Motors and Swiss grid giant ABB announced that the two companies will jointly research ways to reuse old batteries from GM’s Chevy Volt hybrid for storing power on the grid. Read More »

General Motors’ OnStar subsidiary is going in for a giant swing at boosting the automaker’s image as an innovator. GM announced that it is “relaunching” the OnStar brand is now putting the system center stage in a massive new marketing push. Read More »

General Motors’ long-awaited S-1 filing spotlights work on the Chevy Volt, OnStar communication system and Google partnership as evidence of GM’s commitment to next-generation technologies. Here’s 12 things to know from the S-1 related to greener vehicles and Car 2.0:. Read More »

General Motors filed today for an IPO in which the government will begin to shrink its stake in the company. GM’s filing spotlights its work on the Chevy Volt and Google deal as signs of commitment to launching competitive new technologies. Read More »

Tesla’s IPO was all about expectations and innovations from a Silicon Valley startup that fancies itself a technology developer on the scale of Apple or Google. GM’s IPO will be about overcoming its recently-tumultous and century-old past, and about delivering as a manufacturing company. Read More »

ALTe, a startup founded by former Tesla Motors executives and managers, takes the goal of converting vehicle fleets to run on electricity literally. The company aims to take used models and give them new guts to run as extended range electric vehicles. Read More »

Hot on the heels of General Motors unveiling an 8-year, 100,000-mile warranty for its upcoming Chevy Volt, Nissan announced today that it will offer the same warranty for the battery in its all-electric LEAF sedan. Read More »

GM announced today that the plug-in Chevy Volt will have a base price of $41,000, before federal and state incentives, and an aggressive lease offer that’s competitive with Nissan’s upcoming electric LEAF. Here’s the scoop on what the ordering process will entail. Read More »

At high noon on Tuesday, General Motors plans to detail just what it will take for consumers to land an extended-range electric Chevy Volt in their garage or driveway, releasing new info on pricing and the ordering process. Read More »

Hybrid technology is really getting its day in court. A former General Motors worker and her husband have been accused of stealing (and trying to sell to a Chinese competitor) $40 million in trade secrets related to hybrid vehicles. Read More »

Honda Motor Co. plans to start selling a pair of plug-in vehicles in 2012, including a “mid-size to larger” plug-in hybrid and an all-electric model, the automaker’s president Tkanobu Ito said on Tuesday. Read More »

Want to win people over to greener cars? Then skip the greenwash and tell them about the benefits straight up. That’s the message in a new set of guidelines for automakers marketing environmental claims to consumers in the UK. Read More »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

For British sports maker Lotus, a range-extending engine for plug-in vehicles just got a green light. The automotive consultant arm of Lotus Cars (a Tesla Motors supplier), has joined hands with Fagor Ederlan to develop and eventually sell the engine globally. Read More »

Ford and General Motors plan to let drivers send Google Maps directions to their in-vehicle communication systems, Sync and OnStar. The automakers announced the services separately today, as Internet rivalries spill over into the landscape of connected and electric cars. Read More »

A look at the strategies employed by the venture arms of Intel and Google provide some lessons for where General Motors’ new GM Ventures should go from here. Read More »

Rev your engines, auto startups — there’s a new VC in town. General Motors announced this morning that it has created a new subsidiary to identify, develop and invest in innovative technologies in the transportation sector. Read More »

Coulomb Technologies, a startup working on charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, has garnered a $15 million federa; grant to support deployment of 4,600 networked charging stations in nine regions around the country — a $37 million endeavor in all. Read More »

In linking with Google Android for a Chevy Volt mobile application, GM has taken an important step to adapt its OnStar service to the specific needs of electric vehicle drivers. Android could eventually take on a much larger role in connected vehicles. Read More »

Bob Lutz — the GM executive who for years denied climate change, made his name with muscle cars and eventually came to champion the Chevy Volt — said GM’s struggles stemmed partly from B-school syndrome: focusing more on making money than great cars. Read More »

Google and GM plan to connect the automaker’s in-vehicle communications system with phones running on Google’s Android operating system, GM announced Tuesday. It all starts with a beefed up app for the Chevy Volt that will use Google tech for location-based services. Read More »

General Motors has stepped back from the financial brink, reporting its first quarterly profit Monday since 2007. These earnings suggest progress toward the turnaround GM mapped out in financial viability plans last year, which played up a role for the Chevy Volt. Read More »

It’s not just technology advancements that could pave the way to smaller, lighter battery packs in electric vehicles — but also the collection of data as automakers learn more about how these cars perform on the road. Read More »

GM’s Paul Pebbles, Manager for OnStar and the Volt, told us at our Green:Net event that the car company will be “doing work in the smart grid space,” and using GM’s OnStar connectivity to be able to offer customers services that they want for electric vehicles. Read More »

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