Electric car maker Aptera shuts down
Electric car maker Aptera has officially shut its doors after years developing three and four-wheeled electric cars and coming close to receiving a $150 million DOE loan. Read more »
How practical is a solar-powered car?
If you like the sun, and you like cars, then I’m guessing you’d love to have a solar-powered car, right? This trick works well for chocolate and peanut butter, but not so well for garlic bread and strawberries. So how compatible are cars with solar energy? Read more »
Obama’s 1M electric car goal could be difficult
I look at the numbers for whether the DOE and Obama will be able to meet the goal of putting 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. Read more »
10 things you should know about electric car startup Coda
Electric car startup Coda Automotive started production of its inaugural electric sedan this week, and expects to start delivering its first cars to dealers in December. Here are 10 things you need to know about Coda Automotive and its inaugural electric sedan. Read more »
Tesla: First Model S cars coming no later than July 2012
If you get over the fact that electric car pioneer Tesla Motors will lose money every quarter for almost another year, then you can relax and realize that Tesla actually had a pretty solid third quarter. Read more »
10 things you should know about electric car maker Fisker
Electric car maker startup Fisker Automotive has suddenly been thrust into the spot light being compared to Solyndra. I have mixed feelings on this sudden attack, but here’s 10 things I do know about Fisker, which will hopefully will help give some perspective. Read more »
Tesla investor takes a Model S beta for a spin
When you’re investor in electric car company Tesla, you get to test drive the car you helped fund. Draper Fisher Jurvetson Partner Steve Jurvetson shot this video of his recent test drive of a Model S Beta around a track at Tesla’s Fremont, Calif. factory. Read more »
Tesla to buy Model S battery cells from Panasonic
Electric car maker Tesla announced on Tuesday that it will buy battery cells from Panasonic to build at least 80,000 cars over a four-year period, including supplying battery cells for of its second electric car the Model S. Read more »
Tesla’s Model S Betas revealed [photos, video]
Electric car maker Tesla Motors took the wraps off of its electric Model S sedan Betas at a customer event this weekend, allowing interested customers the opportunity to participate in short drives of three of the company’s Model S beta cars. Here’s photos and video: Read more »
Fisker indeed raising another $150M
Electric car startup Fisker Automotive is raising another $150 million in equity, and has closed on $25 million of that round. Before this round, Fisker had already raised $1.1 billion in equity, loans and grants. Read more »
The danger of politicians backing high risk startups
In light of the news that Republican Representative Darrell Issa once called for Department of Energy support for now-struggling electric car maker Aptera, I’m resurfacing my essay on the danger of politicians backing high risk startups. Read more »
The military: where the future of cleantech lies
The future of cleantech may depend more on the work of our military than climate change talks. The Pew Charitable Trusts released a report on Wednesday that showed the U.S. Defense Department’s cleantech investment ballooned 300 percent between 2006 and 2009 to reach $1.2 billion. Read more »
Electric car maker Coda closes nearly $150M
Electric car startup Coda Automotive has raised close to $150 million in funding, the company announced late Monday. I think this is the same oversubscribe round that the company has been in the process of raising over the past year. Read more »
Boston-Power lines up $125M to make EV batteries in China
Boston-Power, which once dreamed of building a lithium-ion cell battery factory in the United States, announced Tuesday it has lined up $125 million of investments to shift a big part of its business to China and thin its operation in the U.S. by about 35 percent. Read more »
PHOTOS: Fisker unveils the electric sports station wagon the Surf
Silicon Valley electric car startup Fisker Automotive has unveiled its second extended-range electric car, a crossover sports car and station wagon called the Surf, based on its first car, the Karma, at the Frankfurt Show on Tuesday. Here are some photos! Read more »
PHOTOS: Close-to-production Coda electric sedan
At the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas on Tuesday, I got a chance to check out a much closer-to-production version of the Coda sedan, with slightly new styling and more functionality. Read more »
A dictator and his souped-up electric car
It’s always fascinating to see how dictators spend big money on their hobbies while letting their people live in poverty. The takeover of Moammar Gadhafi compound this week unveiled a private side of the Libyan leader, and among the finds was an electric car by Fiat. Read more »
Electric car maker Fisker valued at $2.2B?
Electric car maker Fisker is sending around a picture of celebrity Leonardo DiCaprio driving one of the first Fisker Karmas. But much more quietly the company is also raising another round of $200 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion, according to a report. Read more »
GM to sell electric Cadillac
GM just announced the next car in its extended range electric car lineup: the Cadillac ELR. Like GM’s Volt, the Cadillac ELR will have a t-shaped lithium ion battery to enable driving on electric power, but then also features an engine as a backup. Read more »
Amidst stock slump, A123 touts GM deal
Amidst the stock slump that lithium ion battery maker A123 System’s is facing, the company touts a new production contract with GM. Read more »
Ford & SunPower team up to bundle solar, electric car
If you buy an electric car will you be more likely to buy solar panels? That’s SunPower and Ford are hoping, and have launched a new initiative to bundle a deal for a Ford Focus Electric vehicle and a SunPower solar rooftop system. Read more »
Greentech stocks crash in market sell-off, too
Tech stocks took a beating on Monday morning, the first day of trading after Standard & Poor downgraded the credit ratings of credit agencies. At the same time, greentech stocks — from solar to biofuels to smart grid — fell alongside the weak macro economic news. Read more »
Battery maker Leyden raises $20M, looks to e-bikes
Lithium-ion battery startup Leyden Energy has raised $20 million to expand production, the company announced Wednesday. Although the company is initially targeting the gadget market, it’s also working with a Canadian company to develop batteries for electric bicycles. Read more »
Green Overdrive Video: The Fisker Karma
For our latest Green Overdrive show we take a peek at Fisker’s extended range electric car the Karma. Read more »
GM backs solar car port maker Sunlogics
After investing in batteries, wireless tech, and electric car innovation, the venture arm of GM is now turning to solar car ports. On Thursday GM Ventures announced that it has invested $7.5 million into Sunlogics, a company that makes canopies covered in solar panels. Read more »
PlugShare boosts social, mobile for electric car charging
Startup Xatori has quietly been boosting both its social and mobile features for its electric car charging network PlugShare. Read more »
What’s the least annoying sound to slap on an electric car?
Many of the electric cars I’ve test driven are immediately surprising because of one thing: they’re often times completely silent. But now after some concerns that silent electric cars equal deadly electric cars, some auto makers are developing digital noises to add onto these battery-powered rides. Read more »
Electric car company Think rises from bankruptcy, again
Just how many times can a company emerge from the ashes of bankruptcy? For Norwegian electric car maker Think Automotive, it plans to rise from at least its third bankruptcy after announcing that Russian investor Boris Zingarevich has bought the assets of the company. Read more »
The cloud: now for connecting electric cars
The car, and in particular the electric car, is the latest device to get plugged in to the cloud. Coulomb Technologies, which makes networked electric-vehicle charging stations, plans to start selling cloud-based services for managing electric-vehicle charging. Read more »
A weapon for electric vehicle range anxiety: GPS
GPS can provide an important function for the emerging electric car industry: battling so-called range anxiety. On Monday, electric car charging company Coulomb Technologies announced that it has partnered with navigation company TomTom to offer charging locator, reservation and information services for plug-in car drivers. Read more »
Aptera raises $2.25M in debt, restructuring
Three-wheeled electric-car startup Aptera has already delayed the launch of its car and has discussed restructuring and moving its manufacturing out of California. But it looks like the company is not completely down for the count: According to a filing, Aptera has raised $2.5 million in debt. Read more »
DOE bets on lightweight steel for fuel efficient cars
Greener transportation doesn’t just involve electric vehicles and biofuels. Lighter weight steel can make a car more fuel efficient, too. That’s the idea behind the Wednesday announcement by the federal government to offer a $730 million loan to a steel maker Severstal in Michigan. Read more »
There’s a severe oversupply of electric car batteries comin’
The supply of batteries for electric cars could far surpass the demand for electric vehicles over the next few years, estimates Lux Research. It could be a “severe mismatch,” that could cause consolidation and the need for new markets for battery makers. Read more »
Green Overdrive: The DIY electric Volvo (charged by Solyndra panels)
Welcome to the future of DIY clean power and electric vehicles. Solyndra engineer Michael Ahern electrified a Volvo 240 that he bought on Craigslist for $150 and has been charging it up with Solyndra tube-shaped solar panels on his roof in San Jose, Calif. Read more »
Electric car maker Think files for bankruptcy
Norwegian electric car maker Think just veered off the bumpy road it had been driving on, and fell square into a ditch. Think has filed for bankruptcy proceedings in Norwegian courts. Read more »
Cell phones: the mother of invention for electric vehicles
Turns out cell phones and electric cars have more in common than you might think and technology developed for phones could help pave the way for more powerful electric cars. Read more »
Fisker starts hiring to make its second electric car
While electric car maker Fisker Automotive is in the process of launching its first electric car, the Karma, to dealerships and customers this summer, the auto startup says it is also starting to hire workers for its next-generation electric car, dubbed code name Project Nina. Read more »
VIDEO: Volvo Cranks Up C30 Electric
Volvo has started producing its all-electric C30, and will start shipping cars to fleets (mostly under leases) in Europe by the Summer. Watch our video test drive of the C30 Electric and our interview with Volvo’s President of Special Vehicles. Read more »
Boston Power launches electric car battery tech
Boston Power took the wraps off some details about its electric vehicle battery tech, and it says it expects other partners (beyond Saab) to deploy the electric car battery tech later this year and in 2012. Read more »
PHOTOS: New Pics of Tesla’s Model S
While we brought you photos of Tesla’s Model S alpha cars from its head quarters in March, Tesla just put up some new photos of what looks like a more production-ready version of the Model S. What do you think? Read more »
