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 »
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 »
While it’s good news for Tesla that it will have $234 million to develop its third electric car the Model X, the funding underscores how Tesla will be transitioning into a period where the company will be generating a lot less revenue for several months. Read more »
Electric car company Tesla plans to raise $234 million in a combination of a follow-on offering and a private placement. On Friday morning, Tesla priced the 5.3 million shares it plans to offer for its follow-on offering (announced last week) at $28.76 per share. Read more »
Tesla is expanding its Apple-inspired interactive stores, designed by former Apple exec George Blankenship, and has opened up its second one in Park Meadows, Colorado, just outside of Denver. Check out our video tour of the first interactive store and an interview with Blankenship: Read more »
Nissan’s got a new ad out that shows a world in which gas powers everything instead of electricity: Gas-powered hair dryers, gas-powered MP3 players, even gas-powered dentist drills (scary). Read more »
Toyota and Tesla have been working on prototypes outfitting Toyota’s classic SUV the RAV4 with Tesla’s electric vehicle tech. But will Tesla be the supplier of the commercial version of the RAV4 EV, which Toyota wants to sell in 2012? It’s yet to be determined. Read more »
Silicon Valley electric car pioneer Tesla plans to stop production of its first electric car the Roadster in December 2011, according to a filing. Read more »
Electric car maker Tesla could raise another $214 million in a combination of a follow on public offering and a private placement. The move shows just how much money an electric car maker that is looking to make more mainstream cars needs to scale up. Read more »
The next-generation of lithium ion batteries aren’t just here to power the first wave of electric cars, they’ll be providing better energy storage for gadgets and computers, too. Leyden Energy is launching a lithium-ion battery for laptops that won’t degrade for at least three years. 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 »
GreenRoad’s greener, safer driving technology has gotten another round of investment. The startup, which is backed by Al Gore and Richard Branson’s funds, as well as Benchmark Capital and others, has raised another $13 million and brought on new CEO Jim Heeger. Read more »
Electric car maker Fisker Automotive has already raised over $1 billion in equity, loans and grants. And yet, the company, which will be launching its first inaugural electric car this summer, has raised another $100 million. That’s on top of the $190 million which recently closed. Read more »
Lithium-ion battery maker Ener1, which held a 48 percent stake in electric car maker Think, says partly because Think has halted production of its electric cars, Ener1 has written down a $59.4 million impairment charge for its Think investment. Read more »
Electric car startup Coda Automotive pushed back the launch of their inaugural electric sedan to later this year. Check out my video interview with Coda Automotive VP Chris Paulson on Coda’s upcoming launch of its inaugural electric sedan. Read more »
Zipcar’s stock is still flying high after the car sharing company debuted on the Nasdaq last month. To the CEO of neighbor-to-neighbor car sharing startup RelayRides, Shelby Clark, Zipcar’s IPO has shown investors that there’s real money to be made in car sharing. Read more »
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 »
Interested in buying an electric car, but not sure if it fits your lifestyle? BMW — which has been rather hesitant when it comes to EVs — recently launched an iPhone app designed to help users discover if they are a good fit for owning an EV. Read more »
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 »
Looks like creating an in-store experience is the way to go for electric car companies. This week, electric car startup Coda Automotive is releasing images of its new store at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles, Calif., which it plans to open this summer. Read more »
Combine a year in which IPOs are back and car sharing is hot and what do you get? A smash hit success. Zipcar’s stock debuted on the Nasdaq Thursday at an eye-opening $30 per share, up over 60 percent from its offering price of $18. Read more »
The exec formerly in charge of Apple’s famously successful in-store experience, is paving a new path for electric vehicle company Tesla Motors. Tesla’s VP of Worldwide Sales and Experience, George Blankenship, shows us around Tesla’s first experiential store on Santana Row in San Jose, Calif. Read more »
Move over cell phone firms, car companies are the new mobility leaders. “BMW is a mobile company, and everything we’ve done and do is about mobility,” Edward Robinson, President of BMW’s recently launched $100 million venture fund i Ventures, told me in an interview. Read more »
For this week’s Green Overdrive show, we catch up with Wrightspeed founder Ian Wright (part of the founding team of Tesla) at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at his new factory. Wright shows us the company’s digital drivesystem, which will be used to build extended-range electric trucks. Read more »
Will your local utility one day go the way of dinosaurs? As more home and business owners install solar panels, wind turbines and other electricity and heat generating equipment, the roles of the utilities will change and new business opportunities will rise. Read more »
A quick scan of the top cleantech deals for the near record first quarter, sent cold shivers up my spine. The deals may be getting done, but are we sure investors are making money? Three of the biggest deals represented 17 percent of the quarter’s dollars. Read more »
An executive with the BBC show Top Gear has responded to the law suit that electric car maker Tesla delivered to it last week, accusing the show of libel and malicious falsehood. In a blog post, Top Gear Executive Producer Andy Wilman denies Tesla’s claims. Read more »
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 »
Apparently, car sharing company Zipcar’s long-awaited IPO is not off! This week, Zipcar priced its IPO at between $14 and $16 per share for a planned run on the Nasdaq under the symbol ZIP. The company’s 8.3 million shares will net $89.2 million. Read more »
Electric car company Tesla is no stranger to lawsuits, and is now involved in yet another one that looks to be pretty high profile. On Tuesday, Tesla slapped the BBC show Top Gear with a lawsuit for libel and malicious falsehood. Read more »
Sometimes it’s easy to forget how early electric car startup Tesla was in terms of getting commercial EVs on the roads. Tesla says its Roadsters have driven a collective 10 million miles, which has saved 500,000 gallons of fuel and 5.3 million pounds of carbon emissions. Read more »
Following Tesla Motor’s successful IPO last year, now more hybrid and electric car tech makers are looking to land on the public markets. Remy International, which makes starters, alternators and hybrid and electric motors, has filed for an IPO for up to $100 million. Read more »
With my daily commute, Nissan’s all-electric LEAF car isn’t a good fit for me, but GM’s extended range electric car the Volt isn’t exactly an inexpensive car. Here’s how the economics work out and why a plug-in hybrid car could be a real game changer. Read more »
AT&T is starting to look like the network of choice for connecting electric car’s wireless IT systems. This week at the wireless event CTIA, Ford said it has chosen AT&T’s wireless network for connectivity for its upcoming Ford Focus Electric. Read more »
Ford is turning to a new tech to reduce the weight of its cars and improve fuel efficiency: tiny bubbles. Ford says it is trialling a technology out of the labs of MIT, now owned by Trexel, called MuCell, which injects micro bubbles into plastic components. Read more »
Google has installed a wireless electric car charger, developed by a company called Evatran, to charge up plug-in cars on its Mountain View, Calif. campus. The installation is the first public trial of Evatran’s wireless charging tech, which the company unveiled last Summer. Read more »
For our latest Green Overdrive show we get an inside look at Tesla’s Model S Alpha program, which Tesla will use to test out design and functionality of its next-generation all-electric car the Model S. Read more »
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Staff Scientist Venkat Srinivasan delves into what he thinks are the three laws of batteries that govern how batteries operate, plus he throws in a bonus one at the end. Read more »
Tesla has designed its second electric car, the Model S, to have a swappable battery with the idea that if battery swapping becomes common for electric car drivers one day, the Model S will be prepared. It’s basically hedging its bets with battery swapping. Read more »
Check out our photos of Tesla’s Model S Alpha build room, where engineers work on testing 20 Model S Alphas for things like safety, durability and electronics. In a couple of months, Tesla will start building 50 Betas, and by mid-2012, will start delivering the car. Read more »
