May 21, 2013 6:25 AM
Are you seeking an electric car and don’t know what to do? You’ve got two options, really. Go for a big production model like Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt, Ford Focus Electric or the coming-this-summer 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV. Or, you go for the one-off model car companies must manufacture to [...]
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May 17, 2013 6:45 AM
A Win for Cleaner Cars Tesla, the American electric car manufacturer, has been all over the news lately, with its announcement that it has made a quarterly profit for the first time in ten years. In 2011, Tesla reported a loss of $50 million, and in the first quarter of [...]
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May 14, 2013 6:25 AM
What’s the best-selling zero emissions electric vehicle (EV) in the world today at more than 50,000 units sold in 17 countries so far? Nissan Leaf. Yes, the hottest EV on the market and on roads everywhere from Norway to China to Australia to Brazil is Nissan’s award-winning Leaf. Even Nissan [...]
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May 10, 2013 6:45 AM
In 2008, Fisker Automotive unveiled the Fisker Karma, a plug-in hybrid luxury sports car that was backed by $200 million in government funding and designed to change the future of green energy and the automotive industry in ways never before seen. Initial orders came in at $100,000 a car. Now, [...]
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May 8, 2013 12:00 AM
Chevrolet is launching its 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV (electric vehicle) on the streets of California and Oregon this summer. What’s so significant about the Spark EV minicar? First off, Chevy’s Spark EV is truly an all-electric vehicle unlike Chevy’s Volt, which has both an electric motor and an internal combustion [...]
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April 26, 2013 6:15 AM
The 3rd Taiwan International Electric Vehicles Show earlier this month highlighted zero-emissions vehicles from around the world. A unique prototype shown in Taiwan was the VOI concept scooter designed as part of Project VOI. This two-seat scooter was designed by more than 100 designers and engineers at the Technical University [...]
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April 25, 2013 7:01 AM
The automobile of the future will need to focus on the needs of urban drivers including smaller frames, better handling and higher fuel economy. Toyota’s European Design & Development (ED2) team took a swing at urban vehicle design with the recently presented ME.WE concept EV. This two-door compact EV was [...]
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April 18, 2013 7:45 AM
The automotive world has overlooked startups outside of Japan, North America and Western Europe in recent history. This oversight is rooted in sluggish economic development in Eastern Europe, Africa, South Asia and Latin America through the late 20th century. We can no longer ignore these regions as sources of vehicle [...]
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April 16, 2013 7:51 AM
Businessman and car lover Oliver Kuttner created Edison2 in 2007 to produce cutting-edge vehicles. Kuttner brought together top designers and engineers from around the world to develop the Very Light Car (VLC), an unconventional gas-powered model that achieved fuel efficiency equal to 110 miles per gallon. The VLC won the [...]
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April 12, 2013 6:15 AM
Congestion charging, or congestion pricing, is the practice of charging users of goods and services (transportation, electricity, telephones, etc.) higher prices during periods of excess demand. The theory behind congestion charging is that the higher prices will manage demand without having to increase supply. A handful of major urban areas [...]
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