General Motors on Monday opened the doors to the OnStar EV Lab in Detroit, a testing center for in-car communications the company hopes will give its electric Chevy Volt more high-tech appeal. The OnStar EV Lab, housed in GM’s downtown Detroit corporate headquarters, is now using the OnStar communications system to gather data on 19 [...]

Automotive News explains, “A bill to make fuel-efficient three-wheeled vehicles eligible for federal funding now available to automakers and their suppliers has passed Congress and is headed to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature.” The bill will provide Energy Department funds to startups like Aptera Motors and Elio Motors, which have developed experimental [...]

A German auto engineering company is working on a project that just might solve the world’s oil problems. IAV Automotive Engineering has secured a patent for their electric vehicle (EV) wireless road-charging system. Conceptually, roads would be fitted with electrical conductors that create magnetic fields, which charge your battery powered vehicle as you drive. Radio chips would identify [...]

Every time I start to read about cars there’s a new hybrid announced.  Suzuki is the latest auto maker to announce a plugin hybrid, this one is made from their Suzuki Swift model. The Swift is already sold in Japan and Europe and comes with a little 1.3-liter diesel engine.  The concept uses a 660 [...]

In anticipation of these mainstream rollouts and the vehicles’ likely popularity, a number of cities are developing or are already implementing plans for charging stations and buying incentives. New-home builders should be planning ahead, as well, to ensure the garages of the houses they sell are ready if and when future occupants choose to go [...]

The Chevy Volt, General Motors says, should earn an EPA rating of 230 mpg.  The Nissan Leaf will beat that, its builders say, with a 367 mpg rating. The EPA isn’t so sure. USA Today reports, “The concept of judging fuel efficiency on electric cars by the ‘miles per gallon’ they consume is dying a [...]

It’s about time that Lotus decided to cash in on the EV market.  So far their cars are the basis for the Tesla Roadster, the Dodge Circuit, and a Mercedes concept.  Now it seems that instead of selling just the chassis they might try to sneak an engine in with it. The engine is a [...]

A CANBERRA group of Electric Vehicle (EV) enthusiasts is proposing a set of policies, in the lead-up to the National Electric Vehicle Festival, to be held on Sunday 4 October 2009, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at the grounds of the Old Parliament House Lawns in Canberra, Australia. The group, known as Canberra EV, [...]

Mission Motors, an electric motorcycle startup based in San Francisco, said Tuesday that its prototype vehicle had set a world speed record for battery-powered bikes of 150.059 miles per hour at the Bonneville Speedway in Utah. That was the average speed achieved during two, mile-long trials but the motorcycle, called the Mission One, hit 161 [...]

We are getting a lot (A LOT) of news about new battery powered hybrids of some sort or another that will either be 100% battery or some kind of combination of battery and gas power.  GM has shown us that they are commited to that market with the new Chevy Volt.  GM, however, isn’t putting [...]