Electric Cars
Ford Will Use VW Tech to Build its Electric Cars
Ford may be pushing hard to develop electric cars for China, but its efforts to bring electric cars to its traditional markets in the US and Europe have, arguably, been falling behind for years. Now however, the company is hoping to leverage its blossoming relationship with German industrial giant, Volkswagen, to develop new electric cars like, now– and VW seems into it! One of the biggest challenges that both Ford and VW face in getting more consumers to buy electric cars is to bring prices down to make the cars price competitive without big tax credits. Executives from both companies said that boosting economies of scale by sharing the Volkswagen-developed MEB platform is the best way to do that. “We will see more collaboration [on electric cars] because the timing is not cle...
Electric Cars in Cold Climates: Why do EV Batteries Lose so Much Range when the Weather Drops?
I am the proud owner of a 2012 Nissan Leaf. I am also a resident of the greater Washington, D.C. area. If there is one thing I or any of my fellow residents of this area can tell you, it gets cold here in the winter. If there is one thing my zippy little red car doesn’t like, it’s cold weather. While sub-zero temperatures are rare, temperatures in the teens and twenties are not uncommon. My first Winter here brought all the usual challenges a transplant from Florida might suddenly face for the first time: shoveling snow, getting snowed in without proper supplies, and of course driving in snow for the first time. It also ushered in the reality that my car’s range would be drastically in cold weather and I would have to charge it much more often than I would when the sun is shining. Why do E...
Lucid Just Snagged Tesla’s Head of Production
Lucid Motors has come a long, long way. Not that long ago, the company was dismissed by many– including me!– as vaporware. When the company secured more than a billion dollars’ worth of funding from Saudi investors, though, that view started to change. Earlier today, it was announced that the former head of production in charge of Tesla’s Fremont, California factory, Peter Hochholdinger, would be taking up a similar role at Lucid. And that, dear reader, is what it looks like when a company gets real. Hochholdinger is hardly the only Tesla alum at Lucid. After all, the company was founded by Peter Rawlinson, who was the chief engineer on the Model S. “We are delighted to welcome Peter to the Lucid team,” explains Rawlinson, in a statement about his new pr...
10 Clever EV License Plates
Once upon a time, (and some even now) other drivers on the road had no idea that the car beside them was fully electric. A clever license plate can tell you as much, make you laugh, or maybe even leave you scratching your head. It seems EV owners, and Tesla owners in particular, have a knack for thinking up clever license plates. Here are some of my favorites: 1.) The future is electric. Whether this Tesla owner thinks EVs in general, or Teslas in particular are the future, no need to guess what this plate is trying to say. 2.) Four’s a Crowd. The only thing better than a Tesla at home is…. 4? This super fan collects both Teslas and great plates for them. 3.) Tell us how you really feel. This owner definitely doesn’t miss trips to the gas station. 4.) So how do you...
Vorsteiner Joins the Ranks of Tesla Tuners
Tesla’s excitingly fast lineup of electric vehicles has certainly gained the attention of the environmentalists of the motoring world in recent years– but performance enthusiasts haven’t missed the boat, either. Companies like Unplugged Performance and T Sportline have catered to the Tesla crowd by offering distinctive products to customize and enhance the already awesome EVs. Now, you can add another famous tuning house to the growing list of Tesla tuner and tweakers: Vorsteiner. “Vorsteiner is a company that was conceived through the imagination of creating the highest quality parts for the most discerning vehicles and clientele,” reads the company’s ABOUT page. “Our relentless pursuit of advancement and perfection is seen not only in our unmatch...
Video: Electric Porsche Taycan Spied
The upcoming, all-electric Porsche Taycan super sedan is set to make its formal production debut at Geneva this September, but a pre-production prototype was recently caught refueling by a YouTuber that calls himself “DrGumoLunatic”. Once launched, the Taycan will be powered by two permanently activated synchronous motors (PSM) generating more than 600 HP. They’ll be able to accelerate the electric Porsche from 0 to 60 miles per hour in well under 4.0 seconds on their way to (what is expected to be) a 155MPH top speed. The Tesla Model S competitor will also offer a consistent level of power that Porsche says is, “unprecedented among electric vehicles: multiple launches in a row will be possible without a loss in performance, and the vehicle’s maximum range will be o...
Mazda Set to Launch its First EV, Rotary Hybrid in 2020
Despite the company’s continued commitment to developing internal combustion engines like the new Sky-activ X, Mazda is planning to launch its first production-ready electric car sometime in 2020. Given the carmaker’s history of developing fun, sporty cars, that should be exciting news for Hiroshima and EV fans alike. Perhaps more exciting, however, is news that Mazda hasn’t given up on a new rotary engine. “We are jointly developing a new EV architecture with Toyota,” Mazda CEO, Akira Marumoto, explained in an interview with Automotive News Europe– but that’s not the car he’s talking about. He clarified, adding that Mazda “will introduce our own EV on a Mazda architecture in 2020.” That 2020 electric Mazda is expected to be a uni...
Video: Watch the VW ID.R Blast the Nürburgring Record
Last week, Volkswagen dropped acclaimed racing driver Romain Dumas behind the wheel of the ID.R– one of the most powerful electric race cars ever built. Once he was trapped in, they pointed the pairing at Germany’s famous Nürburgring, where they promptly set a new track record for electric cars. The ID.R didn’t just set a new record, though. Along the way, it thoroughly obliterated the previous electric record set by the NIO EP9 back in 2017 by more than 40 (forty) seconds. Volkswagen has been pushing hard to shed its well-earned image as a manufacturer of emissions-cheating, high-polluting, diesel-engined crapwagons crapwagens with always-on check engine lights. Part of that push has been a commitment to developing high-performance electric motors, and that’s where...
Illinois Doubles Gas Tax, Cuts Proposed EV Fee Hikes
The State of Illinois recently passed some pretty serious measures to curb– or, at least, tax the snot out of– the proliferation of fossil fuel-burning vehicles. In addition to doubling the State’s gas tax, Illinois lawmakers have increased the cost of registering gas-powered cars by more than 50%. The change in fee prices follows a proposed hike in the cost of electric vehicle registration from $17.50 to $1000 (yeah, that says “one thousand US/American dollars”). The justification of the proposed hike was that, since gas taxes fund road maintenance and EV owners don’t buy gas, EV drivers weren’t paying their fair share of escalating infrastructure costs. In something of an about-face on the matter, Illinois put that burden even more squarely on ga...
VW Embraces EVs; will “Atone for its mistakes”
Yesterday, auto giant Volkswagen launched its self-proclaimed “new direction” in the American market with a press release titled “From ‘Think Small’ to “Drive Bigger,’ Volkswagen embraces a new purpose.” This announcement follows a bold advertisement campaign that included a commercial aired during the much watched NBA Finals. The commercial opens with audio clips of negative news coverage about the automaker paired with very dark visuals. A defeated looking character gets back to the drawing board, literally, with Simon & Garfunkle’s “The Sound of Silence” playing to the mood. As the music picks up, so too do the visuals of the commercial, showing short bursts of modern automotive production. These shots include robotic...
Kawasaki Could be Building the Fastest Electric Motorcycle Ever
Since the days of ZX-11 back in the 1990s, Kawasaki has been famous for building the biggest, baddest motorcycles around. Sure, Honda and Suzuki stole Kawi’s thunder with the Blackbird and Hayabusa, respectively– but line either of those up alongside the latest Kawasaki H2 and see what bikes pulls ahead. Keep that in mind, then, as I tell you the following: Kawasaki has patented a unique, oil and liquid cooled radiator system purpose-built for electric bikes. The implications for the electric motorcycle market are potentially staggering, considering that even the ultra-quick Energica Ego and big voltage Zero models can make do with “just” air cooling. Heck– Kawasaki’s EV cooling system seems more complicated than Tesla’s, and the assumption is that...
5 Tips to Pick a Winter-ready Home Charging Station
As I sit here typing this in the near suburbs of Chicago, the wind chill is -50 and the governor has declared a state of emergency. More than one of my Volvo PHEV and Nissan LEAF buddies have asked me about charging their cars in this cold, and I was reminded of a sponsored post over at our sister site, EVO, about choosing a winter-ready home charging station. With temperatures outside dropping fast, it’s time to think about how the cold will affect your EV charging station. The FLO Home Level 2 charging station will ensure you leave each morning fully charged, so you can make the most of your range all winter. 1. Get a Level 2 Charging Station Most electric vehicles come with a 120V Level 1 charging station that you can plug into a standard wall outlet. However, charging with a Lev...