The awards just seem to keep stacking up for the Chevrolet Volt. Yesterday, the Volt was awarded a Gold Medal at the Edison Awards for innovative engineering that resulted in the world’s first extended range electric vehicle.
Also, on the same night, OnStar’s mobile app won a silver medal for Best New Product in Transportation. The OnStar mobile app allows for drivers to view vehicle data, unlock and lock doors, and start their car remotely on any iOS or Android device. For the Volt, the OnStar mobile app has additional features such as charge level readings, electricity rates tables and other EV data.
Press release after the break. → Read More
Being called “America’s fourth automaker” is good for stock prices. That’s what Tesla was recently labeled in a report from Morgan Stanley and it caused their stock to shoot up nearly 20% to close at $27.75. It also doesn’t hurt that they’re projected to hit $70 by the end of the year. → Read More
Road and Track is a great car magazine, but they forgot an important fact about April Fools’ Day: the date. Yesterday, March 30th, they outed some pictures of the Volt sans roof. Their post even discussed some new tech for the unsightly little thing, despite its lack of a regular size gas tank. “We’re extremely excited about the new GM-patented photovoltaic film that covers two-thirds of the soft-top’s surface,” says GM spokesperson Taylor Wildwood. Uh-huh. Nice try guys, but those Volt engineers have more important things to do, like building rebadging the Volt. → Read More
Hyundai plans to reveal their rather fetching Blue2 (pronounced “Blue square”) hydrogen fuel cell concept later this week at the Seoul Motor Show. We haven’t been seeing many hydrogen-powered cars lately — most of the ongoing eco-craze involves electric cars. Nonetheless, hydrogen-powered cars are considered to be the industry’s endgame, and the “liberator” for polluting vehicles. Exciting stuff. → Read More
Back in August of ’10 (them were the days) we posted about how an Israeli company called Better Place was testing out a system for switching out batteries in Japanese electric taxis. They drive in, get their new battery, and drive out. A good idea for fleet vehicles, we said at the time, but it would take some refinement before coming to regular cars.
Well, Better Place is taking that step now, showing off its first “domestic” station, located in Israel. → Read More
I think we can all agree that while bass is an important part of most music, there is a limit past which it is pointless to amplify that part of the sound spectrum. This video is about going so far beyond that point that the sound starts being measured in gut punches rather than decibels. That poor phonebook never had a chance. → Read More
Considering that only 1,500 Tesla Roadsters are out on the roads, it’s amazing they’ve been able to clock up 10 million miles since 2008. Even more impressive is that the Roadsters have collectively saved 500,000 gallons of fuel and over 5.3 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, while maintaining supercar performance. → Read More
When Elon Musk first came to Silicon Valley he was researching advanced, highly-energy-dense super-capacitors at Stanford. Coincidentally, when speaking at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco about the future of electric vehicles Musk said, “If I were to make a prediction, I’d think there’s a good chance that it is not batteries, but super-capacitors.” → Read More
Today, Ford announced their partnership with AT&T to provide wireless service for the upcoming Ford Focus Electric. AT&T transmits vehicle data — much like Audi and T-Mobile — to Ford’s cloud that owners can access via any Android, BlackBerry, or iOS smartphone or web browser. → Read More
Last month we mentioned how DARPA and Local Motors were trying out a crowdsourcing model for producing a concept combat vehicle. Well, the entries have been vetted and voted on, and they’ve put them into a nice gallery for you. They’re pretty awesome — kind of like the stuff I used to draw in school, but… you know, better. Here are the top 3 (more at Local Motors): → Read More
Porsche has decided to begin taking orders for their highly-received 918 Spyder Plug-in Hybrid. Dealers have been given the go-ahead to begin taking orders for the limited (918 units) $845,000 car. The 918 Spyder is powered by a 500-plus horsepower V8 gas engine which gets assistance from two electric motors producing an addition 218 horsepower. 0-60 times are estimated to be near 3 seconds. → Read More
http://player.ooyala.com/player.swf?embedCode=R5ZXViMjovM8DXbzpFe9Z-xT1uh7q4eG&version=2 Whenever a new car comes out, it’s always exciting to see new tech antiquating the old, a breath of fresh air, if you will. The 2012 Acura TL has been refreshed for the model year, with a host of upgrades and further refinements. Unfortunately, few of them were tech. → Read More
In order to squeeze out that last mile from a gallon of gas, Ford has come up with the SmartGauge with EcoGuide. It’s essentially a visual meter that lets drivers know when their foot is overly plumbum, coaching them to back off and slow acceleration. Ford was recently granted the two patents that makes their gauge unique from others. → Read More
We drove the 2011 Infiniti M37S a few months back; we liked the car for the most part, but couldn’t seem to get over how much gas it sucked down — even for the V6 we tested. Now, Infiniti has put a hybrid system into the M sedan, improving both power and fuel economy over the V6 in a move Infiniti considers “A challenged notion of what a hybrid should be.”
Press release after the break. → Read More
The Model S, is the most hyped electric car due to come out soon. Everyone is waiting to see what the Model S will feature and whether or not it’ll be worth the wait. Today, at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the Model S will support third-party apps and text-to-speech, pretty much confirming many rumors. → Read More
Poor Kelangst: he or she is the first person ever in the whole world to announce that they’ve depleted their Nissan Leaf’s batteries, a problem bolstered by the fact that some range calculations for the Leaf are inaccurate until you’ve driven the car a few hundred miles. The post, in which Kelangst writes “Part of me is amused that I may go down in history as the first dumbass to drive the car into submission. But I am slightly shaky and upset as I thought there should have been no problem getting home.” appeared on MyNissanLeaf and was followed up by helpful advice like “Did you try turning it on and off?” → Read More
Scion owners not only get the chance to fully customize their new cars, but also share in the experience online in a new Scion community website. In addition to the website, there is also a mobile app for iPhone (Android soon) that syncs data from the mobile app into the community. The community is a place, similar to other fan pages, where owners can share experiences and enthusiasm for the brand. I wonder if, like other social apps, it would be good at picking up chics? → Read More
Is Red Bull once again the team to beat in Formula One this year? It certainly looks that way, if the past few weeks of testing in Barcelona are anything to go by (and they are). We now segue into Playseat’s Red Bull-branded racing simulator. It’s quite… substantial. → Read More
BMW announced today the all-new BMW 6 Series Coupé with a Bang and Olufsen sound system with 16 loudspeakers driven by 1,200 watts of power. There are seven tweeters that come paired with mid-range speakers for consistent sound. The other two speakers are the two massive subwoofers mounted to the car body under the front seats. This method ensures there aren’t any vibrations or rattles from the subwoofers. → Read More
Looks like the Fisker Karma will be delayed again. Although production supposedly began this month, with deliveries expected shortly after, we’re now hearing only VIPs will get the car by June. Everyone else will have to wait until July. → Read More
