SolarCity today announced that it is taking a $21.5 million round of funding led by Mayfield Fund, and the company’s previous investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DBL Investors and Generation Capital. The company’s prior funding totaled approximately $134 million, and included investors First Solar, JP Morgan and Elon Musk.
SolarCity helps businesses, home owners and government agencies adopt solar… → Read More
One of the biggest hurdles on the road to make electric vehicles attractive for the mass market is the long time it usually takes to charge batteries. But a Japanese company called JFE Engineering now claims it has found a solution for that problem. According to JFE, even so-called “quick battery chargers” often take 30 minutes to charge a car’s battery to 80% of its capacity. → Read More
It seems interest in the development of electric cars has really picked up steam in recent months, especially in Japan. A research team at Tokyo-based Waseda University has manufactured the ULV [JP], a one-person electric vehicle with a number of selling points: it’s cheap, it’s small and light (72.6kg), and it has a decent driving range (80km). → Read More
One of the biggest problems that stands between electric vehicles and becoming mainstream is limited battery life. But there has been some progress in that area lately: the Japan Electric Vehicle Club [JP], a civic group based in Tokyo, announced today a Mira EV customized by the group traveled exactly 1,003.184 kilometers without a recharge. → Read More
We like electric vehicles here at CrunchGear, from the Volt to the Leaf to the Eneloop to the U3-X. But fantasy electrics are one thing — what if you actually want to buy a real live electric bike? → Read More
One critical factor that stands in the way of electric vehicles becoming mainstream is the lack of charging stations once you’re on the road with your e-bike or electric car. In the case of bicycles, 37km, for example (as seen in Panasonic’s newest models), isn’t a bad number for an assisted travel distance, but it’s not enough for those really long trips. → Read More
Good on FedEx, for doing this. The USPS has been talking about going electric for their fleet, and it makes sense. After all, they put massive amounts of miles on their vehicles, and that’s got to make for a pretty serious carbon foot print. → Read More
Good for GM. I don’t just congratulate them on a strict “buy American” level, but the decision to break off from the pack and both design and build the next generation of electric engines is a good one. Of course, there’s the question of whether they’ll be using Panasonic batteries and other Japanese parts. They’re still pretty much cornered in some of those areas. But hey, we’ll take what we can… → Read More
You’ve probably heard about the BMW Mini E lease program — 500 or so of the little buggers were let into the wild to be given real-life, long-term testing by regular people. It seems like the program was a success, because BMW is doing it again, this time with their Active-E (Activeeee!) concept, a more practical car for most people, but also mighty expensive. → Read More
So if you’re living anywhere outside the US, you’re sitting on an electric bike right now. It seems we’re the only country in which electric-assist bikes like this haven’t caught on. Maybe it’s because of our obsession with gigantic, gas-guzzling SUVs we never use for their intended purpose. But I digress. The fact is that other countries have found electric bikes practical in pretty good volume… → Read More
Remember that time you left your phone in the car on a cold night when you went to dinner, and when you got back to it, the battery was nearly dead because it had gotten so cold? Yeah, that would be happening a lot if you had an electric car that didn’t take temperature into account.
And so the testers of BMW Mini Es are finding out in cold weather: range seems to be reduced by half in 23°… → Read More
Want a plug-in car, but the Leaf and Volt aren’t doing it for you? Well, Toyota will be entering the market soon, though you should only count on it if you’re feeling lucky. First half of 2010 will only see 150 of these new plug-in Priuses (Prii?) on our shores, though they’re planning a full-size rollout for 2011. Now hang on a second… apparently these things only get 15 miles per battery… → Read More
You wouldn’t think quieter cars would be a problem, but then again, you’re probably not blind. Hybrids and electrics make so little noise that they pose a serious risk to blind people, who often use the sound of a car passing to determine whether it’s safe to cross the road. Nissan’s Leaf, it was announced, will make a “beautiful and futuristic” noise at low speeds so that unaware pedestrians… → Read More
We might be seeing the start of a new form of motorsport. Electric motorcycles have really been at the cutting edge of development recently, and it’s going to be really interesting to see exactly what happens. → Read More
Getting around in the city ends up being a pretty complicated problem. Depending on where you work, what you do, and what sort of terrain you’ve got going on, you may want to take the bus, subway, a car, a bike, or a scooter. I bike, but I also live on top of Capitol Hill in Seattle. So if I want to go anywhere, I end up having to slog back up seven blocks of incline; so I end up driving distances… → Read More
The battle of the EVs draws closer, and while I doubt it’ll the Ragnarok we all hope for, it should be an interesting fight. While Tesla is doing fine selling its high-end Roadster, the real competition will likely be around $40,000, give or take a few thousand. Of course, everybody’s ready for the Volt, but it seems that Mitsubishi is going to beat everyone to the market with the first… → Read More
I like the idea of electric motorcycles — you take an efficient idea and make it even more so. The GPR-S is my favorite so far, but this one looks pretty solid as well, and you can even buy it. The whole thing only weighs 225lbs, of which 80lbs are battery, giving it about a 60 mile range. I know, not exactly a cross-country job, but great for jaunts around the city. Video inside. → Read More
It was reasonable to guess that change like this would find its start in that heaven for both car lovers and hippies, California. Specifically San Francisco, because I don’t think LA has any plans to go electric any time soon. SF mayor Gavin Newsom wrote a blog post at Gas 2.0 describing the first (hopefully of many) electric vehicle charge points, which seem to be called both ChargePoints… → Read More
Despite some early worries, bad press, and several crashed prototypes, it looks like Tesla isn’t going to go down in flames, zeppelin-like, a warning to those who would challenge big oil. No, actually it seems they may turn a profit by midyear, and they say they’re selling the $100K Roadster as fast as they can make them. → Read More
Not content to just make the world’s fastest production car, Shelby SuperCars announced today that they plan on expanding that platform to include the world’s fastest electric production car too. Something they are calling the Ultimate Aero EV.
They’ve stated that the Ultimate Aero EV will charge up in 10 minutes off a standard 110v outlet, and then run for 200 miles off that one charge. That’s… → Read More
This is funny. It’s like an algebra nerd lining up next to a cocky track star to race, and everyone laughs and laughs, but then someone says “woah, that nerd’s on fire.” Unfortunately, it won’t be doing much to help Tesla’s image. The embattled electric vehicle manufacturer is having enough trouble getting its car on the road without having to worry about (more)… → Read More
Treehugger really likes those ‘lectric bikes. We had that awesome-looking GPR-S the other day, but these are a little less… well, production. There’s DIY, there’s concept, and there is of course the spine-snappingly quick Killacycle (cool video there, wait till 1:15). Even though they’re not buyable right now, these things are where innovation comes from, and these… → Read More
During a demonstration run of a Tesla Roadster in Southern France, the driver (who was demoing it for the passenger) attempted to take a wet corner a bit too fast and ended up going off the road, smashing the front left and rear right quarters of the car. The passenger was thrown clear, luckily not through the windshield, but miraculously neither party was seriously injured. What is it about this… → Read More
No, not that GPRS. If I knew how to ride a motorcyle, I’d buy one of these. I’ve pledged not to buy a vehicle until I can buy a real electric, but I never said anything about how many wheels it needed to have. The Electric GPR-S from Electric Motorsport is more expensive than a normal motorbike but cheaper than its EV brethren. Its specs aren’t exactly eye-popping: 70mph top… → Read More
I suppose everybody’s doing it. It’s actually strange that Porsche hasn’t net; the eventual replacement of the internal combustion engine is all but certain, and they’ve spent enough time designing the other parts of the car to not feel so bad in replacing one (albeit major) component. In the meantime, they’ll just be lending a chassis to the Ruf effort to make an EV. → Read More
The iconic TX4 taxis that crowd the streets of London are going to be getting an overhaul. In the interest of reducing costs, improving air quality, and replacing the aging fleet, they’ll be introducing new TX4 E electric taxis starting in early 2009. I think we can all agree that the air in London could use a bit of scrubbing; maybe they could mount big filters on the tops of these things… → Read More
Chrysler really threw their hat into the electric vehicle ring today, revealing not one, not two, but three electric or semi-electric vehicles. The one getting all the eyeballs, of course, is the Chrysler EV (real creative name there), which is all-electric, based on a Lotus Elise, and does 0-60 in five seconds. Of course, that one probably won’t ever enter production, or if it does will… → Read More
http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/video_player/view/default/swf.jhtml This is a great clip. I’ll let the guys do the talking, but although I’m sure GM’s point man Bob Lutz is in full spin mode here, it’s fun that he’s playing the game. Its off-the-line performance is “adequate,” a term well-known by carmakers as meaning “god-awful,” but… → Read More
I promised myself that the next car I bought would be a real electric production car. Is this my next car? More importantly, can I afford it? Likely not, but that’s not the issue here. Pictures and info after the bump. → Read More
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