Tesla’s Elon Musk has said that Tesla are planning a smaller electric car to take on the Nissan LEAF and prices at around $40k. Will arrive in 3-4 years. Elon Musk is buoyed by the success of the Tesla S and the seemingly inexorable rise in Tesla’s stock which has allowed Tesla to repay its […]
Better Place EV Battery Swap business goes bust
Better Place, the Israeli company that planned to revolutionise electric car ownership by offering battery swap technology, has filed for bankruptcy. It seemed like a good idea: take the cost of batteries out of the cost of buying an electric car and instead charge EV owners to use ‘Battery Swap’ stations where depleted batteries could […]
Best Western Hotels rolling out EV charging points in the UK
Best Western Hotels – a chain of independently run hotels in the UK – are fitting electric car charging points in their hotel car parks. We’re electric car sceptics – or at least sceptical about their ability to replace the ICE car as our principal form of personal transport – although EVs do have their […]
Tesla repays government loans – a first, say Tesla. Chrysler disagree.
Chrysler has repaid $465 million of loans from the US Department of Energy nine years early as sales rise – a first, say Tesla. But Chrysler disagrees. 2013 is turning in to a very good year for Tesla. The Tesla Model S has had more praise heaped on it than almost any car ever has, they are making […]
BMW ‘i’ Brand 46 dealer network for i3 & i8
BMW has announced that their ‘i-Brand’ dealer network in the UK will consist of 46 dealers centred on areas of biggest population. [nggallery id=713 template=customlinks] BMW is gearing up for its proper ‘i-Brand’ launch later this year, and has announced that there will be 46 BMW i-Brand dealers scattered across the UK. Each i-Brand centre will have […]
London Congestion Charge: Buy 76-100g/km car NOW to get 3 years free of charge
The London Congestion Charge rules are changing on 1st July 2013 so your car will need to emit less than 76g/km to get in to London free of charge. Whether you think the London Congestion Charging Zone is a great way to clean up the air quality of the capital or just another way to […]
Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid: Production to double to cope with demand
Volvo’s new V60 plug-in hybrid is proving so successful that Volvo are trying to double production to 10,000 a year to cope with demand. [nggallery id=861 template=customlinks] The Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid finally went in to production at the end of 2012 as the first diesel plug-in hybrid on the market, and despite our antipathy towards expensive, […]
VW Group planning 10-speed DSG, new powerful diesel engine & more plug-in hybrids
Volkswagen has a new 10-speed DSG gearbox in development, a new diesel engine with electric boost delivering 136bhp per litre and will roll out more plug-in hybrids. The end of the internal combustion engine is nigh, they say, as the world tries to clean up its environmental act and works towards a goal of electric motors to […]
Audi planning their own version of the electric VW e-Up
It’s reported by the German motoring press that Audi are working on their own version of the electric e-Up city car for launch in 2015. [nggallery id=764 template=customlinks] Audi has played endlessly with their e-tron range of electric cars and range-extenders in recent years, but precious little has seemed even close to production. Perhaps the most promising […]
Ford Fiesta eWheelDrive gets wheel hub electric motors
Ford has partnered with German specialist Schaeffler to build the Fiesta eWheelDrive EV with electric motors in the rear wheel hubs as a research vehicle. [nggallery id=1494 template=customlinks] Car makers haven’t entirely given up on the idea of the electric car, although they do seem to be starting to move to the point where the EV is seen […]