Hybrids and electric vehicles

Say goodbye to range anxiety--well, while heading through the Pacific Northwest, anyway.

A 160-mile stretch of Interstate 5, dubbed the Electric Highway, now offers a little piece of mind for EV drivers, the Associated Press reported.

According to the story, EV drivers from the northern border of California to Cottage Grove, Ore., can stop at any one of eight stations, which are spaced out along the road about every 25 miles, for free.

Electric vehicles charge at three different levels: Level 1 DC, for example, uses 110 volts and vehicles charge over-night. Level 2 uses 240 volts, and can charge … Read more

Two key players in the hydrogen manufacturing arena will be working together to make hydrogen fueling stations a reality for the fuel cell vehicles that should be coming to market in the second half of this decade.

Air Products and Fuel Cell Energy have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to market stationary Direct Fuel Cell (DFC) power plants. These systems, manufactured by Fuel Cell Energy, are designed to take natural gas or renewable biogas and produce hydrogen, electricity, and heat. The three energy byproducts can be used to power and heat the production facility or nearby homes or businesses while … Read more

Bright Automotive designed a unique plug-in electric vehicle, but failure of a government loan to come through has forced it to shut down.

The CEO and chief operation officer of Bright Automotive earlier this week sent a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu saying the company has withdrawn its loan application. Without financing to build a factory, the company cannot build its product and so it is shutting down.

Bright Automotive made one prototype utility van, which used lightweight materials and a hybrid electric power train to achieve up to 100 miles per gallon. With the vehicle designed specifically for … Read more

Ford said today its Focus Electric sedan has the highest EPA rating for fuel efficiency, nudging out the all-electric Nissan Leaf.

The Focus Electric was certified with an EPA rating of 105 miles per gallon equivalent for combined city and highway driving, according to Ford. On city alone, it's 110 MPGe and 99 for highway. MPGe converts the fuel economy of gasoline-powered cars for electric vehicles.

The range of the Focus Electric is 76 miles on a full charge and the fuel economy label will indicate that a driver can save $9,700 in fuel course over five years … Read more

Luxury car makers usually insist that you need massive amounts of V-8 horsepower to motivate your leather and wood trimmed executive sedan. Some drivers may crave that kind of power, but many are content to cruise at the speed limit while considering whether pork bellies would be a good investment.

Buick built its new LaCrosse for that second class of driver. Its four-cylinder engine may seem meager, but at 2.4 liters and using direct injection, it gives the full-size sedan reasonable power. Buick enhances that power with a small electric motor, not powerful enough to drive the wheels on … Read more

With the auto industry pining for a battery breakthrough to lower electric vehicle costs, Envia Systems has some interesting performance data to share.

The five-year-old company today is expected to disclose technical details of its batteries which executives say could lead to cutting EV battery pack prices in half in three or four years. Envia Systems' batteries are being evaluated by a number of automakers, including its largest investor General Motors, according to CEO Atul Kapadia.

The lithium ion batteries in cars, such as the Chevy Volt or Nissan Leaf, provide ample power to accelerate a car, but the cost … Read more

An initiative by the German government calls for 1 million electric cars on its roads by 2020. To meet that goal, Volkswagen began a development program for its own electric vehicle, the eGolf. CNET looked at the first eGolf to be shipped to Volkswagen's Electronic Research Laboratory in Belmont, Calif.

This eGolf is the first of 20 that will be used for testing in the United States. Overall, Volkswagen will build 500 of the vehicles for testing its new electric powertrain. This drive system is fairly conventional by today's standards. It uses an electric motor to drive the … Read more

Tesla Motors today detailed measures to prevent a full discharge of the batteries in its forthcoming Model S, saying drivers of the electric sedan would have to be particularly negligent to cause a costly battery replacement.

The company published a response to a blog earlier this week that recounted the problem of "bricked" Tesla Roadster batteries. The blog claimed that five owners of the Roadster electric sports car allowed their batteries to be completely discharged, rendering them inoperable.

Tesla on Wednesday did not deny the stories of Roadster battery problems but noted that Roadsters can remain unplugged for several weeks … Read more

The first 35 miles or so that you drive in a fully charged Chevrolet Volt are emissions-free, but until now, that hasn't been good enough to make it eligible for a highly coveted Clean Air Vehicle Decal in California. Chevrolet has added a Low Emissions Package to the Volt that lets it achieve the California Air Resources Board's Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle rating (AT-PZEV).

High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes in California require two or three occupants in the car to drive in the faster, less congested lanes. However, certain alternative fuel vehicles are approved for green or … Read more