Of all the changes in the American economy over the past 18 months, perhaps the most startling has been the rapid collapse of the major car manufacturers.
If you're looking forward to parking a brand-new electric car in your garage soon, be prepared to spend some money getting that garage in shape.
General Motors tried to keep the focus on its cars at the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show even as the carmakers' plans were disrupted by the abrupt resignation of its chief executive just the afternoon before.
Keith Felch is admittedly a big guy, but more than a few super-fit cyclists in Southern California have been left wondering how that dude just went flying by.
Shares of A123 Systems, one of just a handful of U.S.-based makers of batteries for electric cars, debuted sharply higher from their offering price Thursday as investors cheered the closely watched firm.
Tesla Motors turned profitable for the first time in July, when the electric car manufacturer shipped a record 109 vehicles, the company said Friday.
The federal government on Wednesday named which companies will get $2.4 billion in stimulus grants to develop batteries, parts and programs for electric cars.
While the U.S. auto industry celebrates the impact of the government's cash for clunkers program on July sales, two events separated by thousands of miles should give pause to those whose world view extends beyond next week.
The cars of the future will run on electricity, most major automakers agree on that. What they don't agree on is how soon drivers will be ready to fully embrace electric power and how aggressively to push electric cars.
The Obama Administration will lend Tesla Motors $465 million to build an electric sedan and the battery packs needed to propel it. It's one of three loans totaling almost $8 billion that the Department of Energy awarded Tuesday to spur the development of fuel-efficient vehicles.
Of all the changes in the American economy over the past 18 months, perhaps the most startling has been the rapid collapse of the major car manufacturers.
If you're looking forward to parking a brand-new electric car in your garage soon, be prepared to spend some money getting that garage in shape.
General Motors tried to keep the focus on its cars at the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show even as the carmakers' plans were disrupted by the abrupt resignation of its chief executive just the afternoon before.
Keith Felch is admittedly a big guy, but more than a few super-fit cyclists in Southern California have been left wondering how that dude just went flying by.
Shares of A123 Systems, one of just a handful of U.S.-based makers of batteries for electric cars, debuted sharply higher from their offering price Thursday as investors cheered the closely watched firm.
Tesla Motors turned profitable for the first time in July, when the electric car manufacturer shipped a record 109 vehicles, the company said Friday.
The federal government on Wednesday named which companies will get $2.4 billion in stimulus grants to develop batteries, parts and programs for electric cars.
While the U.S. auto industry celebrates the impact of the government's cash for clunkers program on July sales, two events separated by thousands of miles should give pause to those whose world view extends beyond next week.
The cars of the future will run on electricity, most major automakers agree on that. What they don't agree on is how soon drivers will be ready to fully embrace electric power and how aggressively to push electric cars.
The Obama Administration will lend Tesla Motors $465 million to build an electric sedan and the battery packs needed to propel it. It's one of three loans totaling almost $8 billion that the Department of Energy awarded Tuesday to spur the development of fuel-efficient vehicles.
Despite Exxon Mobil Corp.'s well-publicized stance in support of fossil fuels, the oil giant said on Tuesday that it is sponsoring a program to bring a zero-emission electric vehicle to Baltimore.
Exxon Mobil Corp. said it will unveil an electric car Tuesday through a test-drive and car-sharing program in Baltimore.
Daimler AG and Tesla Motors announced Tuesday that they will partner to manufacture electric cars.
Much has been made of the electric car driving to the rescue of ailing automobile manufacturers and saving the planet at the same time. But what if that eco-savior came on two wheels instead of four?
FORTUNE's Brainstorm: Green conference is not even 24 hours old as I write this and already we've had a lot of memorable moments. Here are some of the things we've heard so far:
After years of churning out giant gas-guzzlers, lobbying against fuel-economy standards, and refusing to repent even while begging Congress for a bailout, the humbled and chastened Big Three gathered recently at the Detroit auto show to finally embrace the electrification of the automobile.
A battery-powered 268-horsepower two-seat sports car is in line to become Chrysler LLC's first electric car, provided the carmaker lives to see another day.
Did a battery bring down General Motors?
Warren Buffett is famous for his rules of investing: When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is usually the reputation of the business that remains intact. You should invest in a business that even a fool can run, because someday a fool will. And perhaps most famously, Never invest in a business you cannot understand.
The Obama administration has made it clear: In order to get the billions of dollars of federal money that Chrysler and General Motors need to survive, they'll need to build and sell more fuel efficient vehicles.
Ford is preparing to sell an electric car developed almost entirely by an outside supplier. While that may cut down on bragging rights - General Motors created the Chevy Volt in-house - Ford says it also cut down on costs and risk.
Ford Motor Co. will introduce its first all-electric vehicle in 2010, but it will be intended for business owners - not families. The electric Transit Connect, a small van, will be offered in "select" U.S. Ford dealerships.
Meeting the Obama Administration's goal of putting 1 million plug-in electric vehicles on the road by 2015 will only happen with a coordinated set of policies and technology advances, according to an electric vehicle association.
Toyota's third-generation Prius, due at dealerships this spring, will have an optional solar panel on its roof. The panel will power a ventilation system that can cool the car without help from the engine, Toyota says.
At the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and MINI showed the world what electric vehicles of the future will look like. And the future of driving looks fun.
Electric cars have a big role to play in reducing the world's greenhouse gas emissions, but it's going to cost a lot, according to a new report. It could even push automakers into further trouble.
Ford wants to roll out a fleet of hybrid and plug-in cars over the next several years, but it does not want to go down the road General Motors is taking with the Chevrolet Volt.
Hydrogen and electric vehicles might be leading the charge, so to speak, towards cleaner transport, but will cars powered by air and the sun ever surpass the sales figures of gasoline cars?
For a century the gasoline engine has remained largely unchallenged, seeing off all pretenders to its crown. But with concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and a host of new contenders looming large in the rear view mirror, is the gasoline-fueled automobile due to be overtaken by a fleet of cleaner, leaner rivals?
Chrysler is pinning a huge part of its future on a plan to produce a full line of electric vehicles, at a reasonable cost to both the carmaker and the consumer.
Hybrid and electric cars play a big part in the business plans Detroit automakers presented to Congress on Tuesday. The only problem is that vehicles like General Motors' Chevrolet Volt won't be profitable for a decade or more.
The Wrightspeed X1, a sports car whose three-second acceleration from 0 to 60 makes it one of the fastest autos in the world, is also super clean: It's powered by an electric motor and gets about 170 mpg. Ian Wright, the Burlingame, Calif., entrepreneur who created the X1 several years ago, had planned on ramping up production on a line of similar electric cars in 2009. But over the summer, he changed his mind.
There's no point in having a debate without varied points of view. Send us an email by filling out the form on the front page, file an iReport or click on the "Sound Off" button at the bottom of this page.
For Dr. Xingyi Xu, the grass used to be greener on the other side.
Back in 2004, when it was still relatively flush, General Motors invited automotive journalists to the South of France for a three-day "global product seminar." The idea was that writers like me would drive new cars, consume loads of free food and wine, pal around with executives, and develop favorable opinions about GM.
Robert Lutz, vice-chairman of General Motors, caused a stir in the auto industry -- and in the automotive press -- when he announced in January of 2007 that the Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric car would be ready for mass production and on the road, by the end of 2010.
The applause hasn't died down for the new Chevrolet Volt, but General Motors is already planning where the technology for this new electric car can go next.
Electricity is certainly more abundant and way cheaper than gas, but we still haven't got the right infrastructure to make electric cars a thing of the present
Nissan showed on Wednesday a spiffy electric car packed with a battery developed by the Japanese automaker to deliver more power than the type common in today's hybrids
Two new battery-powered cars show that green autos don't have to be ugly and slow, which should help rev up the market
For Martin Eberhard, there were many obstacles on the path to building the ultimate electric sports car. There was the scientific challenge of creating a lithium ion battery pack stable enough to power a 2,650-pound vehicle. There was the belief that Americans would stick with their gas-guzzlers, no matter what the price of oil. And there was, of course, the considerable resistance in the venture capital community to funding heavy industry.
True or False: In the 1890's electric cars out sold gasoline powered versions ten to one.
Transplanted from the U.S to London, Phyllis Earl knows how to get somebody's attention.
It's small, affluent, tech-savvy and it has a very obvious pollution problem -- Hong Kong is arguably an ideal destination for electric cars.
With the price of gas soaring, major automakers like GM and Toyota are finally following the lead of successful firms like GEM and getting serious about plug and drive vehicles
At the dawn of the automobile age, gasoline was the up-and-coming "alternative fuel" -- vying with electric batteries and steam power.
True or False: The electric car was invented in the early 1800's.
Despite all the hype for electric cars and hydrogen fuel cells, experts say we'd better get used to pumping gas, but we can look forward to much better fuel economy down the road.
Gerri Willis answers reader's questions.
At a breakfast in New York last week, Jim Press, vice chairman and president of Chrysler LLC made the startling announcement that every single new Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep is being engineered so that it can be adapted for a gas-electric hybrid powertrain. That's a huge change for technologically challenged Chrysler, which currently markets only two gas-electric hybrid vehicles - both of them equipped with technology developed by General Motors.
In a first-of-its-kind program, the government hopes to put charging stations all over the country and get gas guzzlers off the roads starting in 2011
Easy money: Richard Branson helps fund U.S. entrepeneurs
Steve Fambro didn't get into the car business to save the world. He did it to go faster on freeways.
What is the future of transport? What role will cars play? What will we use to get around? Send us your thoughts and we'll print the best ones here.
General Motors Corp. is moving forward with the development of electric cars, its vice chairman, Bob Lutz, said Tuesday, adding that the company is also spending less on incentives for its new crossover cars than it had initially planned.
If all goes according to plan, by 2009 you could be sticking it to Big Oil by driving an all electric, Chinese-made sedan for little more than the cost of a Camry.
Three pinstriped London investors stand outside an electric car factory in the green fields of the Norwegian countryside, waiting their turns to test-drive a stylish two-seater called the Think City.
General Motors is shifting about 500 engineers within the company with the aim of having the first fuel-cell-powered car on the market as soon as 2010, according to published reports.
Dr. Samuel Johnson said it best: nothing so concentrates the mind as the sight of the gallows. In other words, to get stuff done, we humans need a deadline.
General Motors unveiled a plug-in hybrid vehicle that, the company says, offers a preview of a high-mileage vehicle platform that GM could use in future vehicles.
General Motors will unveil a plug-in hybird vehicle Sunday that, the company says, offers a preview of a high-mileage vehicle platform that GM could use in future vehicles.
The belief that General Motors has all the environmental sensitivity of a panda fur wholesaler has been widespread for a long time.
General Motors is working on a plug-in hybrid version of its redesigned Saturn Vue SUV, the company's CEO announced today at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
It would be so easy to disparage the BMW Hydrogen 7, the world's first production-ready hydrogen car and a guaranteed showstopper when it's unveiled next month at the Los Angeles Motor Show.
Contradicting a recent report in an industry newspaper, Mitsubishi Motor's U.S. division says the company has no plans to sell an electric car here.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. plans to sell an electric car in the United States, according to a report in an industry newspaper.
Ian Wright has a car that blows away a Ferrari 360 Spider and a Porsche Carrera GT in drag races, and whose 0-to-60 acceleration time ranks it among the fastest production autos in the world. In fact, it's second only to the French-made Bugatti Veyron, a 1,000-horsepower, 16-cylinder beast that hits 60 mph half a second faster and goes for $1.25 million.
It's late morning at Buck's, the diner in Silicon Valley's bucolic foothills where venture deals have been known to go down faster than the flapjacks and burgers. Today, though, the action is in th...
The debate over the best medium-term solution for cleaner cars looks set to lengthen as auto executives in Japan for the Tokyo auto show this week discussed more, not fewer, options for weaning cars off oil.
As the luncheon at the swank Miami resort begins, Mary Tolan takes a seat and braces herself. After weeks of frantic preparation, Tolan, a superstar at the big consulting firm Accenture, has just u...
If you're willing to set aside for a moment the gigantic chicken-and-egg problem of where to get the hydrogen to run a new generation of efficient, nonpolluting hydrogen-powered cars, General Motor...
As far back as Jules Verne, visionaries have predicted that society will someday be utterly transformed by energy based on hydrogen. The lightweight gas, the most abundant element in the universe, ...
Maybe you think driving a car that runs on anything other than gas is as preposterous as the idea of an underpowered Ferrari or a nonsmoking supermodel. But if you don't believe we are at a scienti...
Bright-eyed, his silver hair a little wild at the fringes, Dr. Ferdinand Panik, 56, clearly relishes piloting a very special Mercedes vehicle briskly past the apple orchards on the outskirts of Nab...
Remember cold fusion, Corfam, and Tang? Well, electric vehicles (EVs) seem destined to join them on the trash heap of history: once-heralded technological breakthroughs whose time never came.
NOW THAT General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler are getting close to an agreement to cooperate on an electric vehicle, does that mean battery-powered cars are an idea whose time has finally come? Not b...
Come 1994, travel in Europe may include a chance to try out a battery-powered car. Peugeot Citroen, the French automaker, will build a network of recharging stations that -- the company says -- wil...
Effective air conditioners -- and heaters, for that matter -- turn out to be a serious challenge to automakers trying to produce an electric car the public will buy. Prototypes like the Nissan two-...
The cream of U.S. corporate research labs, including those at AT&T, Exxon, and IBM, are searching for commercial applications for a new form of carbon named Buckminsterfullerenes -- Buckyballs, for...
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