Earlier this month Navistar announced it had begun production of the first Class 2c-3, 2-ton, medium-duty commercial electric truck in the U.S. — the eStar. It’s also the same vehicle that FedEx has announced it will be testing for fleet use in LA this year. Now Navistar says that the first market the eStar will [...]
Nissan Plans on Selling an Inexpensive, Under 30-Minute Fast Charging Station in the U.S.
May 27, 2010 By 30 Comments
Mark Perry (left) next to the Nissan LEAF battery mock up Nissan shocked everybody a bit earlier this week when they announced they had developed a DC fast charging station that had the capability of getting a Nissan LEAF’s 24 kWh battery pack from zero to 80% full in under a half hour. It wasn’t [...]
Nissan LEAF Will Include Fast Charge Capability and Emergency Charging Cable at Launch
May 27, 2010 By 15 Comments
At the Nissan LEAF battery plant groundbreaking yesterday in Smyrna, Tennessee, I made it a goal to squeeze as much detailed information as I could out of Nissan regarding the LEAF and what kinds of equipment it will ship with. To this point — as is usually the case in the echo chamber that is [...]
Japanese Team Pushes Electric Car 623 Miles Without Recharging
May 27, 2010 By 4 Comments
Driving in a Daihatsu Mira equipped with a huge 74 kWh lithium-ion battery and a brushless DC motor, the Japan EV Club has achieved a new world record for an electric car: 1003.184 kilometers (623 miles) without recharging. Although the team didn’t exceed 25 mph and was on a racing oval at a constant speed, [...]
Second Generation Chevy Volt Could Use Diesel Or Rotary Engine
May 27, 2010 By 66 Comments
The Chevy Volt is still months away from hitting showrooms, but that hasn’t stopped people from speculating on the next generation of Chevy’s plug-in hybrid. Will it make the jump to a fully electric vehicle? Will they make a sportier SS version? Will anybody actually buy the Volt? These are just some of the questions [...]
Will More Efficient Trucks Lead to 120,000 More Jobs?
May 27, 2010 By 8 Comments
Tractor trailers use a lot of gas. The trucking industry and related professions also employ a lot of people, and are a vital link in our supply chain that gets us food, electronics… just about everything from production to the store. We need trucks, and we need truckers… but we need those trucks to be [...]
Nissan Breaks Ground on Their U.S. Electric Car Battery Plant
May 26, 2010 By 2 Comments
The hot, sweltering Tennessee sun baked us under a big white-top tent this morning as Nissan dedicated the future site of their $1.7 billion dollar, state-of-the art Nissan LEAF battery plant in Smyrna. Encompassing 1.3 million square feet (22 American football fields), when the plant comes online in late 2012 it will be one of [...]
Nissan LEAF Early Adopters Won't Get Gouged By the Dealer – Here's Why.
May 26, 2010 By 9 Comments
The Nissan LEAF is the world’s first truly mass-market, affordable electric car and there are plenty of folks who’ve plunked down the $99 reservation fee with plans to be one of the first to own one when they start going on sale at the end of this year. But, from those intrepid early adopters, I [...]
