2008 June Electric Car News -- Electric & Hybrid Cars

Tango - Fastest Electric Urban Car

Portugal to join Renault-Nissan electric car project - report(June 30) - Forbes - Prime Minister Jose Socrates will soon sign an agreement for Portugal to join the Better Place electric car project backed by Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co, Diario Economico reported without naming its sources. Complete Story

Daimler's Mercedes to launch full-scale production of electric car by 2010(June 29) - Forbes - Daimler AG.'s Mercedes brand plans to launch full-scale production of an electric version of its Smart model by 2010 and is considering offering its A-Class and B-Class models as electrical cars as well, board member Thomas Weber said. Complete Story

Subaru's Stella electric car concept(June 30) - Cnet - The electric Stella concept uses a 40-kilowatt electric motor powered by lithium-ion batteries, which are recharged via mains power. This powertrain gives the electric Stella a maximum speed of 100km/h and a range of about 80km on a full charge. Complete Story

Aptera Electric Car Claims 300 Miles Per Gallon Fuel Efficiency (June 27) - New Zealand - Electric car maker Aptera claims that the electric-gasoline hybrid version of its new Typ-1 vehicle gets 300 miles per gallon. The vehicle will be available early in 2008 for less than $30,000. Complete Story

Will 2010 be the Year of the Green Car? (June 27) - Huffington Report - It seems like the next generation of green(er) cars will be with us soon. A slew of announcements for plug-in hybrids and electric car all show the same time stamp: 2010. Complete Story

India's first battery-powered car REVAi launched (June 25) - India - After 13 years of research and development, India's first electric car 'Reva' was launched in the national capital by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Wednesday morning.  Complete Story

McCain proposes car battery prize(Jan. 23) - UKPress - US presidential hopeful John McCain is proposing a 300 million dollar government prize to develop a car battery that far surpasses current technology. Complete Story

Dyson to build electric car(Jan. 23) - UK - Dyson plans to collaborate with a major manufacturer such as Honda to use the technology behind his range of hugely successful vacum cleaners as the basis for an electric car. Complete Story

Daimler Working On Electric Mercedes, Electric Smart Car, & Project Better Place(Jan. 23) - Germany - Earlier this month word got out that Silicon Valley electric vehicle startup Tesla has been working on some sort of deal with Germany’s Daimler.   Complete Story

Beat this Mr Bond: An inflatable electric car that can drive off cliffs, and float news(Jan. 21) - AutoZone - XP Vehicles, Inc. an electric powered automobile technology startup has combined proprietary aerospace engineering and novel power systems to make what it calls ''the best priced, safest, longest-range-electric, most durable, vehicles on Earth.'' Complete Story

Epyon: 10-Minute Electric Car Charging(June 19) - Earth2tech - Dutch startup Epyon says it can charge the battery of an electric vehicle in 10 minutes — a mere fraction of the 8-10 hours it can take to charge an electric car in a standard outlet. Complete Story

Beaver Island hosts first Electric Car Show June 27-28(June 19) - Michigan - Thirteen electric vehicles (EV) from ZENN, GEM, Zap and Vantage will be arriving on Friday morning and will be displayed in front of the Shamrock Bar & Restaurant and Harbour Market. Complete Story

Battery-powered car race is on(June 19) - Chicago - The latest potential alternative to the traditional gasoline engine touted for the auto industry—plug-in hybrids and their lithium-ion batteries—may not change what most people drive anytime soon. Complete Story

Newer Lithium Batteries Improve Electric Car Range(June 19) - Wall Street Journal - Advances in lithium-ion battery technology will boost the range of electric vehicles to 400 kilometers (248 miles) by 2015, the head of research and development at Nissan Motor Co. said Wednesday. Complete Story

Electric cars plug in to Washington(June 18) - MarketWatch - Get your sockets ready -- plug-in electric cars are coming soon to a garage near you, according to car makers and power company officials who met in the nation's capitol last week to discuss the technology's future. Complete Story

New Air Car: How Long will the Feds Sit on this one?(June 18) - France - The $12,700 CityCAT, one of the planned Air Car models, can hit 68 mph and has a range of 125 miles. Complete Story

The Electric Car Lives(June 17) - Business Week - Backed by U.S. venture capital, Norwegian company Think is betting its Ox concept vehicle can prove the electric car's time has finally arrived. Complete Story

Engines May Soon Be A Thing Of The Past(June 17) - Auto Racing Daily - Texas-based EEStor, Inc. is not exactly proposing a new battery, since no chemicals are used in its design. The technology is based on the idea of a solid state ultracapacitor, but cannot be accurately described in these terms either. Complete Story

Battery shortage restrains production of Toyota hybrids(June 17) - AP - Toyota is struggling to keep up with booming demand for hybrid vehicles because it is unable to make enough batteries that are key components of the popular "green" cars, a senior executive said Monday. Complete Story

2009 Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid(June 17) - Auto Spectator - TPartnering General Motors’ patented two-mode hybrid system and a powerful 6.0L gas V-8, the Silverado Hybrid delivers highly efficient performance, including all-electric driving up to 30 mph (48 km/h). That allows fuel savings to be realized even when the truck is fully loaded or towing a trailer. Complete Story

Saturn Sky Sports car to be fully electric(June 17) - Ohio - Advanced Mechanical Products Inc., or AMP, early next year plans to start delivering the Amp, a fully electric sports car based on the two-seat Saturn Sky. Complete Story

Mitsubishi, Peugeot strike electric car alliance(June 16) - Tokyo - Mitsubishi Motors Corp will tie up with France's PSA Peugeot Citroen in the production of electric vehicles, supplying technology and next-generation batteries, a newspaper reported on Monday. The report in the Nikkei business daily boosted Mitsubishi Motors stock 2.5 percent, while shares in its partner for lithium-ion batteries GS Yuasa Corp surged 10.4 percent. Complete Story

Plug-in hybrid is next step to all-electric car(June 15) - Tennessee - Some form of electric car could be the answer to high gasoline prices and America's dependence on imported oil, but a wave of new plug-in hybrids might be the best choice, at least until battery technology improves, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander says. Complete Story

Man shows power of dream (June 15) - Colorado - He's not a crazed fan. He's the owner of one of the world's few truly electric cars and also a Colorado delegate to the Democratic National Convention - which falls in a summer when most poor souls are getting poorer paying $4 a gallon for gasoline. Complete Story

Electric Car Less Than 3 Feet Wide(June 13) - Ecogeek - Now, we’ve seen plans for tiny fuel efficient cars, and even tiny electric cars, but this is a car I’d LOVE to try out as soon as it is a reality. I doubt it’d have a snowball’s chance here in America where, while we say we’re heading back to smaller cars, we still have a “size matters” complex. Complete Story

Vancouver inventor charged up about electric car(June 7) - Washington - One is his ElectriCar, a four-door, four-seat, plug-in hybrid car ready to hit the highway in about a year. The first 100 cars will be sold as “kit cars,” assembled and driven away one at a time, for between $20,000 and $30,000 each. Mass production will come later. Complete Story

Bob Lutz Drives the Volt, Calls It 'Electrifying' (June 6) - Wired - GM's engineers have been flogging the mules -- known formally as "engineering development vehicles" -- pretty hard for a couple of months now and they've got the lithium-ion batteries and electric drivetrain pretty much sorted. Complete Story

GHS electric car team claims state title(June 6) - South Carolina - Jake and Matt Besemer, Kurt Cantile, Chris Norman, Sean Willard and Paul Wright - made up the school's electric car team that competed through the National Electric Cart Association (NECA) in Coopersville. Advised by technology instructor Bruce Aittama, the six drove away from the 2008 season as the state's stock division champions for the first time in Greenville's long history of participating in electric car races. Complete Story

GM in Talks to Acquire Battery Supplier(June 5) - Wall Street Journal - General Motors Corp. is in advanced talks to acquire Cobasys LLC, a supplier of batteries used in a range of products including certain hybrid vehicles, people familiar with the matter said. Complete Story

Hybrid SUV goes 40 miles without gas(June 4) - Seattle - Sitting at a red light, Ed Furia explained the attributes of his company's new so-called extreme hybrid SUV, the XH-150. The speedy vehicle can go 40 miles without using any gas. Complete Story

Chevy Tahoe Hybrid Delivers on Fuel Economy (June 4) - Trailer Life - Chevrolet's 2008 Tahoe Hybrid, which was named the "Green Car of the Year" by the Green Car Journal, is America's first full-size hybrid SUV. It's available in 2WD or 4WD and provides the power and capability you would expect from an SUV, while delivering significantly improved fuel economy. Complete Story

Rocker Young working with Wichita mechanic on electric car(June 3) - Missouri - This story would sound nuts except that it's happening, in real time, in a Wichita car mechanic's garage last week and for the foreseeable future. Complete Story

GM Closes Four Plants, Approves Chevy Volt Electric Car At Annual Meeting(June 3) - Atlanta - Wagoner said the GM board has approved production of a new small Chevrolet car at a plant in Lordstown, Ohio, in mid-2010 and production of the Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle in Detroit. Complete Story

Prius, Porsche Models Top Most-Satisfied Lists(June 3) - Consumer Affairs - The Toyota Prius hybrid remains at the top of the list in owner satisfaction, according to a Consumer Reports survey. An overwhelming number of Prius owners, 92 percent, reported they would definitely buy or lease the hybrid again. Complete Story

Inflatable electric car can drive off cliffs(June 3) - Physorg.com - Or maybe it's the fact that you buy the car online, it gets shipped to you in two cardboard boxes, and the estimated assembly time is less than two hours. Complete Story

Hybrid-electric carmaker readies 220 mpg 'super car'(June 3) - North Carolina - The gas-battery hybrid will get the equivalent of 220 miles per gallon while the all-electric will get 150 mpg to 180 mpg. A drivable prototype is set to hit the streets in September. Complete Story

Developers of New "Superlattice Structure" Lithium Battery Announce Boost in Electric Car Range(June 3) - The Daily Green - Now, North Carolina-based Superlattice Power Inc has announced a successful move toward development of a new cathode material, which the company says "will be incorporated to a Lithium Ion Polymer battery that significantly increases operating voltage range and energy density." Complete Story

California to Give $1,000 Electric Car Rebates for ZAP Xebra Sedans and ZAP Xebra Trucks(June 2) - California - Both the ZAP Xebra electric city car and pickup have passed a full battery of testing and approval requirements by the California Air Resources Board and have been officially approved for the $1,000 cash rebates. To receive a rebate, vehicles must be ARB qualified and pass a range and speed course as well as comply with all federal motor vehicle safety standards, and meet a minimum manufacturer warranty. Complete Story

Norway Electric Car, Think, Headed For U.S. In 2009(June 1) - Detroit - Amid the continuing gas crisis, Norway's Think Global is planning to sell its all-electric Think City automobile in the U.S. in 2009. The car will be priced under $25,000 and have a 110-mile range. Complete Story

2008 Monthly Electric Car News
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