After several months of using a 2011 Chevy Volt and a 2011 Nissan Leaf as our sole family transport, we have a better understanding of both cars than we did in March, when I first wrote about how they compared. First to arrive at our West Sacramento home was a beautiful crystal red 2011 Volt. We chose the neutral leat...Read more

One of the most remarkable--and most delayed--of the promised new generation of electric cars is the three-wheeled Aptera 2e. The unusual, highly aerodynamic vehicle was designed by a startup automaker in Southern California. The resin-bodied car was a finalist at last year’s Auto X-Prize competition despite ear...Read more

Recently Google requested a waiver from lawmakers in Nevada to allow it to test its computer-driven cars on Nevada public roads. Could robotic cars be safe on everyday roads? In the last couple of years, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has finally seen driverless cars fully master their demandin...Read more

So you bought a 2011 Nissan Leaf, and paid for the optional $700 quick-charge connector. Now you're able to get an 80-percent battery recharge in just 30 minutes, albeit from very few places right now. Promising, right? Not so fast, sonny. It appears that U.S. makers of electric cars are likely to adopt a completely d...Read more

In the United States we have become comfortable with our large cars, even larger SUVs and we have further assumed that we would always have inexpensive fuel and freeways to speed comfortably between cities. In the last 20 years however, the assumptions of the optimistic 1950's have started to conflict of environmental...Read more