Spend a princely sum on a top-of-the-line Tesla Model S, which has an 85-kWh battery pack, and you can get an EPA-certified 265 miles on a full charge. If you opt for the lower-cost (and delayed) 60-kWh version, the EPA has now calculated you'll get 208 miles.
Price increases are common in the automotive industry so the recent $2,500 jump in prices for upcoming Tesla Model S vehicles wasn't exactly a surprise. Still, most vehicle MSRPs don't go up two-and-a-half grand, and so to explain why the price for the Sebastian Blanco
Hell hath no fury like a mobile-phone owner scorned.
Chrysler hasn't exactly been in a leadership role when it comes to, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Disbanding the ENVI group in 2009 sure didn't help. Plug-in vehicle development continued, though, but the company's PHEV's are now facing another obstacle: overheating. Fortunately, this hasn't meant battery fires, but the Jon LeSage
Nissan has been clear that the Nissan Leaf will keep on improving. Exactly how much cheaper the next-gen battery in future versions of the Leaf will be is still carefully protected information, but Nissan Chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn is making sure that everyone knows a lower-cost Leaf will be
If you're planning on investing in a DC fast charger to get your electric vehicle battery 80 percent juiced up in 30 minutes, you might want to stick with your Level 2 charger for a while longer. Korean scientists at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) have developed a lithium ion battery that can be recharged 30 to 120 times (!) fast
If you're lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems and have been through the public image ringer with the Fisker Karma battery pack recalls and an explosion at General Motors' Warren Tech Center<
We already knew that the Renault-Nissan alliance is willing to invest over $5 billion in electric vehicles. Details on how all that money will be spent has been trickling out, and today's announcement is one more piece of the pie.
Too many lithium-ion batteries? That's not something battery makers want to hear, but it's music to our ears. It's also the prediction of Munich-based Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
The Fisker Karma was recalled late last year because of improper alignment of the batteries' hose clamps, but that was quickly resolved. Today, A123 Systems – the company that makes
Send a $107,000 Fisker Karma to the dealer – after an incredibly public breakdown – and get a new battery pack in return. That's the lesson that Consumer Reports learned over the weekend and the repaired vehicle is now "operating fine at our test track" after 48 hours offline.
South Korea. Michigan. Japan. And Russia?
The heat is rising and the cause isn't a crashed battery pack catching on fire.
A123 Systems has had to lay off 125 employees at two Michigan locations because of Fisker's lengthy delay getting the Karma luxury plug-in hybrid to market. That's the bad news. The potentially good news is that the layoffs may be temporary. Even though Fisker has reduced its 2011 Karma orders to 1,500 units from 7,000, once Fisker is back on track to reach its stated goal of selling 15,000 vehicl
For years, CEO Charles Gassenheimer was the friendly, public face of battery maker Ener1, speaking with AutoblogGreen many times over the years about his company's work with Think and Volvo and others. The company's history was long fraught with difficulty because of the way it was tied to Think and its bank
Is battery longevity a legitimate concern? You bet it is.
Taking lithium-ion batteries to heights never before reached is the goal of EnerSys and GAIA. The dynamic duo just entered into a definitive agreement to launch a large-format lithium-ion battery cell joint venture in Germany, where the focus will be on developing power storage devices for aerospace, naval, defense and other "specialty" high-power applications.
