Electric Vehicles

Last month, recently-revived American automaker Detroit Electric unveiled its Lotus-bodied SP.01 – it’s said to be the fastest pure-electric car on the market. Although only 999 of the cars will be built, the company did state that other models were in the works for next year. At the recent Shanghai Auto Show, Detroit Electric and China’s Geely Automobile Group (which owns Volvo) announced they they would be teaming up on one of those – the EC7-EV.  Read More

If you've ever thought that the rider platform of an electric scooter is just crying out for a solar panel, you're not alone. California renewable energy veterans Mike Donnell and Tony VanMeeteren have spent the last four years working on some PV-panel-packing, adult-sized, emission-free electric scooters called SES, and are now moving toward mass production.  Read More

With his surname already linked with the overall Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record thanks to son Rhys, Rod Millen is focusing his attention on piloting an electric vehicle up the mountain. During his debut in the electric division, he'll look to break the EV record in an updated version of the vehicle that set it: the EV P002 from Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG).  Read More

Inventist, the creative mind behind such contraptions as the Solowheel and Hydroglider, is back with something it calls the Hovertrax. Unfortunately not the Marty McFly-like personal hover vessel the name implies, Hovertrax is more akin to a smaller, lighter Segway-like personal transporter. The small, hands-free device is designed to be both easy to carry and easy to use.  Read More

If you need to cut across town, sliding behind the wheel of your car is not always the most practical or quickest way to get from train station to office, office to gym, or gym to juice bar. While public transport serves most inner cities well, the thought of zipping quietly and effortlessly through the thronging masses is one that has great appeal. If you can just collapse your vehicle down to a fraction of its size at the end of your journey, all the better. Such is the case with a soon-to-be-released three-wheeled, stand-and-ride electric scooter named MUVe, which transforms into a suitcase-sized trolley between rides.  Read More

It's predicted that by the year 2050 there will be 9.3 billion people on Earth and 6.4 billion of them will be living in cities. There could also be four times as many cars on the roads as today, leading to an incredible degree of urban congestion and gridlock. That’s the impetus behind Ford and technology partner Schaeffler’s eWheelDrive electric research car, that moves the motor to the wheel hubs.  Read More

One lesser known snippet out this year's Shanghai Auto Show concerns a joint venture between Toyota and China’s FAW (First Auto Works), which resulted in a new sub-brand and a new electric vehicle that was displayed along with an SUV EV resulting from another Toyota-China joint venture.  Read More

Hot on the heels of last week’s F1 inspired by Twizy, comes another (slightly) less outlandish EV in the form of the awkwardly named GWKULLA. Looking very much like the Twizy, this concept from Great Wall Motors showed its pert little face at the Shanghai Auto show last week.  Read More

BMW’s sustainable mobility-focused sub-brand BMW i has announced it is to join forces with German photovoltaic firm SOLARWATT GmbH, in a bid to supply consumer-friendly solar-powered carport and rooftop charging systems to future i3 and i8 owners.  Read More