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General Motors is again poised to sell an all-electric car in the United States. The Chevrolet Spark is described as a “mini-car.” It will initially be available at California dealers in 2013. A gasoline-powered version of the Spark is due in the U.S. next year. It has already proven successful in other countries, including India. Although it will be smaller, the Spark is designed to directly compete with the Nissan Leaf, which is also pure electric. It will complement the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, which has a gasoline engine that kicks in once the electric charge is used up.

The city is promoting two new plug-in hybrid electric cars available for use by members of the Hourcar vehicle-sharing organization in St. Paul and Minneapolis. This fall and next spring, St. Paul will install 20 public stations where drivers can charge the vehicles. The two new hybrid cars were bought with a $30,000 contribution from Xcel Energy. Hourcar is run by the Neighborhood Energy Connection, a St. Paul nonprofit. The vehicles are in the Lawson and Lowertown parking ramps in downtown St. Paul. There are 13 Hourcars at nine locations throughout the city. Charging station locations, rates and details can...

Electric carmaker Tesla got gearheads buzzing this weekend with its announcement of a tweak to its Model S luxury sedan to give it super speed. The souped up version will go 0-60 mph in 4.5 seconds and get about 320 miles per charge. Green Car Reports has more on the specs: The sportier version features the same 85 kilowatt-hour, 300 miles-per-charge battery pack found in the 2012 Model S Signature series. “That’s quicker than a [Porsche] 911 [Carrera],” joked [Tesla CEO Elon] Musk. “Not bad for an electric luxury sedan.” In fact, it’s better than some of the gas-powered cars...

It seems the promise of job creation for taxpayer funded green initiatives, such as the Chevy Volt development, is partially being kept. The only problem is that many of those jobs are going to China. General Motors confirmed last week that it would develop an electric vehicle platform in China. USA Today reports that GM Vice Chairman, Steve Girsky, stated that GM and Chinese auto company, SAIC, will develop a new electric vehicle that would draw upon the Chevy Volt's technology. Girsky also hinted that future Chevy Volts will be built in China in order to qualify for Chinese...

NWI communities get keys to electric cars By Carrie Napoleon Post-Tribune correspondent Last Modified: Sep 22, 2011 02:01AM Kathy Kazmierczak is looking forward to retiring the city-issued older model Ford Crown Victoria she drives when performing her duties as Hammond’s recycling director. “It gets 11 miles per gallon,” she said. The THINK City all-electric vehicle Hammond and eight other Northwest Indiana municipalities took possession of Wednesday, facilitated through South Shore Clean Cities, will mean an end to the recycling director’s gas-guzzling ways and a chance to enlighten residents about alternative fuel vehicles as she tools around the city in the...

Rental car company Hertz Global Holdings yesterday announced plans to partner with General Electric in offering electric vehicles in China and expanding the charging networks needed to run them. The government has included building up the electric vehicle industry in its five-year economic blueprint, but despite its ambitious plans, such vehicles are still a negligible part of China’s auto sales due to their high cost and inconvenience compared with regular vehicles. Incentives that are likely to be rolled out include easier access to license plates — a key concern in cities like Shanghai, where the price of plates obtained in...

Back in the 1990s, when it seemed like electric vehicles were gaining traction with consumers, Costco did something unusual: the big-box retailer installed charging stations at many of its California locations. Now, however, those stations are being removed, and electric car fans aren't happy. According to Plug In America, Costco has offered no official explanation for removing the charging stations other than the Xeroxed signs taped to each that read, "Please be advised that this electric charger will be removed on August 15th, 2011. Sorry for the inconvenience." Costco's move seems curious for a couple of reasons. For starters, the...

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co confirmed on Wednesday it will build a luxury electric car based on the technology used in its Volt plug-in hybrid for Cadillac as the automaker also studies plans for an all-electric small car for its mainstream Chevrolet brand. GM did not disclose the timing for production of the battery-powered Cadillac dubbed the ELR, but people familiar with the plans said the plug-in hybrid will be built in 2013 as a 2014 model. The sources asked not to be identified because details of the rollout of GM's first luxury electric car have not been announced....

Via Jonathan Last at the Standard. Remember a few months ago when people were snickering because GM had sold only 281 Volts that month? Yeah. The Nissan Leaf once again outsold General MotorsÂ’ Chevy Volt in July after GM slowed production of its electric car last month, giving Nissan a nearly 2,000-car edge in total sales.Nissan sold 931 all-electric battery-powered Leafs in July, bringing the total number of electric cars the company has sold to 4,806. General Motors only sold 125 Volts after shutting down its Detroit-based plant to retool it, bringing its total vehicles shipped to 2,870. General Motors...

Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert took on the Friendly Fracosaurus, which is now slated for extinction. Now, he has set his eyes on Nissan’s ploy to create a friendly hand gesture for Leaf drivers to acknowledge each other by. However, a Nissan Leaf driver from Houston said it’s tough to acknowledge someone…if nobody drivers a Leaf in the city. (Although it was a Houston-area family that got the first Leaf in Texas).

Ford Motor Co. recently thought of a creative, ahem, vehicle for soliciting input from consumers about its 2012 Focus electric car. The Dearborn, Mich. automaker asked fans on Facebook to rate their top pick among four proposed sound the car will make when traveling at low speeds. Those who click on the site — and there have been hundreds so far – can visit four YouTube links, each with a unique noise, and then register their favorites. The project stems from new federal regulation that will soon hybrids and electric vehicles to be equipped with noisemakers that function when the...

It's going to cost more to buy electric cars in California. The state has run out of the $5,000 rebates it was giving people who purchased all-electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf. "The government is saying that if you are an early adopter, be prepared to pay for it," said Jesse Toprak, an analyst at auto information website TrueCar. He said there's enough demand for electric vehicles to absorb some price increases and shrinking rebates, at least for the next year or so. Nissan has sold 4,134 of the battery-powered electric cars this year. General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet, by...

Just when you think the People's State of California couldn't possibly inflict more damage on its own economy, out comes a regulatory proposal so astonishing you have to wonder whether the destruction of an entire industry is its actual intent. So-called zero emissions vehicles, which could more accurately be labeled coal burning cars given the source of most of our nation's electricity, are part of a troika of green fetishes that have captured the fevered imaginations of central planners. Not content with the incentives provided by a $7,500 federal tax rebate attached to cars like Government Motors' Chevy Volt, California...

Electric cars make sense at amusement parks and golf courses -- and on the road, if the road is mostly flat, it's nice and warm out (but not too warm) you've got money to waste, don't have to go very far (especially in winter) and don't mind waiting a couple hours before you can go someplace else. Otherwise, they're marvelous. The Chevy Volt at least addresses that problem by carting around its own portable (and gas-fueled) generator, so that when your "up to 40 miles" range on electric power alone fizzles out, you're not stuck. The car's gas engine kicks...

A recent USA Today-Gallup poll shows that 57 percent of American drivers won't buy an electric vehicle (EV) – no matter how much a gallon of gas costs. That compares to 12 percent of respondents who will consider owning an EV if gas tops $5 per gallon; ten percent if gas prices reached the $6 to $8 range; and nine percent who might be willing to buy a battery-powered vehicle if gas prices soar to $8 to $10 per gallon.

Among 116 electric cars that the Obama administration intends to buy with taxpayer money, 101 will be Chevy Volts. The program will also include installing charging stations in San Francisco, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Diego and Washington, D.C. According to USA Today, "The moves are mostly symbolic to show the government is doing its part in trying to reduce America's dependence on oil." The electric cars are projected to save taxpayers a total of $116,000 in fuel costs-presumably annually. USA Today did not specify. With Volts currently priced at $41,000, what net "savings" will taxpayers realize? The General Services Administration...

PLAINVILLE, Conn. -- Gov. Dannel Malloy joined General Electric officials and employees Thursday in the unveiling of GE's electric vehicle solar carport in Plainville. The 216-by-40-foot, carport includes four hook-ups for plugging in electric cars, and all the power will come from the solar panels. Company officials said it's one of the largest solar carport projects in North America. They said it can provide clean energy alternatives to oil and biofuels and will last at least 25 years. "Living in an area where you drive less than 100 miles a day, which is really what most people do here, the...

Unico Properties has opened four new electric vehicle charging stations in the parking garage at Rainier Square. ~snip~ The charging stations do not accept credit card payments. Users will need to set up an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device) tag account online — the same technology that’s being used for the SR-520 bridge tolls — to use the stations. For more information,

I went to breakfast this morning at Eat 'N Park in PIttsburgh. When I pulled into the parking lot, the spaces next to the handicapped spots were open so I thought, "Sweet! I"m gonna get a rock star parking spot" but as I pulled in, I noticed a sign posted in this spot that said "Reserved for Those Driving Hybrid Vehicles". I was PISSED! Has anyone else noticed this? Is it a new trend? Am I that out of the loop?

PARIS (AFP) – Charging electric cars at night eases a smog problem caused by fossil-fuel plants which provide the power for these vehicles, researchers reported on Tuesday. Plug-in cars are viewed as a key tool in the fight for a cleaner planet as they do not emit tailpipe pollution when they run on electricity. But they contribute indirectly to pollution, as well as global warming, if their electricity comes from a power station that runs on coal, oil or gas. In a study published in a British journal, scientists in the United States simulated the local impact from "plug-in hybrid...