Free Republic

Plug-in electric car sales for calendar year 2014 rose above the 100,000 level, the third annual increase in full-year sales in the U.S. since modern electric cars first went on sale in December 2010. The highest-selling electric car in the world, the Nissan Leaf, set a new U.S. record for plug-in sales of a single vehicle in one year, logging 30,200 deliveries during 2014. That compares to a 2013 total of 22,610, and less than 10,000 units in each of its first two years on sale. The balance of 70,000-plus was made up of sales of no fewer than 20...

In Europe, at least, drivers of the 100%-electric Nissan LEAF actually drive about 50% more than average drivers of petrol- and diesel-powered cars. This helps to bust the myth that electric cars are inadequate for the average driver, and that electric car drivers don’t drive very much. It also indicates that Nissan LEAF owners must be saving a lot more money than generally assumed. Electricity for powering a car is much cheaper than petrol or diesel. The average driver will save several thousand dollars (or euros, british pounds, etc.), but someone who actually drives much more than average is going...

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Nissan Leaf owner Will Price of Eugene doesn't need the network of government-provided electric vehicle charging stations that were installed for motorists like him. Price drives 14 miles to and from work, which is easily within his electric car's 70-mile range, so he ignores the publicly accessible fast-charging units scattered around Eugene-Springfield. "I never use them," Price said of the public chargers. "They are of no consequence to me."

If politics is the art of successful compromise--defined as outcomes that make all parties equally unhappy--then the recent budget extension bill offers something for everyone. It extended the tax credits for electric-car charging stations and natural-gas-vehicle refueling stations, which should make owners of those vehicles happy. But it did not extend the generous tax credits for purchase or lease of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, disappointing advocates of that zero-emission vehicle technology. Those advocates include Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda. Now, it turns out, the often-reviled "gas guzzler tax deduction" was restored to its previous level by the budget bill as well. As...

Think electric cars are the only form of transportation that can save the world from the dangers of the gas-powered engine? A new study warns that they could actually have the opposite effect. Gannett’s Cincinnati website cites the findings of a study to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences next week. In it, co-author and University of Minnesota engineering professor Julian Marshall explains the findings. “It’s kind of hard to beat gasoline [for the environment]… A lot of the technologies that we think of as being clean … are not better than gasoline.” Electric cars...

ehicles, as did concern about global warming. But now gasoline prices have plunged to their lowest level since the Great Recession, averaging $2.50 nationwide for a gallon of regular. If gas prices stay low — granted, a very big “if” — one of the most powerful arguments for alternative fuel cars will be wiped out. “You have an early-adopter group that’s much more interested in these vehicles as a way of doing something 'green,’ and the cost of fuel is not going to be a big factor for them,” said John O’Dell, a senior editor at the Edmunds.com auto information...

In a new study in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences University of Minnesota researchers report in various scenarios that vehicles using alternative fuels are often more harmful to human health than are conventional gasoline-powered automobiles. From the abstract: We find that powering vehicles with corn ethanol or with coal-based or “grid average” electricity increases monetized environmental health impacts by 80% or more relative to using conventional gasoline. PNAS The AP reported: "It's kind of hard to beat gasoline" for public and environmental health, said study co-author Julian Marshall, an engineering professor at the University of Minnesota. "A...

Back in the good old days when President Obama didn't have so many dings on his record, he promised that by 2015 there'd be more than 1 million electric cars on the road. Well, with just days to go, he's only about 826,000 or so cars short of that goal. Instead of 200,000 Nissan Leafs on the road today -- as Obama's Department of Energy predicted in 2011 -- there are less than 70,000...

Michigan’s Republican governor signed legislation on Tuesday that officially bans Tesla Motors and any other carmaker from selling directly to consumers in the state. But Rick Snyder, who is seeking re-election next month, maintained in a letter to lawmakers that the bill simply clarified the state’s existing law and that such direct sales already were not legal in Michigan, home to Detroit’s big auto companies. Now, state law requires that Tesla, or other car companies, must sell vehicles through networks of franchised dealers. If the company doesn’t have its own network, the state requires it to sell vehicles through another...

On October 1, the Michigan Automobile Dealers Association succeeded in passing a bill that is harmful to consumers. The bill, HB5606, was originally a single amendment to existing law designed to ensure that the car dealers can tack additional fees on to the purchase price for all vehicles (from any manufacturer) sold in Michigan. Such fees have a controversial history, are generally regarded with skepticism and have been the subject of consumer concern in other states. Not content with enshrining their ability to charge consumers dubious fees, on the last day of the legislative session, the dealers managed to make...

"We are getting into positive, which is good for this technology." – Carlos Ghosn After 19 months in a row of record sales in the US, the money picture for the Nissan Leaf is steadily improving. To date (well, until the end of September), Nissan has sold 63,944 Leaf EVs in the US and a total of around 140,000 globally. The company produces the electric vehicle in three countries: Japan, the UK and the US and has sold more standard passenger EVs than any other automaker. Add all that up and you get to an EV that is just about to be profitable. At...

Our fuel-based economy must be radically overhauled if Europe is to achieve its ambitious emission reduction targets. ... In practice, this means that the car is intelligent, and provides the driver with braking tips based on traffic flows and advice on the best route to limit energy use. Up to 30 % of energy can be saved this way, without losing much time along the way. ...

Electric cars aren't selling nearly as well as many predicted. Why is that? Research suggests a host of reasons—including a basic lack of familiarity, a high price tag, misconceptions about the cars—and ineffective government incentives. Consider the lack of familiarity. In a survey by researchers from Indiana University and the University of Kansas, respondents couldn't correctly answer basic factual questions about plug-in electric vehicles more than 60% of the time. Some 75% of wrong answers underestimated the beneficial aspects of the vehicles. The survey, the most exhaustive on consumer perceptions of electric cars in recent years, was published in the...

As drivers Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost approached one of the final turns, Prost — attempting to prevent Heidfeld from taking the lead — collided with him, sending Heidfeld's car flying over one of the track dividers. Luckily, Heidfeld emerged from the crash looking mostly no worse for wear. But he immediately rushed over to confront Prost on the track, proving that the dangerous racing tradition of on-track bluster continues, despite last month's tragic accident involving Tony Stewart. "I have a small pain in my calf," Heidfeld said in a statement on the Formula E website. "But apart from that,...

From the start, little has been typical about Tesla Motors' plan for a $5 billion factory to make batteries for a new generation of electric cars. It's not just the project's massive scale, the cutting-edge technology, or even the bonanza of 6,500 good-paying jobs. It's how Tesla is deciding where to build. Through a series of unusual plays, Tesla has five states bidding up subsidy packages to land the coveted plant. The winner is expected to offer the luxury car-maker publicly financed incentives exceeding a half-billion dollars.

FREMONT -- Tesla Motors, which is on a mission to bring electric cars to the masses, now has another goal -- to become a leading employer of America's military veterans. "We want to be known throughout the veteran community as a great place to work," Arnnon Geshuri, Tesla's vice president of human resources, said in an interview. "Veterans are a great source of talent for Tesla, and we're going after it." "Tesla has risen to the top" among companies known for creating veteran-friendly workplaces, said Ted Daywalt, president and CEO of VetJobs, the nation's leading military job board. "They have...

Four years have passed since President Obama visited Kansas City's main airport, rolled up his shirt sleeves and admonished the skeptics who said Smith Electric Vehicles was unlikely to make good on its promises to build 510 experimental electric-powered trucks and buses suitable for commercial use. “Come see what’s going on at Smith Electric," the president said, inspecting a table full of bright green truck batteries in what was once a maintenance hangar for TWA. "I think they’re going to be hard-pressed to tell you that you’re not better off than you would be if we hadn’t made the investments...

Beatrice17 wrote: First of all, the USPS is NOT a government organization, but a private business. (sigh). Second, the USPS does NOT photograph every piece of mail. (sigh) It does run it thru multiple scanners. One is a bio scanner - developed since the "white powder" scare - that can locate poisons, etc. Another is a zip code scanner, to electronically put zip codes on the mail so that it can be electronically sorted. This saves time and money... except when your Grammy writes so illegibly that her letter has to be kicked out and a real live human has...

<p>Testing by AAA has found that how far an electric vehicle can travel on one charge varies widely depending on the weather. Frigid temperatures can reduce that distance by 57%.</p> <p>The research is important to the Automobile Club of Southern California because it maintains mobile recharging trucks for people who misjudge how far they can go in their electric car.</p>

There are two electric cars on the market that have received a lot of attention in the media. One is GM's Chevy Volt and the other is the Tesla Model S. Extravagant claims have been made by both manufacturers to have us believe that these that these automobiles are practical and economical to drive. As we shall see, that is not really true when one takes into account all the factors which contribute to the total operating cost of each of these two vehicles. Chevy VoltThe manufacturer claims that "The Chevy Volt is the most fuel-efficient car with a gasoline...