The long-awaited update to the Tesla Supercharger network includes adding many new stations and decreasing the time required for a full recharge. Thursday gave us the latest in a series of announcements by Tesla Motors, giving updates on the Supercharger network for the Model S. The Supercharger network rollout so…
Does the death of Better Place mean the failure of the 100% all electric car concept? I don’t think so, but let’s ponder it a bit. Some of the commentators out there will take the Better Place bankruptcy in the same vein as the Solyndra bugaboo that’s circulating in Republican/Conservative…
A core fact for electric car owners, today, is that the charging station networks limit access to those who have a membership relationship with the appropriate network. It was a big advance to develop the J1772 standard, giving us a common standard to accessing charging services. But if we are…
Better Place has taken one of the more likely steps open to it, to shut down the company in a complete liquidation. After the company shut down its American and Australian operations, after a long period of struggles that saw the ouster of not only founder Shai Agassi, but the…
If “we” never “run out” of Oil, should we still be adopting electric cars? I found this discussion on one of the electric vehicle forums (see link below) and, well, my stand is that we should not only adopt electric vehicles, but to rethink our whole transportation system. In my…
Is Formula E’s plan to have two cars per driver a super-extravagence? This is a question raised in comments on a posting on another site (see link below) reporting on the Formula E 2014 season calendar. Because the Formula E cars have battery packs that support only 15-20 minutes of…
In addition to announcing its new partnership with Renault, the Formula E has announced Bangkok Thailand as the 9th city for the Formula E 2014 season. Their 2014 season of electric car racing is envisioned to include 10 cities around the world, and two months ago had announced a list…
In April, Renault teased us with an image talking about the marriage of electric of electric vehicles and Formula 1 motorsports. It seemed impossible that it meant Renault would team up with the Formula E series, especially as they seemed to already have partnerships lined up with Dallara and McLaren. …
Mitsubishi has just announced entry into the 2013 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with two all-new MiEV Evolution II electric race cars. The team is also expressing an intention to win outright. I’ve written up details here :- http://www.torquenews.com/1075/pikes-peak-electric-racing-heating-two-entries-mitsubishi For data on the Toyota entry see :- http://www.electricracenews.com/2013/05/toyota-returning-to-pikes-peak-with.html For data on…
A new offering from Tesla Motors of a $850 million package of common stock and convertible senior notes will be used to completely prefund payoff of the Dept. of Energy loans, as well as general corporate purposes. On Wednesday, Tesla Motors (TSLA) announced a stock offering of 2,703,027 shares of…
The U.S. Government is supporting research into developing Methane Hydrate “resources”. A month ago I reported on a joint project between the Dept. of Energy and the State of Alaska to develop methane hydrate resources in Alaska’s North Slope, as well as tar sands deposits in that area. Today there…
Mission Motors appears to be coming back into the business of building high performance electric motorcycles. They of course started out in that business, but backed away from it when the company nearly died a few years ago. There was a change of CEO at the time, and a change…
A nice video from the Financial Times about the Formula E. Who’d’a’thunk that the Financial Times would have someone covering Formula 1 racing?
Tuesday’s election of former Gov. Mark Sanford to the House of Representatives in South Carolina raises a crucial climate change question. Will Sanford, like so many other Republican politicians, flip-flop on his acceptance of human-caused (anthropogenic) climate change in the face of the Tea Party. Sanford, who was a member…
Toyota Motorsports Group is returning to the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with the 2013 EV P002. The new version of the car has significantly higher power, and the team is seeking to hold on to their record in the face of strong competition. The 2013 version sports an upgraded…
