It’s looking more and more that Fisker Automotive is circling around the Bankruptcy end game. On Wednesday the company announced a temporary furlough of employees, so the company could preserve cash. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Fisker’s management is now exploring bankruptcy, but unfortunately that article is…
The electric motorcycle racing world finally gained some clarity with the release of a provisional schedule for the FIM eRoadRacing World Cup. This new series is replacing both the TTXGP and FIM e-Power series. Both of those series are now deceased, and eRoadRacing World Cup takes their place. The plan…
2013 Zero S Zero Motorcycles and Hollywood Electrics has given the production electric motorcycle class at the 2013 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb a big boost of support. The two companies announced today they were partnering to participate in the PPIHC on June 30, 2013, in Cascade, Colo. Hollywood Electrics…
The just-announced Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive has an electric drive train designed by Tesla Motors. But, you wouldn’t know this from the press release because it says nothing about Tesla. Further, you wouldn’t know this from the on-board charging system, because it’s not going to use the Supercharger port, apparently. …
Is the Tesla Supercharger network a big money pit that will sink the company, or is it an uber-cool strategy that will propel Tesla to greatness? That’s a big question we’re pondering, and in the balance hangs not just a scrappy start-up electric car company, but the whole project of…
It appears two things are at the top of Carlos Ghosns’ mind about the Nissan Leaf: China, and cost reduction. At appearances in Portugal and Japan recently, Ghosn talked about his intention for Nissan to take a leadership role in the Chinese electric car market, following the pattern which let…
Why do I cover electric racing news? (a sister site to Long Tail Pipe is Electric Race News) It’s because I know about the general stereotype that electric vehicles can only be slow boring ugly golf carts. This isn’t true, but that’s the stereotype, and electric racing is a way…
So-called bio-batteries or microbial fuel cells took a tiny step toward reality with the announcement of research at the University of East Anglia showing that proteins on the surface of bacteria can produce an electric current by simply touching a mineral surface. The result demonstrates that it is possible for bacteria to…
That wiley Elon Musk and his obtuse tweets have caused a stir of attention today. The tweet said there’d be a big announcement on Thursday (now apparently changed until next Tuesday) in which Elon would be putting his money where his mouth is. And I don’t think he’s talking about…
Tesla’s stock price popped today after an obtuse Elon Musk tweet promised a big announcement and implied a bigger investment in the company. Elon Musk’s obtuse tweets have gone to the next level with a promise, on Monday, of a big announcement on Thursday. The tweet gives us less to…
How do we calculate the average greenhouse gas emissions of a vehicle fleet? The European Union has legislated a target of an average 95 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometer by 2020. Clearly when an automaker sells an electric car, that car lowers the automakers fleet average environmental footprint. …
On Monday, Team Icon Brammo released images of the new livery (designed by Icon) that Steve Atlas and Eric Bostrom will be wearing during the 2013 season. The information release includes detailed pictures of not just the Empulse R, but the Empulse TTX, and shows both bikes in action dicing…
Those of us who own electric vehicles know what it’s like to arrive at a charging station, expecting to charge our car, only to find it is blocked by a gas car. Such a situation is infuriating and endangers the electric car owner because of the increased risk of being…
A student team at The Ohio State University, the Buckeye Current team, is getting ready to run at the 2013 TT ZERO. The team has a small budget, and a goal to build the fastest collegiate entry in the TT ZERO. Specifically, they want to Break The Ton (a 100+…
What does Tesla Motors’ CTO JB Straubl think about the future of batteries and charging protocols? The SAE published a recent interview with him which in part is interesting because Tesla uses a non-SAE-standard protocol for electric vehicle charging. Battery format: Tesla is still using 18650 size cells in their…
