best hair extensions: Electric Vehicles

Showing posts with label Electric Vehicles. Show all posts

Thursday, July 21, 2011

IKEA to Install Blink Charging Stations for EVs at Select US Stores

Household furnishing giant IKEA announced that it has teamed up with ECOtality to host Blink electric vehicle charging stations for EVs at select stores in the Western United States.

The company said that it is considering 10 locations in Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington with the program set to go in motion this fall.

In the 1960s, customers who could only dream of owning a Corvette often left their local Chevy dealers with the keys to a new Impala or Bel-Air. Now, it seems the same thing is happening with the Chevy Volt don’t-call-it-a-hybrid and the Cruze small car.

Year-to-date sales are up some 32% across the range, though only 567 of the 80,000 plus cars the Detroit automaker sold in June were Volts. The remainder were cars like the Cruze, which has earned the crown of Chevy’s biggest seller.

Toyota to Use Prius Hybrids to Supply Household Appliances with Electricity!

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. In Japan’s case, the devastating earthquake in March and the subsequent damages to the country’s infrastructure put the spotlight on Toyota’s Estima Hybrid minivan that features a system allowing the supply of auxiliary electricity to power household appliances.

The minivan’s owners were extremely satisfied with the system, which effectively turns the hybrid system into an electric generator that runs on gasoline, claiming that it was invaluable during the extended blackouts in Japan.

General Motors and OnStar announced a new program that will be applied to the Chevrolet Volt and which will use the car’s built-in telematics system to send data from the vehicle to the power grid.

This will enable the carmaker to track the charging habits of the vehicle’s drivers so as to better manage the car’s energy supply.

Toyota has just issued a statement disputing a recent report from Reuters by saying that the upcoming all-electric RAV-4 will be available for sale to the general public as well.

The Reuters story, which Carscoop also reported on, said that the RAV-4 EV would only be sold to fleet customers and car sharing programs, citing Geri Yoza, the National Business Planning Manager of Advanced Vehicle Marketing, as the source.

Here’s Toyota’s official statement:

“Recent reports have incorrectly stated that the 2012 RAV4 EV will only be marketed to fleet and car sharing programs. We’d like to set the record straight. The 2012 RAV4 EV will definitely be sold to the general public. We anticipate robust public interest in the RAV4 EV and are keen to inform consumers that their future vehicle options include a battery electric Toyota

The Price of Success: Nissan Raises 2012 Leaf Prices Between $2,420 and $3,530!

Well, that didn’t take long did it? Only a year after launch and while the Leaf is leading the eco-friendly sales race against GM’s Chevrolet Volt, Nissan today announced that it is lifting the base price of the 2012 model year version of its pure-electric hatchback between 7 and 11 percent, depending on the trim grade!

In particular, the entry-level 2012 Leaf SV is now priced at $35,200, or 7.38% more than the 2011MY’s $32,780 sticker. The higher grade Lead SL enters the 2012MY priced at $37,250, an increase of $3,530 or 11.3% more over the 2011MY.

The pure electric version of the RAV4 will not be sold directly to the U.S. public when it arrives in the market in the first quarter if 2012 as originally planned, according to Geri Yoza, Toyota’s national business planning manager of advanced vehicle marketing.

Instead, the EV version of the Japanese company’s popular SUV will be leased only to fleet customers and car sharing programs.

Bluebird to Attempt to Break Electric UK Land Speed Record

The Bluebird team has a history of more than 100 years old. A history in what, you might ask? The answer is, breaking speed records. Not just on land, but also on water. It all began in 1911 with Sir Malcolm Campbell, who named his team after Maurice Maeterlinck’s play.

In the following years, the family team broke more than 30 speed records and now, Sir Campbell’s own grandson, Don Wales, will attempt to make history once again over a century later.

Police officers in New York City will now be able to boast that they drive environmentally friendly cars and, as an added bonus, approach possible offenders silently. That’s because 50 Chevrolet Volts have been added to the 40 Nissan Altima Hybrids of the NYPD fleet, as a part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC project for lowering emissions and creating, in his own words, “a greener, greater New York City”. Read more »

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Tesla Current: Maxim Ostapenko Envisions an All Electric S-Class Competitor

With Tesla’s long anticipated Model S sedan still more than six months away, designers from all over the world have begun to speculate what will be next for the Silicon Valley-based automaker.

One such design study is the Current by Maxim Ostapenko, a graduate of Pasadena, California’s Art Center College of Design.

Essentially a four-door all-electric saloon car to compete with the likes of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7-Series and Jaguar XF, the Tesla Current shares its design heritage with the likes of the Mercedes-Benz F800 Style and the Citroen Survolt concepts.