EV Report

GTM announces the top 50 VC-Funded Green Tech Startup Companies. In the list are solar, Smart Grid and EV Infrastructure, Green Buildings, Lighting, Biofuels and Biochemicals, Batteries, Fuel Cells, Energy Storage, Transportation, Other Energy, Water, Green IT among them are Eestor, Tesla & Fisker Automotive. Some of these could be future Wall Street gems. Only time will tell.
Read More

Nissan hasn’t launched the new Leaf yet and it already has 56,000 pre orders with more orders planned from big government purchases! With virtually no electric car competitors, Nissan is positioning itself to be the market leader in EVs. Nissan plans to go into mass production in 2012. With this many orders they may need to go into mass production even sooner.  It looks like the Nissan Leaf could potentially be the new ‘Prius’.
Read More

Boostcap technology gets more love as Voith announces it will use Maxwell’s 125-volt BOOSTCAP® ultracapacitor modules in new hybrid bus drive systems. For those who don’t know about boostcap technology it uses capacitors to more efficiently save energy and provide energy during high energy demands of the drive system thus saving the battery system from getting burned out.
Read More

Yes its true…Tag Heuer and Tesla team up to develop a TAG branded Tesla complete with a Heuer Limited Edition Stopwatch.  Do we have the money to afford this? No. Do we appreciate it? Hell Yeah!
Read More

Plugless Power is gearing up for production of their new plugless charging stations. Where will we first see them? We do not know. How cool does this sound? VERY COOL. This means you can park at a station and you’re good-to-go. We’ll likely start seeing these charging stations at public chains like mcdonalds or starbucks where you’d normally park for more than 15 minutes while getting a bite to eat & charging your EV at the same time.

Here’s a good one…the Geek Squad team will start testing with the Mitsubishi i-MiEV.  This would make perfect sense because most geek squad runs are short in diameter and these cars are perfect for the professional geek. We wonder if the geek squad will be ditching the VW Beetles that have made them so popular. We’ll see how the krauts @ VW fare…so far their EV efforts haven’t been stellar.
Read More

Solar Impulse…the plane that is promising day-night-day solar flights is on its way with a first successful test flight! These types of flights have been considered the holy grail of many aviators. What’s the next step? A 36 hour day-night-day flight this summer. The plane will now be moved to a new airport in Payerne that will allow it to have more flexible testing.
Read More

Paul Teutul Senior introduced their new electric chopper. The cost to build this unique bike? a cool mil. Although Paulie didn’t sound like he knew all the details on this electric motorcycle the intentions are good and that’s what we like. We still love you Paulie!
Read More

The Chevy Volt has received a rating of 230 mpg. Don’t be deceived…the 230 mpg rating doesn’t actually apply to its regular gas milage which is 50 mpg. Confused? We were too. It seems the term ‘mpg’ has become more of a marketing term than anything else and is also being used for electric cars that don’t use a drop of gas. Shouldn’t they have a new rating? MPW or miles per watt or MpKw miles per kilowatt?
Read More

Electric car automaker Zap has raised a cool $25 million in funds from a Silicon Valley investor. The money will be used for long-term electric car production and committments such as commercial trucks, vans and electric fleet vehicles which can be huge for any company.

Read More