Panasonic announced today that it will supply enough automotive grade lithium-ion cells to furnish 80,000 Tesla Model S electric sedans. In 2009 Panasonic entered a supply agreement with Tesla, prompting a $30 million investment by the “world’s leading battery cell manufacturer” in 2010. Now we have a figure on how many Tesla Model S vehicles will be running Panasonic batteries, and it’...
Electric vehicle technology is nothing new. The earliest carriage manufacturers began toiling with battery-powered cars around the 1830s and in 1899 the Belgium-built "La Jamais Contente" set the land speed world record at 66MPH. But two years prior to that in 1897, the first commercial fleet of EV vehicles were represented as New York City taxis. Back then, drivers had three different...
Have you ever heard of Ford SYNC? In a nutshell, it's the car manufacturer's friendly version of OnStar. Up until today, the Microsoft-powered Ford SYNC service was capable of providing on-screen navigation, hands-free calling, mobile entertainment, driving efficiency data and more via its touchscreen command center. But now drivers will be able to utilize a critical new feature that...
“This dramatic fastback concept signals a significant transformation of the Ford brand.” If Ford’s media kit is to believed, that single sentence is worth a thousand words and then some. A swoopy four-door fastback as a harbinger of Ford’s new global design language? Sign me up, man, sign me up! Ford today launched said fastback, the Evos Concept car, at IFA in Berlin, Germany. With a...
I’m extremely impressed, and maybe a little nervous, about the automotive industry’s fascination with “intelligently networked cars.” The principle is simple: Our actual vehicles become the nodes for a massive, moving Wi-Fi network, one that would bounce data around between points, i.e. that trusty four-door or other car, all while alerting onboard computers of any problems up ahead....
Android may have been the belle of the I/O ball on the conference’s first day, but our devices and homes may not be the only things under Google‘s purview. Looks like cars are about to get in on the action. No, you won’t be able to gyroscopically steer your bucket of bolts from your smartphone, but someday you may be able to own a vehicle that can individualize its performance to your...
That Toyota is working on an electric version of its Rav4 SUV, to be powered by an electric drivetrain built by/in collaboration with Tesla is no secret. That the vehicle is targeted to be produced and sold sometime in 2012 is no secret, either. But this week Toyota took the unusual step of inviting the auto press to tool around in early-stage prototypes of the plug-in beast. Unusual...
Hybrid this, electric vehicle that, plenty of car enthusiasts still swear diesel – or bio-diesel, even – is the way to go for green-meets-performance vehicles. Building off the success their A3 and Q7 TDI diesels have achieved in the United States, Audi has confirmed they’ll be bringing more diesel models to our shores within the next two years or so. Audi President Johan de Nyssche...
I like squid / My high-brid / One sixty-seven / Green car heaven – The Notorious NK, from “Hypnotizing Myself With Awful Rhymes” I don’t care how many times it shows up on Entourage, or how seeing one on the street always makes me do a double-take. I want to love it, but I always wind up thinking, “Man, the Porsche Panamera is one weird-looking automobile.” The 167 mph Hybrid I’m...
Read Part One: Alfa Romeo 4C Concept, 2012 Aston Marton Virage, Audi A3 Sedan Concept, and BMW ActiveE The 2011 Geneva Auto Show has come and go, and left in its wake a bunch of crazy new cars, even crazier concept cars, and a general sense that the economy has turned around enough to make ultra-high end exotic autos a segment worth pursuing again. That’s a good thing if you subscribe...