Car Throttle

Well maybe (just maybe) General Motors is starting to get it. It seems that some patent drawings have leaked out that shows the once largest carmaker in the world to be working on (or at least covering their patent bases) on a hybrid minivan. It makes logical sense, in a bunch of realms, so maybe the real surprising thing is that GM came up with it. According to sources, the pictures here are official trademark designs of an unnamed Chevrolet compact minivan. Note the front end and rear end styling. Notice the shape of the headlamps and tail lamps. Looks a lot like Chevy's highly anticipated Volt series hybrid, no? GM Inside News says that the compact people carrier/minivan seen in the drawings looks to

Have you ever heard of Lightning Motor Company? If you haven't, let me give you a little history. Lightning is a British company working to bring to market a high-performance GT sports car. They have followed Tesla's business plan for bringing electric vehicles to market very similarly; produce an expensive, high-end sports car first and then follow with other models later.  Before now though, we never were sure of the company's exact intention for the future though. With a name like Lightning, you might think they intended to remain a sports car-only company. Not so! While the actual car hasn't gone into production, in many ways they have moved at a quicker pace than Tesla. Tesla has been around for a few years and seen quite a

Compatibility can be a huge headache. You know, power cords, headphone jacks, etc. Wouldn't it be nice if everything was just standardized? Certainly would. Automakers are trying to avoid that same headache on a much bigger and more important scale; the future of the automobile. Because of that, the companies are working on a standardized electric vehicle charging plug. I'm glad it's something that's being discussed ahead of time before tons of non-compatible vehicles are out there on the road. This is exactly what needs to be done in order to help open the doors to electric vehicle adoption. Eliminating confusion over things like this will reduce anxiety and help break down barriers in people's minds. It's just makes sense. Say you're an potential buyer of either a pure

Toshiba is an advanced technology manufacturer, making everything from laptops to power plants that power those laptops. The company had invested considerably into battery technology, which it currently sells primarily to electric bicycle manufacturers. Now the company wants to get into the automotive battery game, and Toshiba announced last-year their intention to manufacture 3 million cells per month by 2010. The company has developed a quick-charge technology that promises a lot for the future of electric vehicles. As recently as a few months ago, Toshiba was able to recharge their SCiB lithium batteries (Toshiba's name) to 90% capacity in as little as 5 minutes. Now, they've announced their ability to reduce that time to an incredible 90 seconds. 90% in 90 seconds. To me that seems just

Look out Tesla Roadster! Or not? According to Switzerland based Protoscar, this one is just a showcar. It doesn't seem to be too far off though from production judging by the images. We'll have to see once the show rolls around. In the meantime, the information we do know is below. The information supplied by the company is a bit haphazard. The car's 32 kilowatt-hour battery pack, supplied by partner BRUSA Elektronik AG has a range of 200 k/mh (or 125 miles).  We don't know whether or not this is destined for production, I suppose there's more on that to car.  Protoscar bills themselves "CleanCar Shapers". Hmm, interesting. The car is a collaborative effort with Protoscar SA and it's many partners, some of which include BRUSA Elektronik AG, ALPIQ, BASF, and Q-11.  It appears that the car is based on General Motors's