My Green Wheels - The Electric Car Blog

Kia's funky purple electric concept car

Christine Gupta — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:37:43 +0000

All of a sudden four-seaters are so last year and yet another automaker is about to dazzle us with a stunning 3-seater electric car. This time it's Kia that has cooked up the POP, a cute concept car that will first meet its public at the 2010 Paris Motor Show on 30 September. Kia isn't saying much about the car at this stage, but the design is sure to turn heads

One wheel, two tyres + iPad = T Motion's next electric car

Christine Gupta — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:42:49 +0000

Now for the first time it’s taking aim at the wider consumer market with the GT3, a sleel-looking two-passenger, plug-in electric vehicle that uniquely features a single, wide-stance, rear wheel with two high-performance tires sharing one rim.

The electric supercar from Mercedes - what's not to like?

Christine Gupta — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:10:22 +0000

As was said in 'When Harry met Sally'...Yes, yes, yes, YES, YES, YESSSS. I'm loving this big beast from Mercedes.

How EVs can stop you being a gloomy 'doomer'

Christine Gupta — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:58:54 +0000

'Imagining life without oil, and being ready.'

That's the title of an article in the New York Times about otherwise normal people taking very strange steps to prepare for life after peak-oil. I'll give you some examples. Preparations for a post-petroleum world include growing your own food and stockpiling against shortages or spending three hours on therapeutic telephone calls to help you deal with the prospect of this new world. (Nice to know there's a boom in doom for the counsellors.) Some of the fearful are even converting their investments to gold and silver. These folks who call themselves the 'doomers' are worried that the end of oil will mean food shortages, a collapse of the economy or even a breakdown of civil order.

Nissan boss isn't alone in backing Toyota's move to invest in electric cars

Christine Gupta — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:33:46 +0000

Ghosn feels auto makers need to take a three-pronged approach to addressing the new market that is unfolding in the age of mass produced EVs. "One, they need to be in all technologies from electric vehicles to diesel; two, they need to be in emerging markets, especially China, and 3, they need to have vehicles in each segment." Funny no mention of eco-auto-booming India.

Toyota to build electric cars with Tesla

Christine Gupta — Tue, 25 May 2010 16:56:58 +0000

Now this is a very special happening. The world's largest and most powerful player in the auto industry stoops down to hold the hand of a cheeky but smart upstart EV maker who has leveraged the design flare of Lotus to make a product that is now a better known brand name than many of the Old World's 'new kid on the block' car rivals like Kia or Proton.

Electric cars to be sold by Apple-style 'geniuses'

Christine Gupta — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:47:04 +0000

This item just shows that I wasn't so far off the mark with my previous posting about geeks making the best electric car salesmen. Coda Automotive is taking a leaf out of Apple's book in its approach to selling its electric cars. More than that, its CEO Kevin Czinger says "We are looking at this not as a new-car-model introduction, but as a new technology introduction."

Will geeks make the best electric car salesmen?

Christine Gupta — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:14:45 +0000

We'll soon find out. In the US Mitsubishi i-MiEVs are about to be sold by GeekSquad at Best Buy which is like the UK’s PC World with Tesco rolled in. And it’s not such a daft idea when you think about it.

Here’s what convinced me that it’s the right way to go.

GM's electric car that can drive itself

Christine Gupta — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:20:54 +0000

And if you’re worried about how it deals with pedestrians, you can relax. Using vehicle-based sensor and camera systems, the EN-V can ‘sense’ what’s around it, allowing the vehicle to react quickly to obstacles or changes in driving conditions. So if a pedestrian steps out in front of the vehicle, the EN-V will decelerate to a slower and safer speed and stop sooner than today’s vehicles.

Another car assembled at gunpoint? Well, almost ...

Christine Gupta — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:01:15 +0000

Here's a treat. A hybrid electric car from Hungary, the country that brought you the Yugo, most definitely one of the 50 worst cars of all time and memorably described in Time magazine as 'something assembled at gunpoint'.