Hasta La Gadget!

It’s going to be a little while before you’re able to recharge your battery-electric EV as quickly as you can refuel your gasoline-powered machine. Until then there’s Better Place, offering a suite of options including traditional recharging and fast battery-swapping. The idea is you don’t buy a car with a battery you buy a car then lease the battery, and now we’re getting an idea of what that lease is going to cost. It’s launching first in Denmark with the Renault Fluence Z.E., a €27,496 ($38,500) car. If you’re okay with driving less than 20,000km per year you can get by with monthly battery fees between €199 and €249 ($278 to $348), which includes recharging at Better Place locations or five-minute battery swaps if you’re in a hurry. For €399 monthly ($558) you get unlimited mileage, but all plans get stuck with a €1,341 ($1,874) up-front fee to install a home charging station — a bit steep compared to Ford’s $1,500 option but not bad overall.

Renault is also announcing Better Place support for its Twizy, which is featured in a video below. It’s a tiny little thing that will cost just €6,900 ($9,640) and is due to ship this year. That’s astonishingly cheap for an EV but, of course it comes without a battery pack, so you’ll need to be leasing one. However, we’re told there’ll be a 7,500km lease option for just €45 ($63) per month. It also won’t be coming to the States, planned only for a European launch, a land of smaller roads that’ll be better suited to this flea-sized creation. And now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ll be sending our poor currency-converting intern on break. Poor gal really needs a coffee.

Continue reading Better Place swappable EV batteries priced, Renault is definitely onboard

Better Place swappable EV batteries priced, Renault is definitely onboard originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The long awaited electric Rolls Royce Phantom has officially been unveiled, and we finally have some specs for the luxury car.

The 102EX, which Rolls Royce is also calling the Phantom Experimental Electric, or EE for short, features two 145kW electric engines in the rear providing 290kW of torque. That makes for a top speed of 160 kilometers per hour and a zero to 60 time of just eight seconds.

As for the plug-in portion of the EE, the car features what at first appears to be a gas tank cover. Instead, it’s a clear cover outfitted with multi-colored LED lights that houses the plug. As previously reported, the EE may not ever make it into mass production, instead it’s serving to test the luxury EV waters.

“Can Phantom EE deliver an acceptable range for customers without frequent re-charging?” the company asks on its website. “Is there confidence in its ability to operate in extreme conditions? Will reliability and quality be consistent with expectations of the world’s pinnacle automotive brand?

“Phantom EE also poses more fundamental questions: Is an all-electric drive-train able to deliver an authentic Rolls-Royce experience for customers, an experience that truly befits the marque? Whether all-electric or another alternative drive-train option is right for Rolls-Royce will become clearer when the test programme is complete at the end of the year.”

But that hasn’t stopped the Daily Mail from reporting that the car will cost an unsuprisingly large sum of money: £1 million.

Remember how at the end of last year the US legislature decided to make it mandatory for EVs to churn out an audible noise while in motion? It was all in the name of saving pesky pedestrians from getting in the way of your gliding electro-car, but the new law itself has managed to create a bump in the road for at least one company. Hyundai’s Sonata Hybrid was all set to launch in late 2010, equipped with a “virtual engine sound” system that the user could toggle on and off, however the government’s request that it be kept permanently on required modifications to the vehicle’s wiring harnesses, UI software and user manuals, delaying its debut into late January. These tweaks had to be done “amazingly late in the process,” according to Hyundai America CEO John Krafcik, but the delay will at least ensure that all of Hyundai’s Sonatas will sound the same. Which is something, we guess.

Hyundai Sonata Hybrid was delayed into 2011… by ‘virtual engine sound’ system originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not too long ago rumors came out that Rolls Royce was working on an electric limousine. Now the company has confirmed that it is indeed working on an EV, which will be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show on March 1.

Called the 102EX, the car is a one-of-a-kind, 100 percent electric version of the iconic Rolls Royce Phantom. While no plans are currently in place to put the car into production, the car will serve as a way to test the waters and see whether or not luxury cars owners actually have an interest in EVs.

“We have engineered the world’s first battery electric vehicle for the ultra-luxury segment,” CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös said in a statement. “With this vehicle, we begin an exploration into alternative drive-trains, seeking clarity on which alternative technologies may be suitable to drive Rolls Royce motor cars of the future.”

The company is being quite secretive. No specs have been announced and the only images released show small parts of the car. All should be clear on March 1, but in the meantime you can check out the company’s EV home on the web at Electric Luxury.

Attention, Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf: Step aside (or be moved aside?). Now Rolls-Royce has an electric car, the one-off Phantom 102EX. The three-ton electric debuts at the Geneva Auto Show in a week. “We have engineered the world’s first battery electric vehicle for the ultra-luxury segment,” said CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös.