Hasta La Gadget!

The North American International Auto show is one week away, the place where many auto makers domestic and foreign will choose to unveil their next hot happening. Not Ford — at least, not this year. The company has had a significant presence here at CES for the past few years and, in 2011, it’s going to really ramp things up by announcing a whole new car. Or, at least, an electric version of an existing one. We don’t know the details yet (other than it having a silly glowing plug door), but there’s an all-electric Focus set to be unveiled at 11:00am local time (that’s 2:00 in the afternoon east coasters) on Friday. The conference will be livestreaming if you want to play along at home, but rest assured we’ll be there too.

Ford set to unveil Focus Electric at CES, which just so happens to be where we are originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Warm up those phoenix references, because this LincVolt story is a perfect candidate. We’ve been following Neil Young’s crazy retro next-gen conveyance since its inception in 2008, and sadly the news of late has not been good. Just a few weeks after the car (and its proprietor) made an appearance at SEMA it (the car) was left unattended while charging in a warehouse. The pearly white land yacht caught fire and nearly burned the place down, but enough was able to be salvaged for the team to start a rebuild, largely thanks to not one but two donor 1958 and ’59 Lincoln Continentals that will be providing the necessary panels and parts to replace those destroyed in the fire. You can see the pre-fire car and some highlights from SEMA in the video below, though you’ll have to wait until summer to see it looking that good again.

Continue reading LincVolt dies in a fire, is being rebuilt (video)

LincVolt dies in a fire, is being rebuilt (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The path to availability for cars of the future is one wrought with roadblocks, potholes, and indeed IEDs — increasingly expensive developments. This was most recently seen with Fisker’s Karma getting a price boost up to $95,900, a hefty jump over initial $80,000 estimates, but Tesla is taking this chance to give new reassurances that its Model S sedan’s price of $57,000 is comfortable. That’s largely thanks to smaller Li-Ion batteries, which are similar to those used in laptops and, according to Musk, will be swappable as a single unit. This type of batteries are much less expensive to produce than the large, monolithic packs used in the Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt, about $200 per kWH vs. $750 for Nissan’s. That’s cheap enough for Tesla to assure that it can still make a profit on the Model S, despite its cost being set at roughly half that of the Roadster. Will that still be the case when it hits production in 2012? We can’t wait to find out.

Update: Defendor commented with a link to this CNET article in which Elon Musk indicates the battery pack will be swappable too. The post was updated to mention this.

Tesla assures $57k Model S will be profitable, sexy looking too originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Jan 2011 10:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hybrid cars have officially jumped the shark, boring drivers from coast to coast as they smugly hypermile wherever they’re going. Meanwhile, those with big trucks have been relatively out of luck, having to stop frequently for gas — and to scrape the remains of those little hybrids out of their fender wells. That’s changing soon, with Via Motors taking its rebranded Chevy trucks (dig that flying V on the grille) and offering them to fleets in 2011, with sales to individuals coming two years later (you can get in line now for $1,000 down). Big companies like, apparently, PG&E will be able to roll in these so-called E-REV trucks that offer either 20 or 40 miles of electric range, augmented by an onboard generator. Yes, it’s a series hybrid layout similar in theory to the Volt, with the internal combustion engine charging the batteries which, in turn, send juice to the 268hp motor. Interestingly, though, that generator can power other things as well, providing 120 or 240V to tools, lights, maybe even hot tubs if you’re a super cool contractor. No word on anticipated vehicle cost nor efficiency, but we’re not expecting miracles on either front.

Continue reading Via Motors E-REV hybrid trucks power your commute and the job site too (video)

Via Motors E-REV hybrid trucks power your commute and the job site too (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The writers over at Busy Mommy Media have run the Nissan Leaf through a special battery of ‘family’ tests to produce the kind of review of the EV that we don’t see every day around here. Still, the family perspective is an especially interesting one for the electric vehicle, since widespread adoption will largely depend on how it fares in just such lifestyles. So how did the Leaf fare? Exceedingly well, it turns out, getting high marks for performance, cargo space, and interior space. The only problem raised was the fact that the reviewer could not fit all three of her required car seats into the back seat, but was able to change them out for slimmer models which did, in fact, fit. Check out the video after the break for the full mommy (and daddy) treatment.

Continue reading Nissan Leaf gets the ‘family’ review treatment, earns high marks

Nissan Leaf gets the ‘family’ review treatment, earns high marks originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 12:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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