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  When the 2011 Nissan Leaf goes on sale later this year, each copy of the first mass-market electric car on earth will come with a navigation system. Nifty spiff--and an integral part of the Leaf experience. High Gear Media took a quick drive in a 2011 Leaf prototype today in San Jose, while Nissan prepares for some big announcements tomorrow on...

The 2011 Nissan Leaf is in the final stages of development before it rolls into showrooms late this year. Today, High Gear Media took the Leaf for a first drive around San Jose, California, before the Plug-In 2010 Conference and before a very big announcement from Nissan on future Leaf sales. We're working on a few items for you, including an...

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV is an intriguing prospect. On the one hand, it was one of the first breed of usable electric cars to the market. It's a proper car that doesn't feel like a golf cart to drive, and offers all the safety features we've come to expect from regular cars over the years. On the other, it's expensive. Seriously expensive. For a car...

 What is an acceptable warranty for an electric car? Three years? Four years? Ten Years? And should customers be able to choose what that warranty level is? That is the question Nissan was asking last week when it sent out a questionnaire to the 16,100 people who have paid out $99 to reserve a 2011 Nissan Leaf. As part of the extensive...

A few years back Chrysler showed off all manner of hybrid, range-extended and all-electric concepts in the hope that these vehicles would eventually see production, thus catapulting the automaker to the forefront of the electrification revolution. Unfortunately, a global economic downturn and subsequent bankruptcy meant that Chrysler's only...

Unless you've been living in a remote shack in the remote wilderness of Northern Alaska you'll be familiar with the television adverts we all suffered in the 80s which started with the immortal line "Four out of five dentists..." What followed was normally an advertisement for some form of dental product, from the latest toothbrush and toothpaste...

I'm on the highway to ... Canada. Yes, Canada, via its southern neighbor, Washington state. Washington state has a plan, and that plan is to build electric vehicle charging stations. By this fall, the State of Washington plans to turn a 275-mile section of Interstate 5 (running from Oregon to Canada) into an electric highway, just in time for the...

Electric vehicle manufacturers will be energized this week by the news that a bipartisan Senate panel has just given their approval to a proposed plug-in vehicles bill. Although not final, as the bill needs approval first by the full Senate and then the House and Senate, the measures introduced in the bill would be very important to encouraging...

With Nissan busy working on bringing the 2011 Leaf to the market you think they'd have their hands full with EV development right now. Despite this, both Nissan and luxury arm Infiniti are looking to expand their electric vehicle program into other corners of the market and may tap into their partner Renault for future sports and luxury EVs...

According to a recent report by Nissan, most consumers signed up to buy the 2011 Nissan Leaf are already electric vehicle owners or hybrid drivers. In short, early adopters are mainly enthusiasts who already know the ins and outs of driving electric. But what about the general public? We've sat down and come up with five questions we think...

It's not every day that a small guy gets embroiled in a lawsuit with an automotive giant like Toyota and actually wins but that's exactly what happened in the case of Alex Severinsky and his claims of patent-infringement. The dispute actually dates back several years and surrounds Severinsky's claims that his 1994 patented system for a...

The electric vehicle revolution took a major step towards becoming a reality with the Senate Energy Committee approving today a new $3.6 billion bill to support the development of plug-in electric vehicles through a series of deployment communities to be set up around the country. These 'communities' are to include targeted incentive programs for...

Are you buying a 2011 Nissan Leaf? If you're one of the 16,064 lucky people who has already placed a $99 deposit down on one of the most eagerly anticipated cars of the year, Nissan thinks it knows how you'll finance the $32,780 cost of purchase. Nissan expects most people to lease. And it turns out it's all in the detail of how the $7,500 federal...

Electric vehicles are zero emissions, right? That's a rhetorical question. As I'm sure most of you are aware, that statement is only correct up to a point. Most electric vehicle manufacturers, such as Nissan with their 2011 Leaf, are keen to point out that their vehicles produce zero tailpipe emissions, meaning only the cars themselves are zero...

As any parent will tell you, progress takes time. Evolution often takes a much longer time yet. So rather than pounding our head on the wall when we read idiotic editorials, perhaps we should take a deep breath and calmly reflect that those who can't adapt to change will eventually die out. What prompts this reflective moment? An editorial in...

When it comes to electric vehicle (EV) development, even auto giants like Toyota and Daimler are partnering up with smaller specialist firms--in this case Tesla--to benefit from technology sharing and other synergies in their quest to become leaders in the field. So it should come as no surprise that another giant, Volkswagen, is forming a new...

Just like last week's Toyota-Tesla announcement, the rumor mill went into overdrive yesterday with talk of plans from Honda to build both electric cars and plug in Hybrids in the near future. Knowing full well how the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines felt about battery technology and electric cars in particular, we...

 We're living in exciting times. In the next year we'll see electric cars hit the market in the form of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Mitsubishi i-Miev to name just three. While we wax lyrical about the multitude of vehicles set to reach the market there are very few available on the sort of money most folks consider spending...

At the renowned Silvretta Classic Rally in Montafon, Austria, 24 electric cars drove amongst the vintage cars that typically compete in this mountain race. The rally, cutting through the Austrian Alps, is demanding for the drivers and cars alike. The initial lineup of cars runs across the gamut, from concept cars to production vehicles...

President Barack Obama's electric vehicle tour climaxed last Thursday with a visit to the Compact Power battery plant in Holland, Michigan, where he was treated to his first extensive experience with the upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Volt. The Holland plant just happens to be the place where LG Chem, the parent of Compact Power, is making the battery...