From the successful conversion of a Porsche 914 into a battery electric vehicle (BEV), MIT's Electric Vehicle Team are now working on the conversion of a Mercury Milan Hybrid into a quick-charging BEV. Instead of the typical 10 to 12 hours for a full charge, the MIT team is looking at an 11 minute charge-time for their BEV, dubbed "elEVen," and they're blogging in detail about their progress. (via) [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Jul 22, 2009 - 44 comments

Neil Young has a new album out. Ever innovative, Neil has written his new album about his electric car. [via]
posted by peewinkle on Apr 13, 2009 - 43 comments

Official: GM reveals the production Chevy Volt 2011.
posted by stbalbach on Sep 21, 2008 - 131 comments

Shai Agassi's Audacious Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road. Now it's Agassi's turn. He starts off uncharacteristically nervous, stammering a bit. He's got something different, he says. A new approach. He believes it just might be possible to get the entire world off oil. For good. Point by point, gaining speed as he goes, he shares for the first time in public the ideas that will change his future—and possibly the world's. [more inside]
posted by destrius on Aug 20, 2008 - 68 comments

Two takes on the immediate future of the electric car: we are either "Going Nowhere Fast" (if you ask a petrolhead from Top Gear magazine) or we are witnessing "The End of the Petrolhead" (if you ask The Economist). A bestiary of current and planned models includes TeslaMotors (now in production), Fisker Automotive (who are being sued by Teslamotors), the GM Volt (due 2010), The Lighting Car Company, the plug in Prius, the GWiz (now slightly less squishy apparently), the Corbin Sparrow, a few (vapory?) models from Zap! and the wondrous Sinclair C5.
posted by rongorongo on Jun 26, 2008 - 67 comments

Want a highway-speed in-production electric car right now and can't afford a Tesla Roadster? The now defunct Corbin Sparrow has been re-born as the NmG ("No More Gas") from Myers Motors. It uses 12 lead-acid batteries (1-4yr life), 70+mph, 30 mile range, about $50k. It's not for everybody but - in the US - it's currently the only other pure EV option available (that's not a conversion or low-speed). However if you can wait a couple years more EV's are in development.
posted by stbalbach on Apr 30, 2008 - 32 comments

General Motors Heritage Center houses four decades of GM's electric drive vehicles (via Digg)
posted by 445supermag on Mar 13, 2007 - 4 comments

Build your own electric VW Rabbit! It's easy, just order the VoltsRabbit kit and you can have your very own 90-mile range electric car. Bonus boints for converting a Rabbit Convertible to electric!
posted by laz-e-boy on Jul 19, 2002 - 3 comments