Electric car maker Tesla unveiled its latest electric vehicle last night, the Model X, a cross-over that offers more space than the company’s Model S sedan and original sporty Roadster. For those waiting for a semi-affordable electric car that offers plenty of space, power, and versatility, the Model X looks to be the best option yet. Like other cross-over vehicles, the Model X sits somewhere between a sedan and a SUV. But Tesla couldn’t help but add its own spin to the form: the Model X features funky rear doors, dubbed “Falcon Wings,” that flip up and allow you to easily step into the car. Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that the Falcon Wings are the largest rear door openings found in a passenger car, CNet reports. Tesla expects the Model X to retail close to the Model S’ ...

Here’s yet another fun little car that could be on the roads within a few years. As one commenter here on CleanTechnica aptly noted recently, we could make huge strides in fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions simply by reducing the size and weight of our vehicles. Hope to see cars like this one below becoming more and more common soon.   All Hail Hiriko: MIT EV Concept Slated for Production in 2013 (via Gas 2.0) Related posts: EADS Announces VoltAir Electric Airline Concept Toray’s Green Sports Car Is Invitation For Collaboration Nanomaterial Being Produced By the Ton...

EV battery prices are projected to drop tremendously by 2015. More info from sister site Gas2′s Andrew Meggison:   The Dropping Price Of The EV Battery (via Gas 2.0) Related posts: Ethanol Industry & Food Prices after Coming End to Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit Gas Prices Up, Transit Use Up Gas Prices to Rise Higher in 2012 ...

  Charis touched on the unequal expectations for and criticisms of electric vehicles (EVs) compared to gasoline-powered vehicles in her post on why EVs are awesome the other day. Over on sister site Gas2, Andrew Meggison gets into that topic a lot more in this repost below. Check it out (& share with your friends… we’ve got a lot of unbalanced press to combat):   Different Standards For Gasoline-Powered Cars Vs. EV’s? (via Gas 2.0) Related posts: Electric First, Gasoline Later – Honda’s New Green Sports Car Why Electric Cars Are Awesome Solar-Powered Air Conditioning for Cars ...

  Most of you reading this are already inclined toward green-type technology, whether that’s clean power generation, electric transportation, or more efficient ways to do things. Today, I’m going to give you one more reason to stop supporting – or at least vocally dislike – big gas and big oil. Yes, We’ve All Heard About This There are a number of people who will happily speak at length about dependence on foreign oil and how it leads to American troops being sent over to oil-rich hotspots to make sure we can still get affordable gas at the pump. There was a pun a while back about how Operation: Iraqi Freedom should have been called Operation: Iraqi Liberation (or O.I.L.), for example. I’m not really one of those people, but I listen when they talk. Oil is not cheap; from the ...

Move over Michigan, California may be U.S. car central of the future.

California “took in $467 million in global EV venture capital (VC) investment (69 percent of total dollars) in the first half of 2011″ and generated the same number of EV patents as Michigan from 2008-2010, according to a new report.

“California is fast becoming the world’s advanced car capital—our entrepreneurs, savvy consumers, research institutions and our market-driving policies are creating a perfect storm for continued growth,” said F. Noel Perry, businessman and founder of Next 10, the organization that created the report on this. More info available in the report, Powering Innovation: California is Leading the Shift to Electric Vehicles from R&D to Early Adoption, or via the link above. More key findings summarized here (from the link above):

California is a global ...

It’s not the best photo, but it means a lot to the 19 people in it. Posed in front of a mirrored glass office building under a colorful logo, they are the final employees of the now-defunct electric-car startup Aptera Motors on the last day of its existence, Friday, December 2, 2011. If there’s one lesson to be learned from the closing of Aptera, it may be this: Starting a car company takes a huge amount of money — orders of magnitude more than the software startups Silicon Valley venture capitalists like to fund. And if the cash runs out at any point, the company will die. Over the last week, we interviewed former CEO Paul Wilbur and former marketing VP Marques McCammon, who were there to the very end. We also spoke at length with company founder Steve Fambro, who resigned his seat ...

I wrote about a bullet-proof electric luxury vehicle that includes solar panels that Latvian armored car company Dartz is working on just about one month ago here on CleanTechnica. When I first read about it, I wondered if it was actually legit, not having heard of Dartz before and not finding much info on the car. Well, it looks like it is legit (at least the idea). Here’s more from sister site Gas2:

VIDEO: Dartz Reveals Bulletproof Electric “Jo-Mojo” Roadster (via Gas 2.0)

 

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Combining Solar Power and Your Electric Vehicle — Too Practical to Pass Up (Reader Comment)...

 

The Chevy Volt has been having a bit of a rough time lately, but the news you probably haven’t heard is that the Chevy Volt got the highest consumer satisfaction rating in Consumer Reports’ annual ownership survey. 93% of Volt owners said they would buy the vehicle again.

The Porsche 911 and Dodge Challenger tied for second with a score or 91%.

Some notes of caution, however:

due to the Volt not being out for long, Consumer Reports was only able to survey a small number of Volt owners; and it “cautioned that early adopters of new technology tend to be more enthusiastic (although the same qualification is true for sports car aficionados), and that other new eco cars, such as the Smart ForTwo, debuted on the market with rave reviews from owners, only to see customer satisfaction scores fall once the ...

Ford Motor Company yesterday announced the release of a five-seater electric station wagon developed in partnership with Azure Dynamics. Based on Ford’s Transit Connect van, the five-seater Ford Transit Connect Electric Wagon will be available for sale in North America by early 2012. The announcement comes just in time for the Los Angeles Auto Show, where vehicle makers debut futuristic concept cars as well as new and exciting production models. The Ford Transit Connect Electric van was chosen as the 2010 Truck of the Year and has been used in delivery fleets of such companies as AT&T, FedEx, Post Norway, and DHL, among others. The partnership with Azure Dynamics has been critical to the production of the electrification of Transit Connect, because the company makes the Force Drive powertrain for the vehicle. The wagon ...