A number of prominent engineers behind BMW’s various electric “i Series” offerings have left the company to join a new electric vehicle company in China, according to recent reports. Amongst those who have left is a 20-year BMW veteran that was intimately involved in the creation of the i8 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sports car — Carsten […]
Electric car sales in the US were a mixed bag again in March. Several plug-in hybrid models, led by the Chevy Volt, had a strong month and first quarter, but several fully electric models saw lower sales than in the previous year. I think these sales are still depressed by people waiting for longer-range electric vehicles […]
The top position for electric vehicle sales in Germany for the month of February 2016 was, surprisingly, held by the Audi A3 e-tron, with 210 units sold during the month in the market. This was followed closely by the Renault ZOE — with 201 units moved in the country during February — according to new […]
As noted in this article, I recently interviewed the CEO and founder of POD Point, Erik Fairbairn. POD Point is the top supplier of EV charging equipment in the UK, so it has quite a bit of useful data on hand. Following our interview, Erik passed along an interesting infographic, and I thought it would be fun […]
US electric car sales (pure electrics and plug-in hybrids) rose 4.4% in February 2016 vs February 2015, but that slight change masks large variations by type of EV. 100% electric cars dove 14% (4479 sales in Feb 2016 vs 5193 in Feb 2015), while plug-in hybrids rose a dramatic 41% (3644 sales vs 2589). There are a handful […]
A number of new BMW i Series “lifestyle” items are up for sale online (on the company’s website) and at various car dealers, going by a posting by an admin on the official BMW i forum. As one can see, there’s everything from Bluetooth speakers, to replicas, to USB sticks. And there’s even a water bottle. Er, […]
Based on the latest electric car sales numbers from auto manufacturers, as well as estimates for Tesla and Fiat electric car sales, plug-in electric car sales in the US seem to have increased 15% in January 2016 compared to January 2015. However, most manufacturers have nothing to cheer about. Sales were down for the following models: […]
In our 4th article pulled from Electric Cars: What Early Adopters & First Followers Want — a new report from CleanTechnica, EV Obsession, and GAS2 — I’m jumping into which electric car models respondents were most likely to buy and most excited, as well as some implications regarding certain car companies. Without surprise, current EV ownership matched historical EV sales fairly well — 33.9% […]
Originally published on Gas2. We have been talking a lot since the beginning of the year about which company sold the most electric cars in 2015. For the purposes of this story, “electric” is defined as any car with a plug, whether it is a plug-in hybrid like the Chevy Volt or a battery electric […]
The BMW i8 was used as a bit of an attention grabber in a recent GoPro-shot video from the startup company Scrooge — filmed in Helsinki, Finland. The video is a bit funny, I guess, showing all sorts of double-takes, staring, and even a guy nearly dropping his camera — all of which is revealed […]
2016 looks like it will be an interesting year for electric car sales. We have some significantly upgraded versions of the Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volt, as well as several new entrants to the market — such as the Tesla Model X, the Chevy Bolt later this year, the Volvo XC90 T8, the Volvo S90 T8, the […]
Following my slightly premature highlighting of Tesla crushing the electric car competition, here’s my full electric car sales report for December and 2015 as a whole. There’s not a whole lot more to add. However, aside from Tesla having a stellar month and year, BMW also stood out as a shining example of electric car […]
The Tesla Model S was recently included on Road and Track‘s new “51 Coolest Cars Of The Last 50 Years” list — along with many classics, such as the the 1967 Ferrari 330 P4, the 1967 Mazda Cosmo, the 1969 Lola T70, the 1965 Shelby Cobra 427, the Chrysler Wing Twins (lol), etc. The article […]
The BMW i8 Spyder plug-in hybrid concept was revealed more than 3 years ago, so many of you have probably forgotten about it by now (or never learned about it to begin with), but those who haven’t will probably be interested to hear that the concept is now headed to production, according to recent reports. The […]
US electric car sales are in, and they aren’t particularly uplifting. The big deal hitting sales seems to be that people are waiting for a longer-range Nissan LEAF (or a much longer-range LEAF), a longer-range BMW i3, and the 200-mile Chevy Bolt (hitting the market ~1 year from now), and this has been killing sales of the Nissan LEAF, […]
How will a stock BMW i8 — given only minor cosmetic changes by Manhart — do in a race against a McLaren 12C, a BMW 1M Coupe, and a GT-R? Or, perhaps more importantly, are you tired of seeing these videos putting electric cars (and yes, the category of “electric cars” includes plug-in hybrids/PHEVs)? Neither […]
The BMW i3’s LifeDrive design architecture is detailed in a couple of interesting new promotional videos from the German company. Possibly worth watching — or, probably, if you’re a fan of the company and/or the i3. They’re very visually attractive videos, and the first to go into quite a bit of detail regarding what’s under […]
Given that the Tesla Model S has risen to the clear #1 position in my sales reports, I think it’s important to reiterate that Model S sales are estimated. The estimates are based on many statements and data points, such as official total sales numbers from Tesla, approximate US sales numbers based on a handful of statements by […]