Electric Cars
Electric cars are awesome and today’s models have enough power to even be considered when taking day trips out of the city. The only problem is, there’s not always a place to charge them up. The go-eCharger installs easy and goes with you wherever you go.
Sustainable living must be accessible living. If the vast amount of people can’t access sustainable options, all the efforts in that direction will really do no good. To that end, Great Wall Motor, a Chinese company has released an ultra affordable electric car. The Ora R1 costs less than $9000 and is great for motoring around town.
Electric cars need places to juice up and Vattenfall is going to be installing charging stations in the UK which is awesome because their ports are powered totally by renewable energy making driving an electric car, that much more eco-friendly as long as they’re using one of the InCharge ports.
Electric cars are great at cutting down the harm done emissions from cars for a better, greener tomorrow. Nissan wants to take it even further by utilizing the batteries to charge and power more than just cars. They will begin testing LEAF electric vehicles to give power back to homes and offices with the Nissan Energy Share.
So you’ve got a little VW slug bug that you love and although it’s been running for like 40 years, you know that gas guzzling engine isn’t great for the environment. Good news eco-friendly, old car lover. EV Wilderness sells conversion kits to turn your car electric, provided you aren’t worried about going very fast.
Electric cars are becoming more and more popular and even if you can’t afford one, you at least know about them. Although they are better for the environment than our current gas guzzlers, they could be even less harmful. The Sion is an electric car that runs completely on solar power.
There’s no question we’re in a race against time as far as city transportation goes. The more people we cram into these urban spaces, the more pollution and congestion builds up. And it’s getting to a ridiculous state right now. Just take a look at Milan, Beijing or any other major city, where private transport has caused problems. You travel through London at an average speed of 10 mph or something at the moment. Which is why this new little…
![Mo Solar Car – is this open source electric vehicle just what our cities need? [Video First Look]](https://www.redferret.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/momain.jpg)
Sales of electric cars continue to grow as people discover the appeal of petrol free motoring, and the Nissan Leaf continues to lead the pack in terms of global sales. So it’s interesting to see how the EV manufacturers are steadily ramping up battery range in order to entice more customers and destroy the terrors of ‘range anxiety’. The new Nissan Leaf Flex (U.S.) (or 30kWh or Extended Range) model is an example of just that goal, with a 25%…
![2016 Nissan Leaf Extended Range – new electric gives 155 miles range, oilmen fret [Review]](https://www.redferret.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/nissanleaf30kwhmain.jpg)
The recent furore over the Volkswagen group diesel fraud hasn’t removed the fact that the German group has been doing some solid work on hybrid and low MPG technology in general, as we’ve seen from our reviews of recent Golf products. The cars we’ve looked at, including the all electric and hybrid Golfs, provide practical efficient motoring at a reasonable price, and so it is with this new hybrid from Audi.
![2015 Audi A3 Sportback eTron – hybrid motoring done with style and effect [Review]](https://www.redferret.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/audietronmain.jpg)
The march of the hybrid car continues as more and more manufacturers stake their eco claim by introducing vehicles powered by part fossil fuel and part electricity. The new VW Golf GTE is one such car, and it combines the typical practicality of a conventional Golf family car with the exotic performance and frugality of a hybrid. The result is rather pleasing. We tested one out for a period to see what it was like to live with.
![VW Golf GTE Hybrid – part oil, part electric family machine [Review]](https://www.redferret.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/vwgolfgte-main2.jpg)
So move over Tesla, there’s a new clone in town. The newcomer offers all the exotic all-electric power and style of the American supercar, but with a lower price and a few different features. The Youxia (pronounced Yo-sha) is due to hit the streets next year sometime, although we’ve not seen any confirmed images of a factory floor or anything which resembles an assembly plant yet.
If anyone needs proof that the world is slowly changing, look no further than the major car manufacturers. These lumbering dinosaurs are being forced, kicking and screaming, into the eco driven future to the extent that they’re even converting their major sellers into green machines. The latest example is this Volkswagen Passat GTE, a plugin hybrid (PHEV) which boasts ‘official’ consumption figures of 149 mpg and 31 miles of all electric range. And at a price which is very nearly…
![2015 VW Passat GTE – first drive of the ultimate 149 mpg company fleet car [Review]](https://www.redferret.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/passatgte-2main.jpg)
Anyone who’s ever driven a fully electric car will tell you how amazing they are. Silent, smooth and brisk. The only real drawback is that pesky battery range, and while it’s steadily improving, the fact that most of these EVs can only do around 80 miles per charge is still a major hurdle in gaining public acceptance. But perhaps there’s a way to combine the best of both worlds, using a petrol motor to keep the batteries charged for longer…
There have been no shortage of ‘alternative’ electric vehicles over the years, and unfortunately most of them share the same struggle to gain traction in a market which expects convention. Hence the demise of products like the Aptera, while the Tesla marches on.
We’re thinking that this is probably the smallest proper electric car in the world (or the whole universe, what do we know?), and if it isn’t we would definitely like to meet the elves who’ve built one smaller. Petrol heads will, of course, recognize the distinctive Peel micro car shape, but instead of a conventional petrol engine, this puppy comes with a full electric drivetrain. Wow-eee.
