In the Driver’s Seat Blog

Since the holiday season is, after all, a mythical time in its own right, Plug In America decided to address plug-in vehicle mythology and publish its own “Top 12 Plug-in Electric Vehicle Myths” just in time to celebrate Christmas and ring in the New Year. See the complete list of[…]

Oh, what a year it’s been for electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs)! I can hardly wait to see what 2010 has in store. But first, in the tradition of end-of-year countdowns, here are my picks for the top 10 developments — good or bad — in pluggable transportation[…]

Today as my postal carrier’s rumbling old van heaved to a stop and planted itself in front of my mailbox while delivering Christmas card cheer, I could not help but imagine how much more pleasant it might be for me, the mailman and the air if that same van were[…]

Dell headquarters in Round Rock, Tex. recently completed installation of 130 kW of solar panels in its parking lot that will generate clean power while shading roughly 50 parking spaces, JetsonGreen reported recently. They also installed two Coulumb charging stations for plug-in electric vehicles. Dell is the latest to join[…]

It looks like a kilowatt-driven farming revolution may be poised to take off. From Australia to America, a few innovative farmers are realizing the benefits of plugging into power. According to Autoblog Green, an Australian farmer named Michael Inwood has chosen to power his 200 horsepower truck to plant crops[…]

There has never been a shortage of stories in the press denigrating plug-in electric cars. Why? Because people naturally, logically believe electric cars are a good idea. Special interests who preferred to maintain the internal combustion status quo (read oil and auto companies) have long needed to plant seeds of[…]

The San Francisco Whole Foods Market on California Street has made a substantial donation to Plug In America of nearly $1000. We can’thank the forward-thinking company and its customers, who bring in their own shopping bags. Instead of getting 5¢ back through the Whole Foods Bag Refund program, customers can[…]

The plug-in electric vehicle announcements are flying fast and frequently. As always, it’s an educated guessing game to figure out which will make it to the finish line — and when. Here’s a potpourri of interesting news, rated in order from “real” to “wish I knew”. One of the few[…]

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) met on Thursday to discuss the Zero Emission Vehicle regulation and the revisions staff was tasked with exploring for 2015 and beyond. Plug In America President Dan Davids offered testimony applauding CARB’s achievements, but faulted the agency for skewed priorities and reliance on unreliable[…]

Are they really? Coping with climate change in Copenhagen? I’m not convinced that attempting to assuage greenhouse-gas guilt with carbon offsets is an effective way to stop parboiling the planet. The term “carbon offsets” does roll off the tongue in a proactively positive way. What’s not to like? Signing on[…]

If this is your first time visiting Plug In America’s blog, I hope you will take a few minutes to read some of our past posts to get a flavor of what you’ll find here. (You’ll find even more by clicking “More” at the bottom of the page.) Consider signing[…]

I see a lot of pundits in the U.S. press these days saying we’ve got to build the infrastructure for people to be able to charge electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids just about anywhere if this new paradigm in transportation is to succeed. That’s both true and an exaggeration. Millions[…]

The Nissan LEAF has been on tour in California the past few weeks. CEO Carlos Ghosn appeared at the inaugural presentation in LA, attesting to the electric car’s centrality to Nissan’s vision of our automotive future. I saw the car, kept safely behind the velvet rope, in an upscale San[…]

With the persistent notion that kids — as the cliche goes — are our future, I frequently display my Tesla roadster (affectionately known as “Tessie the Tesla”) at southern California junior high schools, colleges and high schools. I sometimes present a PowerPoint, sometimes just hand out Plug In America tri-folds[…]

I love newspapers (being a newspaper reporter myself), but I’m not that into cars. Conventional cars, that is. I don’t routinely read what’s produced by automotive reporters. With one exception — Dan Neil of the Los Angeles Times. There are good reasons why he won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism[…]

I’ve had a “thing” for Daimler’s little Smart car since my trip to Paris in 2006 where I observed that the avenues were lined with legions of diesel Smarts. Since then, the appealing miniature perfection of the snobbish little automotive beast has simply turned my head and turned me on.[…]

I was super surprised about a month ago when my brother-in-law from Ohio called to ask if I knew anything about the 3Prong Power conversion kit for Prius vehicles. I hadn’t been keeping up with conversion kit technologies, so I couldn’t give Francis any feedback. Instead, he proceeded to tell[…]

‘Tis the week to be thankful, so let me count the ways… – Being part of the EV movement in the past 7 years has been a feast of rib-sticking satisfaction with exciting dishes of controversy. See Who Killed the Electric Car for details. – I am thankful for my[…]

Two items caught my attention this week. Plug In America has a new ally with the announcement of the creation of the Electrification Coalition. The goal of this high-powered group of corporate executives is nothing less than the complete transformation of our transportation sector, one in which electricity plays the[…]

What does Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have to do with the global adoption of electric transportation Reduction of CO2 emissions, that’s what. The unfortunate fact is that the Barrier Reef has an abysmal 50 percent chance of surviving if carbon dioxide emissions are not cut a minimum of 25 percent[…]

Sometimes I find myself meeting people who don’t believe that global climate change is human induced, yet they are huge fans of plug-in electric vehicles. This sort of encounter happened a couple of weeks ago when I sat in on a large investor gathering to get the “pitch” on the[…]

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, at podium addressing suits, beside LEAF show car Maybe it was the number of suits in attendance. Maybe it was the swag, modest as it was. Maybe it was the catered lunch. Sheesh, no one even got arrested. Yep, a number of factors made the launch[…]

As if we needed anything more to worry about, we read today in The Guardian that the U.S. has pressured the International Energy Agency (IEA) to lie about the level of worldwide oil reserves. Ostensibly, this was done because revealing the true level of reserves would cause a financial panic[…]

Reva, the Indian electric car company best known for the G-Whiz in England, has signed a deal to bring their new product to Iceland with sales beginning within a year. The NXG and NXR, revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show recently, have a Th!nk City-like footprint, 100 mile range and[…]

Nissan has released an official sketch of an electric urban delivery vehicle that looks closer to viable than many EV concepts that have appeared at auto shows over the last few months. It is a somewhat stylized take on the NV200 light commercial gasoline van Nissan sells in Japan and[…]

Finally a more concrete example of automaker plans to recycle batteries. And it appears that Nissan Motor Company is leading the “pack” (so to speak) Nissan will form a joint venture with Sumitomo Corporation to recycle lithium ion batteries for the new EV kid on the block — the Nissan[…]

I had a chance to catch up with world renowned environmentalist Lester R. Brown who has just released a new book Plan B 4.0, available to read online. Brown is a huge proponent of plug-ins and he clearly stresses the connection between renewable energy and the power of plug-in electric[…]

I could have hoped that we were beyond the time when car companies would say they love electric vehicles and then turn around moon us. But I’ve been in the EV world too long to believe we’re done with these shenanigans yet. The latest example — Chrysler, which this year[…]

“But would you be able to drive that Tesla to Vegas?” The answer to the inevitable, omnipresent question is a resounding YES, I COULD especially if I applied the energy-sparing driving techniques practiced by a couple of guys expertly piloting a Tesla roadster through the great Australian outback to achieve[…]

Having just attended the annual Cascadia Beyond Oil conference at Microsoft’s Redmond campus, I left impressed with how incredibly focused and motivated Pacific Northwest jurisdictions are to electrify their transportation. Just about every Seattle-Metropolitan-area city and county representative was present, along with utilities 90 coordinated partners in all celebrating the[…]

Ford’s Nancy Gioia, director of global electrification, addressed back-to-back gatherings of local EV advocates, environmentalists, Ford dealers, media, and others in San Francisco today. She came to introduce folks to an all-electric Focus and a plug-in hybrid Escape SUV (though we didn’t get to drive them) and to talk about[…]

There’s power in numbers, so Plug In America likes to work in coalition with like-minded organizations whenever possible. Some of our board members also play active roles in other organizations. Here’s the latest example of the kind of synergy this creates. On October 18, 2009 Sierra Club California (the Club’s[…]