Resources

205 Resources for

jim motavalli

  • Subscribe to this listing via:
  • RSS
  • Email
BNET Author Biography
Jim MotavalliJim Motavalli is the author of Forward Drive: The Race to Build Clean Cars for the Future, among other books. He has been covering the environmental side of the auto industry for more than a decade, and writes regularly on those topics for the New York Times.
more about Jim Motavalli »

BNET Resources

Air Cars Have Major Range and Emission Challenges, Says Two New Studies
New academic studies cast doubts on the viability of cars powered by compressed air. The French-built air car's launch has been repeatedly delayed. But people love the technology--its a car running on air! by Jim Motavalli
Tags: Car, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-11-20
Aptera EV Shakeup and Delays Linked to Financial Problems
Financial problems at Aptera have led to delays for the plane-like 2e battery car. Internal conflicts over when to roll out the car which still has teething problems apparently resulted in a boardroom showdown, won by CEO and President Paul Wilbur. by Jim Motavalli
Tags: Car, Financial, Financial Accounting, Finance, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-11-19
Indian Electric Car May be Built in Upstate New York
India’s Reva Electric Car Company may be planning to build a multimillion-dollar auto plant in upstate New York. According to a perhap overeager report in Syracuse’s Post-Standard, the deal includes both state and federal incentives and is in its final negotiating phase. Amazingly enough, because Reva has...
Tags: India, Car, Electric Car, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-09-21
Folding Bicycles: Green Transportation for Tough Times?
One of the realities of our current transportation picture is that, despite the momentary lift from Cash for Clunkers (which sent sales up one percent in August compared to the year before, and up 26 percent from last July), people are deferring new car purchases. And they may defer them...
Tags: Car, Bicycle, Trunk, Montague Corp., Transportation, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-09-02
Pontiac's Last-Gasp Coupe is Gorgeous (but GM's Slip is Showing)
Back in April, General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson said the company was taking “tough but necessary actions that are critical to GM’s long-term viability,” and that plan included cutting 21,000 jobs (a 34 percent workforce cut), reducing dealers by 42 percent (to 3,605 by the end of next year), shedding...
Tags: Car, General Motors Corp., Pontiac, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-09-01
Norway's Think EV Adds U.S. Board Members, GM Connection
Think, the European battery car maker, will soon be speaking Norwegian with an unmistakable American accent. The company, once an arm of Ford, has some $47 million in new investment partly from American investors and, after it conquers Asia and Europe, an ambitious U.S. expansion plan. Think...
Tags: Car, Battery, General Motors Corp., EV, Ener1, Charles Gassenheimer, Engineering, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-08-31
Norway's Think Refinances, Looks to U.S. and a Factory in Finland
Recessions tend to have a devastating effect on smaller automakers. The U.S., for instance, had hundreds of brand names when the Depression started, but many were casualties of the shrinking auto market that continued through the 1930s. The ones that survived cut both production and prices, staying afload on paper-thin margins. ...
Tags: U.S., Battery, Ener1, Engineering, Investment, Finance, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-08-28
Chinese Carmaker BYD to Bring EVs to U.S. Next Year
In a sign of a heightened international competition, the leading Chinese battery maker and increasingly carmaker BYD (“Build Your Dreams”) is intending to bring its E6 electric car to the U.S. a year sooner than previously announced. That will make it available here next year, just in time to compete...
Tags: U.S., Car, Battery, BYD, Tesla, Engineering, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-08-27
Ford Uses Federal Money to Accelerate Electric Car Plans
Ford was the biggest winner back in June when the Department of Energy announced the first round of its $25 billion loan program for electric vehicles and battery manufacture. The company was funded with $5.9 billion through 2011 to improve the fuel efficiency of a dozen popular vehiclesâ€"from the Taurus...
Tags: Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle, Car, Electric Car, Battery, Plug-in, Ford Motor Co., Engineering, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-08-26
Cash for Clunkers Ends With a Bang and a Whimper
And so Cash for Clunkers ends with both a bang and a whimper. The program, which stopped accepting new consumer applications on Monday, was undoubtedly a success. In the third quarter, the White House Council of Economic Advisors said the program would increase economic growth by as much as 0.3...
Tags: Car, IBISWorld, Sales Strategy, Sales, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-08-25
EV Maker Zap Secures $25 Million in New Funding
When it comes to financing its electric vehicle operations, venerable California-based Zap looks eastâ€"specifically, to Asia. The company, which makes the Xebra and other EVs, has been through its share of controversy. But Zap is riding a tide of EV euphoria and has secured $31 million in new financing since...
Tags: Car, Mph, Battery, Electric Vehicle, Zap, Engineering, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-08-24
GridPoint Software for World's Biggest Electric Car Deployment
On August 10, charging company ECOtality (through its subsidiary, eTec) announced that it had been awarded almost $100 million in stimulus money. Working with the Renault-Nissan Alliance, the money will support deployment of 12,750 charging stations and 5,000 Nissan Leaf EVs. Although this is being billed as...
Tags: Software, Car, Electric Car, Grid, Plug-in, GridPoint Software, Tools & Techniques, Management, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-08-21
Ontario, Home to Major Automakers, Invests in Homegrown Electric Cars
The city of Windsor, Ontario is a short tunnel ride from downtown Detroit, and the province of Ontario is home to a major automobile industry. A 2006 survey pointed out that Ontario actually builds more cars than Michigan does. According to the survey, the province builds 2.5 million cars...
Tags: Car, Electric Car, Ontario Corp., Battery, Electrovaya, Engineering, Transportation, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-08-20
Did Cash for Clunkers Crush Classics? Not Likely.
Now that the smoke has cleared, was Cash for Clunkers a holocaust for classic cars? This has long been the contention of old car collectors, who have waged a rear-guard action against such programs, state and federal, complete with heated language. Scrappage programs, said the Specialty Equipment...
Tags: Car, Keith Martin, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-09-03
Bright's Big Plug-In Hybrid Production Plans (Conversions, Too)
When President Obama announced on the campaign trail that he wanted to see a million plug-in hybrids on American roads by 2015, peopleâ€"especially in the auto industryâ€"thought he was dreaming. One company that is taking the goal seriously reports Autoblog.com, is Bright Automotive, which thinks it can, all by itself, make more...
Tags: Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle, Plug-in, Bright Automotive, DOE Fund, Volkswagen Transporter, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-09-04
"Cars for Idiots": Carmakers Get Personal About New Technology
Sometimes carmakers take the competition personally, especially when new technology is involved. Toyota executives recently went out of their way to disparage the plug-in hybrid even though their own company is building one. Irv Miller, Toyota’s group vice president of environmental and public affairs, told me back...
Tags: Car, Automobile Company, Audi AG, Manufacturing, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-09-08
China's Great Leap Forward on EV Charging: Moving Faster Than the U.S.?
Could China leap ahead of the U.S. in switching to electric transportation? Jonathan Read thinks so, and he’s the president and CEO of Scottsdale, Arizona-based ECOtality, whose EV charging technology is being adapted globally. ECOtality subsidiary eTec is one of the recipients of a $99.8 million Department of Energy grant...
Tags: China, Jonathan Read, ECOtality, Engineering, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-09-18
Meet the Wheego Whip: A New EV for 2010
Meet the new star in the EV firmament, the Wheego Whip. That’s a fairly fanciful name for a remarkably capable vehicle build by Wheego Electric Cars, headed by former EarthLink President Mike McQuary (just one of many former Internet players now involved in plug-in cars). According to...
Tags: Car, Mph, Battery, EV, Wheego Electric Cars, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-09-17
Iceland's President Pushes for EVs...And a 100 Percent Clean Energy Economy
REYKJAVIK, ICELANDâ€"The President of Iceland lives in Bessastadir, a historic, 19th-century residence on a peninsula. From a distance, it resembles the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, but up close it’s notable for the lack of formality. The trappings of power are anathema in Iceland, where even Bjork can count on...
Tags: Mitsubishi Corp., Geothermal Energy, Car, Electric Car, Hydrogen, Iceland, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-09-16
Meet Toyota's New Hybrid, the Auris
REYKJAVIK, ICELANDâ€"In 1967, Toyota produced its first hybrid. Yes, the company has a long history in hybrids before the Prius. The car was a variant of the Sports 800 GT, and its gas turbine engine connected to a generator like the Chevy Volt, and supplied an electric motor and two-speed...
Tags: Toyota Motor Corp., Auris, ICELAND, Telecom & Utilities, Jim Motavalli
Blog posts 2009-09-15
advertisement
advertisement