Archive for the ‘electric sports car’ Category

The Volkswagen family is growing by leaps and bounds today. Not only is Porsche planning to expand its lineup to include a "bottom-of-the-range" vehicle priced "significantly" below the Boxster, but also Audi has confirmed that it's moving the recently revealed e-tron EV concept into development.

The news comes from Audi of America’s Johan de Nysschen, and it's somewhat of a surprise. When the Audi e-tron debuted in Frankfurt last month, the company had nothing to say about the concept's potential future in the Audi lineup. Frankly, it looked as if the closest the e-tron might come to production would be as a virtual model headlining the...

You might have missed it, but Porsche's new president and CEO, Michael Macht, announced yesterday that Porsche is planning to introduce an electric sports car. On second thought, you probably didn't miss it, because it's been all over the news -- despite the fact that Macht provided no details and said only that current battery technology doesn't meet Porsche standards. That's the best he can do? In a week that's chock full of German speculation, Macht's vague pronouncement barely meets our own low standards (for gossip and innuendo, that is). [Jalopnik]

Given its recent slide into profitability, its snazzy new production facility, and its lawsuit-free status, Tesla Motors has been on a bit of a roll lately. Not surprisingly, the company is hoping to capitalize on this forward momentum and propel itself to "major player" status in the U.S. auto market by 2016.

At the moment, the company only manufactures the $100,000+ Tesla Roadster, but Tesla recently received $465 million in loans from the U.S. Department of Energy to facilitate production of its Model S sedan, which is set to drop in 2011. Around $100 million of those loans will go toward the build-out of the Palo Alto facility, which...