Manufacturing/Plants

Astute readers and Tesla Motors took issue with a line from a General Motors press release yesterday that claimed the start of electric motor production for the Chevy Spark EV made GM the "first domestic automaker to build electric motors and drive units in United States." The question was ...

While the Chevy Spark EV will be made in Korea, two important parts –motor and battery pack – are built in the US. Today, General Motors proudly highlighted the start of motor production at its White Marsh plant outside of Baltimore, MD. GM says this move makes it the first domestic ...

The mystery of potentially dangerous lithium ion batteries continues to hang over sales of vehicles using this technology. Experts who recently testifyied before the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that failure of the technology has slowed development of electric cars and ...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was in Texas this week, fighting for his company's right to sell electric cars directly to consumers. He also hinted that Tesla might have big plans for Texas, if this one little law just goes his way. "I have this idea for a really advanced electric truck that has the ...

Being one of the founders of an electric car company can be a bittersweet experience, as top executives at Aptera, Tesla and Fisker have found out. We can now add another name to the list: Terry McAuliffe, founder of GreenTech Automotive, quietly stepped out of the picture late last year. This ...

Renault and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn continues to be evangelical about electric vehicles. The problem is, he's preaching to the choir. Ghosn believes – still – that by the end of this decade, one in 10 cars his companies sell will be electric. While 70,000 customers are happy with ...

Any self-respecting dealer would refuse to sell a Fisker Karma extended-range plug-in for a mere $12,000, but Fisker Automotive may be taking that approach with former battery supplier A123 Systems by settling for about 11 cents on the dollar in a bankruptcy-court claim. The California-based ...

Ford is reducing its water use much faster than expected, and touting the achievement with another infographic. During 2012, the global automaker achieved an 8.5 percent reduction in the amount of water used to make its vehicles, putting Ford more than halfway toward its target of using an ...

More gears equals less fuel use in Chrysler's trademark Jeep Cherokee, as the US automaker will make a nine-speed automatic transmission standard on its 2014 Cherokee. The transmission, the world's first nine-speed automatic transmission for passenger vehicles with a front-wheel-drive layout, ...

The tea leaves are getting somewhat clearer over at Fisker Automotive with a new report saying the struggling automaker is furloughing its US workers this week, a month before a payment on the company's $529-million Department of Energy loan is due. Fisker never got the full amount, taking only ...