Electric Car

Joe Baker was hurrying in to work one morning when a flat tire brought him to a standstill. He fixed it, only to get another flat a mile later. He fixed that one, too. Four miles later came his third flat tire. That was the same morning he had to deal with loose brakes, a wobbly wheel and a dog that wouldn't quit chasing him. Then there was the goofball who drove by while Baker was bent over by the curb fixing flat No. 2. "He leaned out of the window and yelled, 'Oh, you crashed!

Electric car builder Fisker Automotive Inc. will close its Pontiac, Mich., engineering and sales center in March and move the operations to its Irvine headquarters, the company said Thursday. The move will result in the relocation of 20 to 30 employees and create new employment for as many as 100 workers in the coming year. Last month, Fisker raised an additional $115.3 million in private equity funding that is helping to pay for the move. Now, Fisker will house all of its design, engineering, sales, marketing and administrative operations in Irvine.

The first mass-market electric cars come on the U.S. market this year. The Chevy Volt, anticipated to be about $40,000, will be out in November, followed by the $32,780 Nissan Leaf in December. Both are billed as zero-emissions vehicles. But the electricity has to come from somewhere, and in most places around the country that source is anything but green. In Los Angeles, 39% of the electricity generated by the Department of Water and Power is from coal, and 27% is from natural gas. Just 14% comes from renewable sources, such as hydroelectric power (6%)

Tesla Motors Inc., the Silicon Valley-based electric sports car maker, got a warm welcome from investors in the company's initial public stock offering late Monday. Tesla priced its IPO at $17 a share, above the expected range of $14 to $16. The stock will begin trading on Nasdaq on Tuesday under the symbol TSLA. The deal marks the first IPO by an American car company since Ford Motor Co. went public in 1956. Tesla and current shareholders sold a total of 13.3million shares, raising $226 million.

A Los Angeles firm has quietly assembled a Trojan horse electric car designed to carry the Chinese military-industrial complex deep into America's auto market. Detroit should be afraid, very afraid. And anyone in the U.S. unemployment line — along with American taxpayers, who are subsidizing this sham — should be outraged. The car is branded Coda and debuted at the L.A. Auto Show. While Coda Automotive salespeople were eager to portray it as "All American" — we got one of them bragging about it on camera — its entire chassis and battery system and most of the metal (apparently 65% of the car)

The emerging electric-vehicle industry in California is ready to form a partnership with Detroit to design and manufacture electric cars for the zero-polluting market. Recently, the California Air Resources Board refuted the Detroit auto makers' contention that the electric-vehicle technology would not be ready for consumers by 1998, when the state will require that a portion of car sales be pollution-free vehicles.

General Motors Corp. is ready to go forward with full-scale commercial production of the Impact, its proposed electric passenger car, company engineers said Wednesday. Except for some minor items, that is. They need to improve the control system, lengthen the life of the battery, finish the marketing and production plans, announce a firm start date, set a price and probably change the car's name.

General Motors Corp., the company that once championed electric cars, plans to use California's energy crisis as ammunition in a renewed attack next week on the state's already watered-down zero-emissions vehicle rules.

In the summer of 1991, Lon E. Bell came about as close as a Caltech-trained scientist and conservative businessman can in the eyes of his peers to losing himself in a mire of muddled romanticism.

Norwegian automaker Think Global said Monday it planned to sell low-priced electric cars to the masses and will introduce its first models in the U.S. by the end of next year. The battery-powered Think City will be able to travel up to 110 miles on a single charge, with a top speed of about 65 mph, the company said. It will be priced below $25,000.