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Nest CEO Tony Fadell is behind the Actev Motors Arrow Smart-Kart

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According to an alleged Nest engineer a couple months back, the company is on deathwatch. Of course the official word from Fadell himself is that all the bad PR doesn’t represent the company or its culture, but the evidence suggests still that financially and culturally there are lots of problems.

Now, we learn today (via Fortune) that Tony Fadell, Nest’s CEO, has had a little passion project going on in the background. Co-founded with its CEO Dave Bell, Actev Motors makes the Arrow Smart-Kart, a smart first of its kind electric go-kart with app controls and a $600 price tag…


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Lyft reportedly planning to pilot self-driving Chevy Bolt taxis ‘within a year’

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According to a report today from The Wall Street Journal, GM and Lyft are partnering to test a fleet of self-driving electric taxis sometime within the next year in an undisclosed city. The pilot will reportedly take advantage of GM’s Chevrolet Bolt, a speedy compact crossover all-electric that we took for a test drive earlier this year…


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BMW’s Mini confirms its first plug-in hybrid will be its next Countryman

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I’ve hoped to see an electric Mini make it to market ever since BMW produced a few hundreds all-electric “MINI E” cars to test its electric drivetrain technology for what eventually became its “i” electric brand, but the vehicle never made it to a wide release.

Now although not fully electric, we should “pretty soon” see the first electric vehicle from BMW’s popular Mini brand, according to a brand representative.
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Lit Motors says it’s making progress on its electric self-balancing motorcycle, but still no timeline to production

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In his latest letter to the Lit Motors community, CEO Daniel Kim, who recently suffered from a severe motorcycle accident and is now recovering from a hip replacement, says the company is making progress on its electric self-balancing motorcycle, but they are still not ready to offer a timeline to production.
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Ford is getting serious about electric cars, announces $4.5 billion in investment and 13 new models coming

2012_Ford_Focus_Electric_2011_LA_Auto_ShowWe reported earlier today about Ford preparing to unveil a plug-in vehicle at the Detroit Auto Show next month, but apparently that leak was only a teaser as Ford just announced that it is getting really serious about electric cars with $4.5 billion in investment and 13 new electric models coming to its lineup by 2020.
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Google’s self-driving car November report reveals 1 very minor accident, not much else

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Google publishes a report for its self-driving car project once a month, and today — appropriately — the company published the report for November. Today’s report is notably unexciting, but it does mean the end of a two-month streak of the cars being accident-free. That said, the accident that Google details in this report is barely an accident…

Once again, Google wasn’t at fault in yet another fender-bender:

A vehicle approaching from behind came to a stop and then rolled forward and collided with the rear bumper of the Google AV. The approximate speed of the other vehicle at the time of impact was 4 MPH. The speed of the Google AV at the time of impact was below 1 MPH.

Other than this minor accident, which bumps the total number of accidents the cars have been involved in to 17, there’s not much new here. The cars have now driven a total of 1,320,755 autonomous miles, and 955,771 manual miles. The total number of Lexus cars on the road is the same, but there are now 30 prototypes out and about.

You can read the full report for yourself at Google’s website.

Detroit Electric started production on the SP:01, a Lotus-based electric sport car

landscape-1446147952-detroit-electricYesterday Detroit Electric announced it finally started production on the SP:01, a Lotus Exige-based electric sport car. The company released on its Facebook page a picture (see above) of the first few cars rolling off the production line in Leamington Spa, U.K.

If an electric sport car based on a Lotus rings a bell for you, it’s probably because of the Tesla Roadster which was based on the Elise and at first also assembled by Lotus in England, although Tesla ended up repatriating most of the assembly process in U.S.
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Mercedes recalling all electric B-Class over a problem with Tesla’s drivetrain

B-Klasse Electric Drive und B-Klasse Natural Gas Drive (W242)B-NHTSA submitted a recall report earlier this week for Daimler to recall all Mercedes electric B-Class over a problem with Tesla’s drivetrain. The report, which we embed below, perfectly highlights the need for over-the-air updates across the whole automotive industry. According to the filing, the recall is due to a problem with the gateway software of the electric powertrain, which is supplied by Tesla Motors, and affects all 2,618 Mercedes electric B-Class produced between November 2013 and May 2015.
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Google moving towards wider production of its electric self-driving cars, making a ‘few hundred’

When Google originally showcased the newer low-speed “cute-mobile” self-driving car, it mentioned a goal of having about 100 of them on the road for testing within a couple years. Now, as the company is bringing its low-speed electric prototypes to Austin a year later, Sarah Hunter, head of policy for Google [X], has revealed that the company is expanding production of the cars (via The Guardian). Hunter says that Google is now producing at least a “few hundred” and hints at a potential future of mass-production…
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Mercedes will stop using Tesla’s drivetrain for the next gen electric B-Class

mercedesbenz-bclass-electric-drive-5According to a new report from a German publication, Auto Motor und Sport, Mercedes will not use Tesla’s drivetrain for the next generation of electric B-Class. Mercedes will bring more development in-house to try to achieve a range of 500 km (311 miles). It’s not clear when the next generation is due.

Tesla Motors has a long-standing partnership with the German automaker. In 2009, Daimler, the company behind the Mercedes brand, acquired a ~10% stake in Tesla. Tesla started supplying electric drivetrains to Daimler for the Smart EV and then later on developed a new electric motor and battery pack for Mercedes’ B-Class which started deliveries late last year. 
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Polaris unveiled the RANGER EV Li-Ion – first new EV resulting from their acquisition of Brammo

Ranger EVEarlier this year, Polaris bought the electric motorcycle maker Brammo. A few weeks ago, we wrote about Vicotry, which is a Polaris brand, unveiling the Empulse TT. As we explained, the TT is pretty much just a rebranding of Brammo’s own Empulse R, but rebranding aside, last week, Polaris unveiled the first all-new electric vehicle resulting from the acquisition of Brammo : the RANGER EV Li-Ion Polaris Pursuit Camo.
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Stary Board cuts the weight to become the “world’s lightest” electric vehicle

From 9to5Toys.com:

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Using your own muscles to propel a bike or skateboard is so played out in 2015. We’ve seen the lightest e-bike on the road and now a group of inventors is showing off “the world lightest” electric vehicle of any kind on Kickstarter.

The Stary Board is enjoying massive success after a few weeks, raising more than double its goal in that time. Weighing in less than most newborn babies at nine pounds, this new skateboard promises fast speeds at a low cost. 
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Samsung just bought a rumored Apple Car partner’s battery unit

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Samsung has acquired the battery pack business of leading automotive parts supplier Magna International. The move, according to a statement from the companies, will “enhance Samsung SDI’s capabilities in batteries for electric vehicles.”

While Samsung producing batteries and energy storage solutions for vehicles isn’t exactly new—it already supplies batteries for Tesla and others—there is an Apple Car connection in its latest acquisition…
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