A big battery pack that's 50% down on charge can still be used in stationary applications, and then it will be recycled because it's full of valuable non-toxic lithium. And you are crazy if you think the "environmental problem" from making a few hundred pounds of batteries is remotely equivalent to the pollution from…

You're describing what engine propulsion might be like in a decade, but there's no demand to get there. On the one hand, petrolheads won't like a car with an overengineered contraption constantly puttering away to keep an electricity buffer full.

So an electric car with 120 mile range would work fine for you, assuming you live in a multi-car household as most Americans do.

Yes, dropping the Escape Hybrid is strange, 30 city mpg for an AWD SUV is impressive. Toyota hasn't announced anything below the RX450h and Highlander Hybrid.

The car is so low yet it has such a large greenhouse. Damn you modern cars with your gun-slit apertures!

Actually Tesla did briefly make an operating profit selling Roadsters back in July 2009, but wants to be a real car company making and selling a range of models as fast as possible, hence its hundreds of millions of dollars in expenditures (in the USA) dwarfing its income ever since.

The Model S's battery pack is a big thin slab below the floor and its motor is between the rear wheels. I think the the battery management and motor-regen controller electronics are low and near the rear axle. It's really well laid out and nothing like the Roadster and other EVs with big lumps intruding into the…

Wow, I've never seen a new E-series wagon or the previous W211, I assumed M-B had given up after the handsome W210 wagon. I guess its dealers are busy selling three crappy GLGLKM SUV models and the Geländewagen to unthinking buyers.

The government gives him money to build electric cars

The DB9R has had orange and yellow lipstick around its mouth in the recent past, it's all quite disturbing. The Porsche GT3 RS keeps its mouth shut and lets its bright orange or lipstick red wheels do the talking.

The Chevrolet Volt concept car was unveiled at the January 2007 NAIAS during the George W. Bush administration.

Do pay attention. The Volt keeps going when its battery is depleted, its EPA total range is 379 miles. TDI is a better long-distance car, but the Volt burns no gasoline at all if your normal commute is under ~35 miles.

I doubt it. The Tesla Roadster Sport has a 215 kW (288 hp) motor, the Model S Sport may be similar. Two 5 second runs is 215000 * 10 Joules of energy, which is 0.6 kW·h. Even if its powertrain has substantial efficiency losses at max power there's a lot more energy in the battery pack, which in the Model S will range…

Unless she's an auto journalist, she tested the 2011 Impreza.

What hit? Hyundai and Kia don't sell AWD cars. Subaru keeps hoping to grow out of its AWD car niches, but except for the Forester which is still the highest-rated compact SUV (and I think is doing OK against the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sorrento), it hasn't happened. This Impreza probably won't do it either, but other…

You're confused. There are virtually no BMW hybrids on US roads. BMW has only sold 338 Hybrid 7s and 283 of the massively irrelevant X6 hybrid variant (through August 2011).

Jalopnik and Ray Wert are doing their usual slanted reporting on this frightening "weird, new technology". September's sales were anemic but:

The Nissan Leaf is a useless toy for the majority of American Households

Specifically, at the factory showing of the beta Model S this weekend Musk "also announced Tesla would be introducing a faster Model S that goes from zero to 60 miles per hour in 4.5 seconds, shaving more than a second off current acceleration." That's faster than an Aston Martin Rapide or Panamera 4S.

Is Google + physics + math so hard for "MechEngineer"? Consider a monster car stereo pumping out a deafening 500 Watts, it's drawing say 1 kW. That's just 1.3 horsepower. Electric motors are hella efficient but moving a 3,781 lb Volt takes a lot more power.