The upcoming crop of electric cars is impacting Wall Street analysts and not just because of potential car sales. Motley Fool, an investment website, advises people to invest in coal because zero-emission vehicles such as the upcoming Nissan Leaf will plug into the national electric grid, which is powered largely by coal. While the money men think coal is a good investment, that doesn’t mean renewable resources aren’t making gains.

It will be a long time before wind and solar resources power our electric vehicle fleet — some might say never — and each EV purchased adds the equivalent of a new house to the electric grid, which necessitates more electricity production. This means burning more coal and spewing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is inevitable, right?

Not necessarily.

[Source & read more: cars.com]

The U.S. government is going too far in backing electric vehicles at the cost of other advanced vehicle technologies, the CEO of a top supplier said today.

BorgWarner chairman and CEO Tim Manganello told the Center for Automotive Research’s Management Briefing Seminars that policymakers were focused on electric vehicles “ignoring” other technologies.

“The U.S. government is going a bit too far in trying to dictate the powertrain technologies of the future,” Manganello told auto industry insiders. “It’s difficult to compete globally when governments try to pick the winning technologies and the direction changes from administration to administration.”

[Source & read more: The Detroit News]

General Motors has invested in electric vehicle company Bright Automotive, marking the first investment by the auto giant’s venture-capital arm.

The companies said Tuesday that the investment by recently created GM Ventures for an undisclosed amount will give GM a minority stake in Anderson, Ind.-based Bright and accelerate Bright’s plans to manufacture a plug-in hybrid van that can get up to 100 miles per gallon.

Bright designed the hybrid gas-electric utility van, called the Idea, specifically for fleet vehicle operators. The company was spun out of the Rocky Mountain Institute think tank and co-founded by John Waters, Bright’s vice chairman and who worked for GM in the 1990s to help produce its EV1 electric car.

[Source & read more: CNET News]

While the sight of this lilliputian on four wheels buzzing around may lighten almost everyone’s mood, the all-electric Reva car is, unfortunately, failing to change both mind-sets and the industry. Since it’s launch in India in 2001, the car has produced close to just 4,000 Reva cars from its Bangalore plant, which has an annual production capacity of 6,000. Of the cars produced, nearly 85 per cent have been exported. While Tata Motors and General Motors have earlier announced electric variants for their Nano and Spark models respectively, and reports of almost every major auto manufacturer producing an electric vehicle (EV) prototype, it will take years for demand to pick up.

[Source & read more: Indian Express]