ELECTRIC CARS

The Chinese government is said to be looking to prepare at least 10 million car parking spots for electric vehicles by 2020 in a new comprehensive policy due to be announced soon, a top executive at a local automaker said on Thursday.

A number of states are altering electricity prices to make people use less, but that may have the effect of discouraging people from buying plug-in vehicles, according to a study from Purdue University.

Ford Motors unveiled its first all-electric car, Focus, which is expected to get up to 160km on a single charge.

Ford Motor Co released a new app for smartphones, that enables electric car users to monitor their car even from a distance, assuaging many fears drivers have about an electric car.

French automaker Renault, which just suspended three senior managers for possibly leaking secrets about its electric car project, has said that industrial espionage poses a grave threat to the company’s “strategic assets.”

Japanese researchers at the Kyoto University have broken the rare earth import jinx as they have created a new alloy which resembles rare metal palladium, bringing a sigh of relief to countries depending on Chinese exports of rare earth metals.

The US Congress has banned ''silent'' vehicles to improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.

Even as people decide to hit the road during the holiday, oil prices have touched a high not seen since October 2008, according to AAA.

Nissan Motors on Friday has delivered the first 10 units of its 100% electric and zero-emission Nissan LEAF in Portugal.

By 2015, you could see the 3-D image of a person calling you and you can plan in advance your shortest and less traffic-congested route to the office.

The demand for gasoline might never get back to levels seen during 2006, as alternate forms of fuel gain more popularity, a report by AP said.

Honda Japan today said that it will start lease sales of the EV-neo electric scooter on December 24, 2010. Designed as urban delivery vehicles, the scooters are seen by Japan's Ministry of Environment as technology development projects for global warming countermeasures.

In 2011, journal Science's editors will be watching a smaller detector at the Large Hadron Collider called LHCb; new techniques that should lead to the discovery of many more genes; an ignited fusion burn; the first plug-in hybrid electric cars whose batteries are charged from a wall socket go on the market; and and results from a late-stage trial of a malaria vaccine in Africa.

The British government on Wednesday said all the nine electric cars, which will be bought in the country, are eligible for a subsidy of up to £5,000 (or $7,935).

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov on Monday unveiled a new hybrid car called 'Yo'. The hybrid operates on a combination of electricity and petrol.

The electric vehicle battery powered cars will start being competitive with gas-powered ones in about five years, the U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu, said at the annual U.N. climate talks.

IBTimes speaks to Siemens CEO Peter Löscher about the future of renewable energy, the megatrends affecting it, and how his company is positioning itself in this industry.

Toyota Tsusho Corp, the trading company part-owned by Toyota Motor Corp will build a rare earth processing plant in India to secure supply sources outside China.

The South Korean government has unveiled a plan to nurture the eco-friendly vehicle industry and plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Ford Motor Company and Azure Dynamics have begun shipping the first Ford Transit Connect Electrics to early customers in North America and to the United Kingdom for a demonstration project.

The Hertz Corporation, the world's largest general use airport car rental brand, has entered into a joint partnership with Smart USA for electric car sharing and Hertz Rent A Car locations in New York, Washington, DC, and San Francisco.