Electric-sports car maker Tesla Motors plans to go public soon, Reuters reported today, citing two sources familiar with the matter said. An IPO filing from the six-year-old start-up, best known for its $109,000 all-electric, zero-emissions Roadster, is expected any day, the news agency quoted one of the sources as saying. The person did not give a specific time frame, although IPOs typically take several months. Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad, in an interview with Green Car Advisor , declined to comment on what she called “rumor or speculation.” Tesla would mark the first public offering from a U.S. automaker since the Ford Motor Co. debuted its shares in 1956. The IPO represents a landmark in the resurgence of electric-car technology that most carmakers had dismissed as impractical until recently. The company's chairman Elon Musk said early last year that an IPO was a possibility in either late 2008 or 2009. But the financial market turmoil following the collapse of Lehman Bros. in the latter half of 2008 virtually shut down the IPO market. The appetite for IPOs has picked up since mid-September this year with a robust pace of new filings. Tesla's IPO would follow the successful debut of lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems, whose shares rallied 50 percent on their first day of trading on Sept. 25. Analysts have said that the success of A123, the first green-technology…

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Reuters Reports Tesla Preparing IPO; Electric-Car Maker Declines to Comment

Electric-sports car maker Tesla Motors plans to go public soon, Reuters reported today, citing two sources familiar with the matter said. An IPO filing from the six-year-old start-up, best known for its $109,000 all-electric, zero-emissions Roadster, is expected any day, the news agency quoted one of the sources as saying. The person did not give a specific time frame, although IPOs typically take several months. Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad, in an interview with Green Car Advisor , declined to comment on what she called “rumor or speculation.” Tesla would mark the first public offering from a U.S. automaker since the Ford Motor Co. debuted its shares in 1956. The IPO represents a landmark in the resurgence of electric-car technology that most carmakers had dismissed as impractical until recently. The company's chairman Elon Musk said early last year that an …

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Reuters Reports Tesla Preparing an IPO; Electric-Car Maker Declines to Comment

Idea Also Is Kicking Around in U.S, at State and Federal Levels It's been tested in Oregon, pondered in California, Florida, Maine and several other states, applauded in D.C. by the House Transportation Committee, and now pay-per-mile vehicle taxing is becoming a national reality – in the Netherlands. Yup, the Dutch government has approved a plan to drop vehicle sales and registration taxes and replace them with a tax on every mile – or kilometer, in this case – a car or truck is driven. The tax also would be variable, based on a vehicle's fuel efficiency and even the time of day the driving takes place. The…

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Dutch Are First to Adopt Pay-Per-Mile Driving Taxes to Cut CO2, Reduce Oil Use

BMW announced today that its U.S.-bound 2010 ActiveHybrid X6 crossover utility vehicle will carry a base price of $89,725 and reach American showrooms early next month on the heels of its North American debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show . The maker-described “one-of-a-kind Sports Active Coupe” (yes, BMW calls its

Mazda Motor Corp. will showcase the subcompact Mazda2, scheduled to be sold in the U.S. and Canada beginning late next year, at next month's 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show. The model has been a brisk seller for Mazda since it first went on sale in 2003 in Europe. The second-generation Mazda2 commenced sales in Japan in July 2007. The five-door hatchback coming to North America will share a platform with the Ford Fiesta, which is scheduled to launch on this side of the Atlantic next summer. In addition to the Fiesta, the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris and Chevrolet Aveo will offer the Mazda2 some stiff competition. In Europe, the Mazda2 is offered with several gasoline and diesel engines. The U.S. edition will feature only a gasoline-powered, 1.5-liter four-cylinder. Mazda has provided few specs for the North American Mazda2, but the gasoline-powered, 1.5-liter four-banger sold in Europe delivers 103 horsepower and 101 pounds-feet of torque. That engine also propels the Mazda2 from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 10.4 seconds while delivering 41 miles per gallon in Europe's combined driving cycle test; in the more real-world American combined driving cycle test, fuel economy should be in the 35-38 mpg range.

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Fuel-Efficient North American Mazda2 to Debut at 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show

Perhaps fretting that the public had forgotten about their hydrogen ambitions, Japan's Big 3 automakers last week took to the streets with their most advanced hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. Over two days, driving teams steered a Toyota Highlander FCHV-adv, a Nissan X-Trail FCV, and a Honda FCX Clarity 707 miles from Tokyo to Fukuoka, with an overnight stop in Osaka. Combined, the vehicles consumed 28.8 kilograms of hydrogen during their demonstration run. That equates to roughly 70 miles per gallon for those of you wondering how efficient these vehicles stack up when compared to gasoline-powered vehicles. But given that none of the advanced-fuel vehicles seen here are available for purchase, mileage/fuel comparisons right now are strictly academic. That said, although all three automakers are working on electric vehicles, Honda and Toyota continue to say that hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles offer the best long-term solution to today's climate-changing oil-burning street machines.

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Japan’s Automakers Demonstrate Fuel Cell Vehicles With 707-Mile Road Trip

Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corp. has unveiled its first self-developed electric vehicle, joining domestic rivals to tap potential demand for clean-energy cars. The zero-emissions model, known as the BE701, is capable of going 120 miles between charges and has a top speed of 100 miles an hour, BAIC said in a statement over the weekend. The company did not provide a timetable for mass production of the plug-in BE701. BAIC reps disclosed details of a new clean-energy-vehicle development and manufacturing facility it had just set up, involving total investment of $334 million. The funding would come from the government and other sources, the statement said without elaborating. The facility, just outside Beijing, will be able to make 50,000 electric vehicles and 100,000 hybrid models, it said but did not specify the timetable. BAIC, a partner of Daimler AG, meanwhile, has set up a company focused on clean-energy vehicles only. It has said it expects to make 20,000-40,000 vehicles a year starting in 2011. Other domestic automakers, such as Chery Automobile and BYD Co., are also investing in “green” cars. Chery unveiled in February its self-made electric car, the S19, which it said was capable of going 75 miles between charges and has a top speed of 75 mph. BYD Auto, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-listed rechargeable battery maker, launched its plug-in hybrid car, the F3DM, in China late last year. Additionally, BYD has announced plans to ship the e6, an all-electric crossover, to the United States next year. That vehicle go reportedly go 250 miles per

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BAIC Unveils Electric Sedan, Announces Investment of $334 Million in EV Factory

A recent study evaluating the effectiveness of this summer's cash-for-clunkers program concluded that cost U.S. taxpayers $3 billion and did more to help Japan's three largest automakers than it did the Detroit 3 of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. The Japanese companies accounted for only 8 percent of trade-ins but 41 percent of new-car purchases, according to the new study by the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute. By contrast, 85 percent of the trade-ins were manufactured by the Detroit 3 while only 39 percent of the new purchases were GM, Ford or Chrysler vehicles. Sixty-eight percent of consumers who traded in a Toyota, Honda or Nissan bought another from one of the same from one of the three Japanese automakers. Specifically, those owners who traded in Hondas bought another Honda 30 percent of the time. Nissan owners bought new Nissans under the clunker program did so 19 percent of the time and motorists unloading Toyotas turned around and bought another Toyota 44 percent of the time. By contrast, 43 percent of consumers who traded in a Detroit 3 vehicle bought another Detroit 3 vehicle. Chrysler owners bought new Chryslers in 11 percent of the cases, Ford in 24 percent and GM in 32 percent. As for those who switched, Japan's Big 3 got 38 percent

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Study Finds Clunkers Program Helped Japanese Carmakers Far More Than Detroit 3

Toshiba expects to sign up about five car companies as customers for its new lithium-ion battery for electric vehicles, the head of the business told the London-based Financial Times said in an interview published Sunday . Shoshi Kawatsu, general manager of the Super Charge Battery (or SCiB) division, also said that Toshiba was preparing for the possible manufacturing of batteries in the U.S. and Europe and would make a decision on whether to go ahead in 2011, depending on market growth and the needs of its customers. Toshiba joined the race to mass produce lithium-ion batteries for zero-emissions electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids last year, announcing then that the Japanese electronics giant

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Toshiba Says It Expects to Sell EV-Intended Lithium Batteries to Multiple Carmakers

Pricing has not been set yet on Nissan's Leaf electric car ( pictured ), which will see limited distribution next year, but the automaker's top marketing executive of North America told us today that the monthly cost to the consumer should be equivalent to the monthly cost of a fully loaded Honda Civic plus its fuel. That means the purchase price (about $17,500) or monthly payment for a high-end Civic plus the cost of the gasoline it would need to cover 1,200 miles (at 30 MPG and $3/gallon, about $120), said Brian Carolin, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Nissan North America. Although Nissan's global plan is to sell the zero-emissions car without battery and to lease the battery pack to the car buyer at a cost roughly equal to the $120 calculated above, both Carolin and Mark Perry, Nissan's director of product planning and advanced technology strategy for North America, told GreenCarAdvisor that Nissan has not yet decided how to price the package in the U.S. “We may sell the car and battery together, we may lease it as a package, or we may

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Monthly Cost of Leaf Electric Car Will Equal That of Fully Loaded Civic, Nissan Says