Do auto execs run around town with their briefcases hanging open or is it just luck that leaked patent drawings randomly show up on the ’net at the perfect time? After Chrysler’s announcement of the Sebring’s eventual demise, Noticias Automotivas reports that this images is one of the leaked patent drawings of the future 200C.

The Chrysler 200C EV concept appeared at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show quite unexpectedly and seemed to be set to compete against Chevrolet’s Volt. The concept has a 40 mile range purely on battery power with some added mileage provided by the vehicle’s small gasoline engine. Total power for the concept was said to be about 270hp.

The patent drawings are very similar to the concept car shown to us at the Detroit Auto Show. The drawings feature the same rounded front fascia and distinct grille. The elongated headlamps and fog lamps are still there as is the puckered up back end. In fact, it literally looks exactly the same as the concept vehicle and if the similarity on the exterior extends throughout the entire vehicle, then we can expect the same power and interior as found in the concept as well. However, we might see Chrysler’s new Pentastar V6 get dropped in there.

We’ll let you know as soon as we received more information on the Chrysler 200C.

Are these patent drawings of the Chrysler 200C? originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 2 August 2010 12:00 EST.

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Are you more than ready to stop buying gasoline? If you live in California, you?ll have a chance at the Nissan Leaf later this year. The popularity of hybrids, deisel powered cars and other alternatives to gasoline has increased in recent years. Is it finally time for a cost effective all electric car?

The benefits are many. Imagine never having to pull into the gas station again. Most electric cars, including the new Chevy Volt, do use gasoline when the electric power is depleted. Not so with the Leaf. It’s a strictly electric powered car. You’ll never again buy gasoline. You could be blissfully unaware of the current sky high gas prices. There is a downside, though, and historically it’s been a big enough problem to keep electric cars from becoming commonplace. When the battery dies, you need a recharging station and enough time to recharge. This limits the range that electric cars can travel, which has inhibited their practicality. The Nissan Leaf has a range of about 100 miles before needing to be recharged. That’s more than enough for most drivers. Very few drivers travel more than 100 miles in a day on a regular basis. Most Leaf owners can drive as much as they need to during the day, and then plug it in overnight at home. But electricity is expensive too. How does it compare to paying for gas? Charging the Leaf would cost about $2.80 at average electricity rates. Yep ? less than the price of one gallon of gasoline.

The Nissan Leaf produces zero emissions. None. That?s wonderful news to anyone who thinks it?s unreasonable to contaminate the air we breathe to the point where we have a smog alert system. When the air is unhealthy to breathe, the Air Quality Management District issues a smog alert, advising people not to exercise outdoors. Recesses and sports practices are cancelled and kids spend time inside instead. All because we can’t seem to break our reliance on gasoline powered engines. Imagine driving as much as you want without contributing one gram of pollutants to the problem. Imagine now that zero emissions cars are the norm and gasoline is only something from the history books. As an added green bonus, the Leaf will be almost fully recyclable at the end of its life, so it won?t end up in a landfill.

One major challenge comes in on long drives. During a long drive like a family vacation or a trip to a different state, a driver would have to stop along the way to charge the battery, which used to take hours if you could find a charging station. The Leaf’s navigation system can show you the locations of charging stations on your route. The Leaf’s battery can be charged up to 80% capacity in about half an hour at a quick charge station. That?s practical for long trips. Drivers could stop for lunch and charge the car at the same time. It even makes sense for restaurants that cater to long-distance travelers to install quick charge stations ? if there are enough Nissan Leafs on the road.

Long drives have posed a challenge that until now has been insurmountable by many drivers. During a long drive like a family vacation or a trip to a different state, a driver would have to stop along the way to charge the battery, which used to take hours if you could find a charging station. Nissan has added a navigation system that will show you charging stations along the way. The Leaf’s battery can be charged up to 80% capacity in about half an hour at a quick charge station. That’s sufficient to make long trips practical. The car could be fully charged and ready to go by the time you finish a meal. It even makes sense for restaurants that cater to long-distance travelers to install quick charge stations ? if there are enough Nissan Leafs on the road.

There are still challenges to alternative fuel vehicles, but I think Nissan has solved enough of them to make the Leaf a practical car for most drivers.

Written by Hannah Valez San Bernardino Nissan Dealer Nissan Dealers Orange County

Back in May, Toyota and Tesla announced that they would be working together on the development of electric vehicles. Their partnership in the advancement of this technology would come together by the sharing of Toyota’s engineering, manufacturing, and production expertise. As a result of the recent agreement between Tesla and Toyota, the company has announced plans to reveal an electric version of the RAV4 crossover. The new prototypes will be revealed on the US market in 2012 and will combine the Toyota RAV4 model with a Tesla electric powertrain. Tesla plans to produce and deliver a fleet of prototypes to Toyota for evaluation within this year. The first prototype has already been built and is now undergoing testing.

We have to remind you that earlier today we also reported that Toyota is preparing an all-electric supercar so it seems that this agreement between the two companies has already seen a lot of legway and should prove to be rather interesting. We’ll keep you posted to see how they do.

Press release after the jump.

Toyota prepares Electric RAV4 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Saturday, 17 July 2010 06:00 EST.

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Our environment has been quite damaged by our usage of oil. The negative effects of our oil dependency can be seen in the current global warming situation, which is rather alarming and cause for serious concern. Despite the International Oil Embargo in 1973, the United States is still continuing to increase its import of oil volume wise. We Americans have become quite accustomed to driving our big SUV’s and cars. Luckily there is a solution in sight for this dilemma and that lies in mass producing the electric auto.

May years ago electric cars were actually more popular when compared with combustion engines vehicles. What gave gave way to this preference was the cheaper price of combustion engine vehicles and the cheaper price of oil; both of which were backed by the major automotive companies in the United States.

Practically all of the vehicles built in the twentieth century all had combustion engines. Scientists have recently confirmed that humans are largely responsible for the planet’s global warming and a large part is due to our cars averaging nineteen pounds of carbon dioxide emissions for every mile driven. However surprising it may be, around the nineteen eighty’s the large car manufacturer GM had begun gaining attention for its focus on alternative energies in light of this looming threat. During this time, there was further pressure for auto companies to design and manufacture “clean” products. For example, the state of California had passed its “Zero Emissions Mandate,” which required there to be a certain percentage of cars manufactured that emitted significantly less carbon dioxide and pollutants. And in the 1990’s GM assigned Saturn to market the EV1, the first electric car ever designed for mass production.

Saturn’s sale campaign for the EV1 specialized on a threefold consumer question: how far? how fast? how much? From the very start the car attracted what seemed to be major interest. In fact, there was a long waiting list of people who were interested in purchasing this car. Interestingly, GM did not put these cars up for purchase and were only willing to lease them. Nevertheless, the drivers were euphoric about the EV1 as it produced zero CO2 emissions and was fast and fun to drive. Clearly, these drivers actually preferred electric over combustion, despite the car only averaging 60 miles per charge. Thus, the clean, quick and sleek electric car was more desirable than its “nuclear time bomb” counterpart. So, what happened to this unheard of, oil-less wonder?

General Motors insisted that there was no strong consumer interest despite having put millions into campaign ads, and that the waiting list was not a viable source for proving actual demand. Eventually, the hype was killed with GM removing all leased EV1s from the streets and turning them into demolished cubes. In defense of these roguish actions, among many other discussions, the auto industry argued that electric cars, because they were charged with electricity produced by coal, were even more detrimental for the environment. On top of this, the oil industry supported arguments against this emerging technology, and President Bush pushed for the inefficient and impractical fuel cell and hydrogen technologies to be the wave of the future and replace combustion engines.

The alarming reality is that this energy efficient electric car was repressed by the car industry on purpose. The government and oil industry also played a large role in this. What is worse is that we as consumers did our part to support such actions by passively watching the advent of the electric car slip through our fingers. Luckily it is not too late to get this technology back and mass produce it. The EV1 was incredible and any car enthusiast would enjoy taking it out on a spin. This technology needs to be improved and mass produced for the consumer.

Written by Jacqueline Cao: Ford dealer Irving, Ford dealer Grapevine

After Citroen announced that the GTbyCitroen will not make it to production, the French company is now focusing on a production version for the Survolt and the Metropolis concepts. In an interview with AutoCar PSA design boss Jean-Pierre Ploué said: “We cannot afford to let the likes of Audi, Mercedes and BMW forge into Citroën’s heartland supermini territory without fighting back and pushing into theirs. Selling large luxury cars in Europe is not easy at the moment, but I believe Citroën has a great deal more to bring to the market.”

The Survolt is an electric sports car that sprints from 0 to 60 mph in less than 5 seconds and can hit a top speed of 162 mph.

The Citroen Metropolis is a big luxury sedan with a wheelbase bigger than both the Audi A8 or Mercedes S-Class. It is powered by a hybrid drivetrain that combines a 2.0-liter V6 engine with an output of 272bhp and 277lb ft and an electric motor that develops from 55bhp to 95bhp.

Saying that we are excited to see these two cars make it into production is kind of an understatement. Electric cars are the future and the fact that these two vehicles are super sleek and sexy is an absolute bonus.

Citroen Survolt and Metropolis might go into production originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 15 July 2010 23:00 EST.

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Okay, there are some concepts that people see and immediately want the company to put into production. Italian designer Paolo De Giusti’s Egochine B concept is definitely not one of them. Not that the concept isn’t cool and unique, but give us a break; the car looks like a Mach 3 razor on steroids.

Giusti was going for “Retro-futurism” with this concept meaning he wanted to bring back the old fashioned style with futuristic characteristics. He put in a big engine, elegant sweeping sides, and a fat, curving nose to make it reminiscent of the vehicles of yore. Yeah, okay, whatever. The car is powered by hydrogen cells that push the power to the electric motors which translates into a powerful machine. Of course, it can only carry one person.

Apparently this concept is one of the finalists in a Peugeot design contest. We hope that the other finalists err towards the side of practicality a little more than this guy. Don’t get us wrong; we think it’s a really cool design. We just don’t think it is very attractive or functional, but the contest is about design so we really shouldn’t be so hard on the guy.

Paolo De Giusti’s Egochine Concept leaves competition with razor thin margins originally appeared on topspeed.com on Sunday, 11 July 2010 18:00 EST.

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It’s hard to imagine how an electric car would sell well in the United States. After all, we love our big vehicles. Yet, Nissan’s new Juke defined logic and is selling very well indeed. It’s affordable, looks pretty good, and offers gas free motoring for city dwellers, all for under $20,000.

Nissan has already sold thousands of the Juke in Japan and it’s well on its way to selling even more in the U.S. Nissan had a goal of 1,300 orders in the first month. Well, try 11,000 orders for the little electric machine. Nissan had 5,296 orders in the first week alone.

The most popular color for the Juke buyers is Radiant Red and the most chosen interior color is red. Sapphire Black came in second with White Pearl in third. We would have chosen Pacific Blue, but only 2 percent did.

The Juke also appears to be a male car. Almost 20 percent of Jukes sold were to men, age 50 or over. Who said the older generation didn’t like change?

Press Release after the jump.

Nissan Juke Off To Fast Start In U.S originally appeared on topspeed.com on Saturday, 10 July 2010 18:00 EST.

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He may be getting up in age and his reflexes may not be as sharp as they used to be, but David Coulthard is still twice as good a driver – maybe even more – than the rest of us will ever be in our lifetime.

That’s precisely the reason why automakers like Mercedes-Benz have no problem showing off their new digs – in this case, the Mercedes SLS E-Cell – to racers like Coulthard and letting them test them out. And that’s exactly what Coulthard did, much to our dismay and impalpable envy.

In this video, the ’Square-Jawed One’ gets behind the wheel of Merc’s new electric supercar to give it a shakedown on an empty runway before heading off to the streets of Norway for another rundown. While the car may not hold the same power and ’oomph’ as its standard counterpart, the SLS AMG, Coulthard was nevertheless pleasantly surprised at capabilities of the SLS E-Cell, even describing the car’s off-the-block acceleration as “instant, but smooth”.

And as far as the E-Cell falling short of the power of its supercar brethren is concerned, Coulthard wasn’t all that disappointed, saying that the four individual motors that evenly distribute the torque make up for whatever straight-line speed it lacks.

Video: David Coulthard drives the Mercedes SLS E-Cell originally appeared on topspeed.com on Sunday, 4 July 2010 18:00 EST.

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Whole Foods unveiled new electric vehicle charging stations at its Downtown stores Monday.