This interview offers an update on BMW’s commitment to electric cars, as the company explains they expect demand to grow in the future, and they’re seeing demand in markets like Germany. The Chinese market is also rebounding after slumping last year.

With low gas prices there’s a challenge now with green cars, but for the long term it’s nice to see the commitment.
Many of the automakers are making big bets on electric cars, so that’s good news for all of us.

The latest news on Tesla has Elon Musk bragging that the new Tesla Model S will be the fastest production car in the world, beating its gas-powered rivals. Tesla is adding versions of its Model S sedan and Model X sport utility vehicle with a more powerful battery pack that gives the vehicles range of 315 miles on a single charge along with adding speed. With all the recent controversies, Tesla could use something to brag about!

WE might be on the verge of a breakthrough in battery technology according to this latest article in Fortune:

Imagine an electric car that could travel more than 300 miles on a single charge. A pipe dream? Yes, for now. But a Michigan startup called Sakti3 just might make it a reality. In August the company announced that it was close to achieving the holy grail of power storage: a battery with about double the energy density of today’s lithium-ion technology at one-fifth the cost. Such a battery could give us the first $25,000 mass-market electric car, with a driving range that would please most customers.

You can watch the TED talk above as well by company CEO Dr. Ann Marie Sastry.

Range anxiety is a huge issue for electric cars, so new battery technology that extends the range for electric vehicles can be a game changer in the electric car consumer market. The innovation here is a solid-state lithium-ion battery. They expect the technology to be commercialized within a year or two. Let’s see if they achieve that goal.

Hybrid cars have been growing in popularity for years, but now we’re starting to see the demand for electric vehicles increase as well. The Nissan LEAF is a good example. October sales set a record at 2,002 vehicles, an increase of 26.8 percent over last year’s numbers. LEAF deliveries are up 166.2 percent in 2013 and have set 8 consecutive monthly sales records.

If you’ve been considering an EV, not might be a good time to start looking as prices have been coming down. That has helped to fuel LEAF sales. Of course when considering an EV it’s all about lifestyle. What ranges will you be driving and can the EV handle that. As we get more electric charging stations the issue of range anxiety will start to go away, but for many people that is still an issue.

With tax credits and lower prices from manufacturers, particularly lease deals, we’re starting to see an increase in sales for electric cars. Automakers have a huge incentive to sell these vehicles in order to comply with regulatory mandates.