ELECTRIC CARS

We are living at the end of an era, during the swan song of greatness, the twilight years of a golden age, the last days of the great supercars, ultra-high horsepower paeans to driving: the Bugatti Veyron, Pagani Huayra, McLaren MP4-12C, Lamborghini Aventador, Ferrari F12 Berlinetta. They may all soon be replaced by electric cars and hybrids.

Details of the fate of bankrupt Swedish carmaker Saab Automobile AB continue to emerge following the June 7 news that the company had been purchased by a Sino-Japanese joint venture National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB, or NEVS. NEVS plans to use Saab to produce electric cars, the consortium announced Friday.

Sales of the Chevrolet Volt Hybrid-Electric Vehicle (HEV) have experienced a resurgence in California following tweaks that now allow the car from General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) to qualify for High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane access.

Sino-Japanese joint venture National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS) has paid a paltry 1.5 billion to 1.8 billion kronor ($210 to $250 million) for defunct Swedish carmaker Saab Automobile AB.

The Chinese government says it will allocate the equivalent of $27 billion to renewable energy and energy efficiency programs in 2012, but the battle against the deterioration of China's environment will be a long and tough one.

Shares of Chinese electric carmaker BYD Company Ltd. (Hong Kong: 1211), which is partially owned by Warren Buffett, recovered some of the losses suffered after one of its e6 electric cars caught fire in a crash which killed three people in southern China.

Private-sector initiatives in space made history Friday when SpaceX?s Dragon space capsule was grappled by and attached to the International Space Station.

NASCAR will have its first-ever all-electric pace car at the Sprint Cup Capital City 400 race at the Richmond (Va.) International Raceway on Saturday. All decked out in NASCAR livery will be the 2012 Ford Focus Electric vehicle that the Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) unveiled on video this week.

Ford Motor Co. trotted-out some brand, spanking new 2012 Ford Focus Electric cars in New York on Tuesday for a first round of test driving, and the new electric car certainly seems to meet Ford's twin goals of high fuel-economy with a positive driving experience.

International Business Machines Corp. said it would partner with the U.S. unit of Honda Motor Co. and PG&E Corp. to use the cloud for optimium charging of electric cars.

Electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors Inc. is charging into Norway after some cold weather testing with the Tesla Roadster and Tesla Model S and will open a new showroom is Oslo, the company announced Wednesday, all as part of plan to expand its Norwegian customer base.

A $1.9 million car, an eco-friendly Batomobile and a flying car all sat under one roof at the 2012 New York International Auto Show. The NY Auto Show kicked off on Wednesday at with brands like Maserati, Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, Infiniti, Land Rover and more showing off their up-and-coming vehicles for 2013 as well as concept cars that some might not even dream could exist. Here are some of the hottest cars of the event.

Luxury electric vehicle company Fisker Automotive unveiled its newest model, the Atlantic, Tuesday night at the New York Auto Show, but the car may not hit the streets without a second cash-injection, the company's chief executive Tom LaSorda said.

Nissan Motor Co.'s CEO Carlos Ghosn didn't kill the electric car. He's the man determined to make the electric car a new cultural and transportation revolution.

The European Union, United States and Japan formally asked the World Trade Organization on Tuesday to settle a dispute with China over Beijing's restriction on exports of raw materials, including rare earth elements critical to major industries.

Cadillac and General Motors Co. celebrated the centennial anniversary of the electric car starter, which debuted in the 1912 Cadillac Touring and allowed drivers to start their cars with the turn of a key or push of a button.

Electric cars, heralded as environmentally friendly, may cause more harm to the environment than their gasoline counterparts.

Stanford University researchers might have come up with the idea of making a electric car highway, in which magnetic fields could transmit electrical currents on highways, charging cars while they drive.

Electric car startup Fisker Automotive Inc said on Monday it has suspended work at its U.S. manufacturing plant and laid off 26 workers there while it renegotiates the terms of its $529 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Chevrolet Volt stands as the most heavily promoted - and harshly scrutinized - vehicle from General Motors Co in decades. And that's just version 1.0.

California approved aggressive new rules on Friday to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by requiring automakers to put many more electric and hybrid vehicles on the Golden State's roads by 2025.