Beautiful Earth Group has opened an electric car charging station in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

The YikeBike is a new personal electric vehicle created for urban travel. It’s able to reach a top speed of 20km/h, weighs 9.8 kilograms, and can fold up for easy transportation when not in use.

Wired magazine points out that Tokyo is planning to test out a new electric vehicle program with its fleet of taxis. By January, a small test group of taxis will be part of a battery swap system created by Better Place.
Rather than tether cars to an outlet, vehicles recharge by swapping out batteries at special charging stations. The benefit of using taxis allows for a centralized base of operations built by Better Place.
To see how the battery swap functions, watch the minute long video below:

Interesting thought piece over at The Big Money examining the subtle shift that will take place in our habits as we make the transition from gas-fueled vehicles to electric cars. New infrastructure, in the form of “fast-charging” stations, will be needed to meet the growing consumer demand. While the average “fast-charge” may eventually take as little as 15 minutes, that’s still 10 more minutes than the average conventional trip to the gas station. Which is to say, that gap translates into a lot more idle time on our hands. How will our culture of immediacy learn to cope with this [...]

Siemens has paired up with Orange County Choppers, the custom bike building outfit of TV fame, to build a one-off electric chopper.  The “Smart Chopper” showcases Siemens technology, boasting a 60-mile range and a 100 mph top speed compliments of a 27-hp electric motor.  Charging time is anywhere between 1 and 5 hours depending on the voltage available.  In addition to leveraging Siemens electric technology, the bike also features LED lights compliments of Sylvania, a Siemens subsidiary.  The bike has OCC’s characteristic flair, the least of which is a rear tire that wouldn’t look out of place on [...]