Palo Alsto, California-based electric car maker Tesla has unveiled a new battery-powered vehicle: the Model X. It’s a crossover (a combination of one part sport utility vehicle, one part minivan) that features “falcon wing” rear doors and seating for seven.Tesla is becoming well known for its electric vehicles, which — unlike the Chevrolet Volt or Nissan Leaf — stress style as much as saving the environment. The company is best known for its wickedly fast Roadster coupe, which resembles the Lotus Elise and can reach 60 miles per hour in just 3.7 seconds.

Given that pedigree, the Model X represents a step in a very new direction. Here, the emphasis is on seating seven and lots of storage with a lot of style brought along, too. At a recent Los Angeles unveiling, Tesla CEO Elon Musk drew attention to the falcon wing doors, which rise up on either side so that they form a ‘T’ above the vehicle.

Under the hood, the Model X features a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive system. That means there’s a motor in the front and back of the vehicle, giving the Model X better road traction and about 50 per cent more torque. According to Tesla, the Model X will reach 60 miles per hour in less than five seconds. That’s a whole lot quicker than your average crossover.

However, with a starting price of $55,000, it’s also a lot more expensive than your average mish-mash of SUV and minivan. In fact, with additional features the Model X will top out around $75,000.

Despite the high cost, Tesla’s CEO believes the Model X will prove popular with folks looking for an electric vehicle boasting good looks, solid performance and lots of storage.

“The world desperately needs sustainable transport,” Musk said. “We want to show that electric cars are, in fact, better than gasoline.”

The Model X is expected to enter production later next year.

A new report suggests that automakers are struggling to move electric vehicles even as American consumers continue to face down shockingly high gas prices. The situation appears to make clear than some kind of advancement in electric car technology must be made in order to lure the average automobile consumer away from the internal combustion engine.January sales reports reveal that plug-in vehicle sales were not particularly impressive in the United States. Nissan was forced to admit that it sold only 676 units of its Leaf electric car, far below the 954 it sold the previous month (December 2011). However, that is up, albeit slightly, from November, when the firm sold 672 Leafs.

American automaker General Motors also had trouble selling electric vehicles last month. Sales of the Chevrolet Volt were below those of the Nissan Leaf, with just 603 units sold in January. That represents a considerable drop from the 1,529 Volts sold by Chevrolet in December 2011 and the 1,139 units sold in November. In fact, this represents the lowest sales total for the Volt since August, when Chevy sold just 302 units.

So, why are sales of these two vehicles so low? Well, a new study from J.D. Power & Associates finds that many consumers find the Volt too expensive and the Leaf not particularly attractive. Consumers were also unimpressed with the styling of Toyota’s Prius.

Still, there’s hope yet. The study also found that the #1 priority for most consumers in the market for a new vehicle is fuel efficiency. If automakers like GM, Nissan and Toyota can only offer them some decent-looking cars for a reasonable price, we could see a major upturn in sales of electric vehicles.

According to a new report, researchers at Stanford University in California are working on a new technology that could allow electric vehicles to charge while they are in use. If successful, the project could drastically improve the outlook for electric-powered cars, which have for years faced consumer scrutiny over battery life.Researchers say that the new tech uses magnetic fields built into a futuristic highway to keep an electric car charged even as it drives along. It’s a promising new idea that has everyone involved excited.

“The new technology has the potential to dramatically increase the driving range of electric vehicles and eventually transform highway travel,” Stanford researchers said, adding: “The long-term goal of the research is to develop an all-electric highway that wirelessly charges cars and trucks as they cruise down the road.”

Here’s how it works: copper coils set a few feet apart (and presumably a few feet under the roadway) are set to resonate at a similar frequency. One coil is linked to an electric current, which generates a magnetic field and causes the second coil to resonate. This process results in the production of electric energy and enough, it’s said, to help re-charge an electric car.

The Stanford researchers say they’re in the process of filing for a patent for their wireless system. If the patent is approved, they’ll move on to the experimental stage, which will involve trying the concept out in actual driving situations.

Of course, a major concern is that the transferring of such energy could affect the safety of drivers, passengers and their property. So far no one seems to think that will be a problem, but it’s something that tests will need to prove once and for all.

“We need to determine very early on that no harm is done to people, animals, the electronics of the car or to credit cards in your wallet,” noted the Stanford project’s leader.

According to a new study, members of Generation Y (those people born between 1980 and 1995) are more likely than Baby Boombers and Gen Xers to embrace the idea of the “connected car”. That’s because they spend a lot of time using the Internet and desire both devices and cars that keep them linked to the outside world while piloting a vehicle. The study comes to us from Deloitte LLP, which based its findings on a survey of several thousand participants from around the world.Those being studied hailed from a number of different countries; for example, there were roughly 1,500 participants from the United States with another several hundred in China and Europe. Those taking part weren’t just from Generation Y, either; the study also included men and women born during the “Baby Boom” era (the decade and a half or so following World War II), and those considered part of Generation X (folks born between the early 1960s and the late 1970s).

The Deloitte survey found that 57 per cent of Gen Y members said they’d rather own an “electrified” car, with those surveyed responding that they most valued dash-mounted controls and touch-screen interfaces.

Unlike their Baby Boomer and Generation X counterparts, members of Generation Y are also more likely to purchase a hybrid vehicle than one using a conventional internal combustion engine. It’s unclear, however, if this decision is based on saving the earth or saving money by reducing visits to the local gas station.

Another important finding about Generation Y (though not one gleaned from Deloitte’s recent study): members of Generation Y are simply less interested in purchasing vehicles than members of earlier generations. Statistics show that the number of 16 year olds getting their driver’s license dropped 16 per cent between 1978 and 2008.

On the whole, that figure presents a big challenge for automakers. “It’s no longer a foregone conclusion that we will be able to sell cars to a large and emerging demographic,” noted Ford executive Mark Fields at a recent Deloitte conference in Detroit.

The solution, no doubt, is the connected car, which lures members of Generation Y (along with younger generations) to the automotive market precisely because newer vehicles can easily link up with must-have tech devices, including smartphones, digital media players, and global positioning systems.

Only three years after accepting a major government bailout, General Motors Co. has replaced Toyota as the world’s top-selling automotive company. GM recently revealed it had sold just over nine million cars and trucks last year, an increase of 7.6-percent over 2010. Toyota confirmed Wednesday that its world group sales fell below the eight million mark. Toyota’s 6-percent loss in world auto sales in 2011 was General Motors gain.   If you’re keeping count, that nine million sales total is over a million units higher than Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp., which had held the title of top-selling automaker since 2008. Until that time, GM had been the world’s leader in auto sales for more than seventy years.

GM’s return to form represents a stunning turnaround for a company that only a few years ago appeared on the verge of financial ruin. It would seem the company’s decision to cut the fat — shedding less popular brands Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Hummer, and SAAB — has worked out. General Motors says it generated a net income of over $7 billion for just the first three quarters of 2011, with fourth quarter totals to be revealed next month.

Will connected-car innovations like MyLink and Chevy Volt contribute to GM’s success in 2012?

GM says its cars sold well in all four global regions, including North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Of its current brands, Chevrolet was the front runner, setting a sales record with 4.76 million vehicles sold around the world.

Overall, GM sales were up 640,000 units over 2010, when the company sold roughly 8.4 million automobiles.

Germany’s Volkswagen AG (8.16 million cars sold, an increase of 14 per cent) and the Franco-Japanese team of Renault and Nissan (8.03 million sold) rounded out the top three automakers for last year.

Toyota fell to fourth in the list, having sold 7.9 million vehicles in 2011. The Japanese automaker is confident in can rebound, however, predicting sales of near 8.5 million for this year.

Factoring into Toyota’s 2011 woes included the devastating Japan earthquake and tsunami, flooding in Thailand and a record-high yen.