charges

Charging your hybrid or electric car may someday become as simple as pulling into the driveway.

Toyota Motor has invested in and has signed an agreement with WiTricity to collaborate on a wireless automotive charger that doesn't need any point of contact to charge a car's battery, Toyota said yesterday.

WiTricity has developed technology that could eventually enable a plug-in electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle to be charged by simply parking the vehicle in the vicinity of a car charger embedded with a special device.

The Mass.-based company has already been developing the technology for consumer electronics … Read more

After suffering a network outage that affected its customers for most of yesterday, Verizon Wireless announced via Twitter that its 4G LTE network is back up and running.

The carrier acknowledged on Wednesday that it had determined the cause of the service interruption, but did not provide further explanation today as to what caused the outage.

When asked for more specifics, Verizon spokesperson Brenda Raney told CNET in an e-mail, "Our 4G LTE network is up and running. Our network engineers and vendors quickly identified the issue and solved it."

Raney went on to say that HTC Thunderbolt … Read more

Our favorites from the New York auto show; BMW, Google, and the U.S. make electric car moves this week; Chevy recalls the Cruze after one very high-profile screwup; and we take a spin the electric Smart car.

• CNET's New York auto show roundup

• Download BMW Evolve app to see if an electric car is right for you

• U.S./Google map of places to fuel your alternative energy car

• PSCars.com graphical all-car configurator

• 2011 Chevy Cruze loses steering wheel, let's hold our horses.… Read more

Suzuki's Kizashi is a solidly performing midsize sedan. It produces a reasonable amount of power. It's not terribly efficient, but also not particularly inefficient. There's not much to complain about when it comes to the Kizashi, but not much room for praise either. At the 2011 New York auto show, Suzuki pushed its lovably meh sedan in two very different directions with two very different Kizashi concepts.

The Kizashi EcoCharge concept aims to increase fuel efficiency by as much as 25 percent over the standard Kizashi Sport. It starts by reducing its gasoline engine displacement from 2.… Read more

Remember the Samsung 4G LTE smartphone that was announced at CES 2011 for Verizon Wireless? Well, it's finally got a new name (thank goodness) and a release date and pricing.

Verizon Wireless revealed today that the Samsung Droid Charge will be available on April 28 for--brace yourselves--$299.99 with a two-year contract. The 4G-capable Droid Charge will ship running Android 2.2 and features a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, mobile hot-spot capabilities, and a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus touch screen, which has 50 percent more subpixels than the original Super AMOLED touch screens (read: improved outdoor visibility and … Read more

The eVgo chain of charging stations for electric vehicles will have its official coming-out party today at a Dallas event whose speakers include Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

The first U.S. commercial chain of charging stations, eVgo (pronounced ee-vee-go), is set to announce that it will have a total of 60 electric-vehicle charging stations in place by Labor Day. It is owned by NRG EV Services, a subsidiary of NRG Energy, one of the largest electricity providers in Texas.

NRG EV Services and eVgo will also likely announce their specific pricing structure and plans for station customers. So far, eVgo … Read more

Owners of Google's Nexus S smartphones can soon use the device to process mobile payments via near-field communications tech, via software from a company called Charge Anywhere.

Charge Anywhere's existing mobile payments application has already allowed owners of iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices to process credit card payments with their phones and a dedicated reader to swipe the cards.

But the latest version to the software, announced at yesterday's CTIA trade show, turns the Nexus S phone into a full mobile payment terminal. This means that owners can process MasterCard PayPass and Visa Blink payments remotely using … Read more

Ever since the debut of the Palm Pre, I've been enamored with inductive charging. After all, what could be easier than recharging your phone just by laying it on a special pad or dock--no cord required?

Nothing, that's what. Straight outta "Star Trek," inductive charging relies on an electromagnetic (i.e., wireless) transfer of energy between devices. Yet phone manufacturers still haven't embraced the technology.

Apple certainly hasn't, which is why third-party products like the Powermat and Energizer Qi (pronounced "chee") have arrived to fill the void. I've spent some time … Read more

The initial results of pilot programs on plug-in electric vehicles may spook companies and create a vicious cycle of inefficiency when it comes to charging.

That's according to one of the topics covered in the "Changing the game: Plug-in electric vehicle pilots" report (PDF) released yesterday by technology consulting giant Accenture.

The Accenture report examined the recent data garnered from over 25 pilot programs scattered around the world that have been monitoring EVs and driver habits.

Overall the pilot programs found public charging stations have not yet been getting enough use to pay for themselves and their … Read more