But based on feedback from drivers participating in Smart Fortwo Electric Drive test programs, Mercedes says a more typical charge time might be 3.5 hours to go from 20 percent to 85 percent.

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Michael had sketched with perfect strokes a California phenomenon much as another Eastern skeptic, Tom Wolfe, had done 33 years earlier with California crazies of a different bent in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

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Their first test in October 2007 was a success: An all-electric car plugged in at the University of Delaware and rigged with communication software responded to a signal from PJM for a sudden burst of power to help balance supply and demand on the grid.

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In October 2010, four driverless electric vans successfully concluded a 13, 000-kilometer test drive from Italy to China, Nevada has issued the first set of regulations for driverless cars, and WIRED magazine recently ran a cover story anticipating driverless cars in your life in the near future.

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Although heaters are minimized to conserve battery range, Consumer Reports rated a Volt test car at a paltry average 25 miles of electric-only running before the gasoline engine kicked in under cold Connecticut winter conditions.

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With the Focus Electric rolling into showrooms, I took a pre-production model on a two-week tech test drive around the San Francisco Bay Area last month to experience daily life in the cloud with an electric car.

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