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Recharge Wrap-up: first Chevy Volt hits 200K miles, DriveNow launches in London with BMW i3 on deck

The first Chevrolet Volt has driven over 200,000 miles. According to the owner, Erick Belmer, the car, which he purchased on March 28, 2012, is "holding up flawlessly" with "no noticeable battery capacity loss." Belmer has a commute of about 220 miles per day, rotates his tires every 10,000 miles, and gets an oil change every 38,000 miles. Belmer still loves driving his "dream car" every day, and says it is "wonderfully engineered." Read more at Inside EVs. DriveNow has launched in London, and will include the BMW i3 as part of its carsharing fleet. Daimler shut down its Car2go operations there just six months ago. Currently, DriveNow members have access to the BMW 1 Series and Mini Countryman, but come spring of 2015, DriveNow, which is a joint venture between BMW and Sixt SE, will add 30 all-electric i3 EVs to its London service. DriveNow's rates for London are set at 39 pence per minute, with an hourly maximum cost of GBP20 (about 61 US cents and $31, respectively). The service currently operates in the boroughs of Islington, Haringey and Hackney, with hopes of expanded service in the near future. Read more at Hybrid Cars or at Reuters. FIA's Formula E electric racing championship series received the Autosport award for Pioneering and Innovation. The award ceremony was a black-tie event at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag accepted the award. "Many people in motorsport, when we started Formula E, didn't think we would make the first race," says Agag. "To announce we were doing a championship with cars that didn't then exist was a real challenge. But after that first race in Beijing, everything worked." Read more at Formula E's website. The Nissan Leaf has driven over a billion collective kilometers. That's more than 621.3 million miles. Nissan said in August that it expected to reach that mark by January, and it has done just that. To celebrate, Nissan Europe has created a video to thank its 147,000 Leaf drivers to bring the car to that substantial milestone in less than four years. Check out the video below. Featured Gallery 2014 Chevrolet Volt View 11 Photos Related Gallery 2014 BMW i3: First Drive View 33 Photos Related Gallery 2013 Nissan Leaf: First Drive View 15 Photos News Source: Inside EVs, Hybrid Cars, Reuters, Formula E, YouTube: Nissan EuropeImage Credit: Chevrolet Green BMW Nissan Transportation Alternatives Electric Racing Vehicles recharge wrapup

DIY fix to lost reverse gear is cheaper than a new transmission

Sometimes in life money gets tight, and the funds just aren't there to make a repair on your vehicle. What proves someone's mettle is how that person deals with it, and this guy deserves a medal for his ingenuity. According to the YouTube description, the man's Nissan Pathfinder lost reverse gear, and this system of chains and rollers has been his fix until he can really get it repaired. Trying this stunt in a crowded parking lot could get a little scary, but for leaving home, this might be all you would need. Also, we have to applaud the father/son bonding on display in this clip. The driver's kid acts as lookout to tell dad when the SUV gets on the rollers. That little boy now has a story to impress his friends for years to come. News Source: hexdude24 via YouTube Auto News Nissan Auto Repair Maintenance SUV Videos viral video nissan pathfinder gearbox reverse

ROEV lets you use multiple charging networks with one account

It may be a textbook case of a first-world problem, but any EV driver who doesn't want to carry two or three plug-in vehicle charging station cards when one would do is about to get a little smile on their face. This morning at the LA Auto Show, the new ROEV Association was announced that will let EV drivers carry just the one card. While you would think the all-caps ROEV stands for something, none of the pre-announcement materials nor the website explain it that way. Instead, it seems to just be a play on rove, which makes a lot of sense. There are three charging networks involved in ROEV: Blink, ChargePoint, and EVgo. Conveniently, these are the three largest in the US and have a combined 17,500 public chargers across the country. If you've got an account with one of these three networks, once ROEV goes into effect (expected in the spring of 2016), you'll be able to use that card at any participating charger without signing up for another account. Your personal details are kept private, ROEV says, and the companies coordinate behind the scenes to make it work. Pricing details were not disclosed. Besides the three main charging networks, two automakers are also founding members of ROEV: BMW and Nissan. ROEV says that Audi and Honda have also have already joined the Association and the organization wants to pull in all EV stakeholders to make electric vehicle charging easy. Fans of EV technology will note that ROEV has nothing to do with promoting either the CHAdeMO or the SAE Combo (CCS) fast charging standard. The Leaf is a CHAdeMO car while the i3 uses CCS, for example. The charging networks, of course, provide both kinds of plugs and don't promote one over the other. Tesla and its Supercharger network are not involved in ROEV, but Tesla drivers can, of course, participate in ROEV.