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Recharge Wrap-up: Renovo Coupe at CES, Aussies tour US in Tesla Model S

Australians review the Tesla Model S in a Seattle to LA road trip video. The folks from CarAdvice drive the P85+ along the West Coast of the US, testing out the car, trying the Superchargers, stopping by some notable sites along the way and even making use of roadside assistance. While the video shows what it's like to take the Tesla on a US road trip, it gives viewers Down Under a glimpse of their own future. Tesla just began sales in a country that, while on the other side of the globe, also features long distances between cities and a new Supercharger network. Check out the video below or read more at Inside EVs. A UK taxi company is introducing the Nissan e-NV200 to its fleet. C&C Taxi, which has been using six Nissan Leafs in its Cornwall taxi service since early December, has added the passenger-ready e-NV200 Combi to its stable of cabs. Mark Richards, manager of C&C's fleet, is happy with its performance and money saved after over 1,000 miles of service so far, and plans to replace the rest of the diesel fleet with EVs. The Nissan e-NV200 Combi "does everything the Leaf does but is much bigger and offers more space," says Richards. "We'll definitely be ordering more." Learn more in the video below or read more at Hybrid Cars. Learn more about Nissan's fleet EVs at the company's website. The US Department of Energy has released a new report on EV charging behavior and its impact on the grid. The report, which covers grant projects from six different utilities, includes data from over 270 public chargers and 700 residential charging units. Most at-home charging took place at night during off-peak hours. There were some reports of problems with chargers and smart meters working together. Most public charging took place during peak hours, but was low compared to home charging. This means a longer cost recovery period due to the high cost of installation. See the report at the DOE website or read more at Green Car Congress. The Renovo Coupe will be on display at the NVIDIA booth at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) for its first public viewing. Renovo Motors CEO Christopher Heiser says, "These are very exciting times for Renovo and we think our new technology, coupled with NVIDIA's breakthroughs in automotive applications, has the potential to make a tremendous impact across the entire automotive industry." The Shelby Daytona-bodied Renovo offers 500 horsepower and 1,000 pound-feet of torque from two electric motors.

Watch Carlos Ghosn's news conference live from Beirut

The former head of Nissan-Renault says he's speaking out to clear his name and shed light on an unjust system of Japanese justice. Timeline: The rise, fall and flight of Carlos Ghosn Follow our Adam Morath, who has been maintaining a running summary on Twitter:   This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Government/Legal Nissan Renault Carlos Ghosn

Basic Continuously Variable Transmission explained with Legos

In recent years, the search for better fuel efficiency and smoother shifting has produced automatic transmissions with double-digit gears. Alternatively, the same quest has boosted the popularity and usage of a different type of automatic transmission without any fixed gears, the continuously variable transmission, or CVT. YouTuber Sariel's Lego Workshop recently took the time to build a CVT demonstration model out of Legos to help explain how they work. Sariel begins by showing the model's input and output shafts that are parallel to each other. Each shaft has a cone attached to it, and they are inversely placed so that the large part of one cone is next to the small part of the other cone. The two cones are connected using a rounded rubber band.  By shifting the rubber band up and down the cones, the machine changes the effective ratio between the cones. So, a 1:4 ratio can be smoothly transitioned to 4:1. No clutch is required to operate the mechanism, and it eliminates hitches or pauses between gear changes. CVTs are also advantageous over 9- or 10-speed automatics in that they are far less complex and weigh less.  To demonstrate how the CVT operates in a vehicle, Sariel used a joke about Top Gear. The original Top Gear is represented by a faster-moving car that has the rubber band around the large part of the cone on the input shaft. Top Gear without former hosts Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson, and James May is represented by a slow-moving car with the rubber band around the large part of the cone on the output shaft.  For an even more detailed explanation of how CVTs work — albeit one that doesn't involve toys — you can click here. Technology Toys/Games Nissan Subaru