Smart's battery rental program has proved wildly popular in Europe. In the U.S., it will drop the Smart Electric Drive's purchase price to $20,650, before the federal tax credit.

In San Francisco, the city’s Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) had talked with the car sharing company Car2Go about operating the Smart Car service in the city, but the MTA had concerns over parking issues the company required.

The Smart ForStars Concept is ready to make a statement at this year’s Paris Auto Show and, in case no one is listening, the two-passenger EV has a built-in move projector mounted in its nose to drive the point home.

The latest news from German automakers regarding EVs have not been very exciting. Some people even question their commitment to electric mobility. But after driving the latest electric Smart and meeting the people behind it, there's no doubt. It's real, and that the manufacturer is very serious about it.

Chalk up another first delivery for an electric car manufacturer in the U.S.—smart USA has delivered the first of 250 nationwide pilot program electric vehicle leases, leading up to a full launch in 2012. The vehicle, a purpose-built electric smart ForTwo—also known as the smart ED—comes in both a hard top and cabriolet configuration, making it the first average consumer-targeted electric convertible on the U.S. market

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition parties pledged this week to spend more than $700 million by 2011 on developing electric vehicles, as it tries to put 1 million electric vehicles on German roads by 2020. The preliminary plan, still short on details, is already meeting resistance for not going far enough.

There wasn’t a V8 to be heard, full-size SUVs were banished from sight—at least for media days—and the words “electric car” and “hybrid vehicle” were on every carmaker’s video screen. We previewed the show a few days ago; now we'll recap the results, breaking down the top green vehicles into three categories: Expect It, Doubt It, and Forget It.