Posted on 12/7/2025
In June we wrote about a major Toyota milestone – 1 millionth hybrid produced in its Indiana factory. Just a few weeks ago Toyota reached another milestone – its 14 billion dollar high voltage car battery plant in Liberty, North Caroline started production. When it reaches full capacity, it will have 14 production lines, and will be able to produce batteries that will have combined capacity of 30 gigawatt hours per year. That’s enough to outfit about 2 million Prius plugin hybrids with their primary high voltage batteries. This new plant underscores Toyota’s commitment to the hybrid and EV technology. Even though Toyota continues to develop the hydrogen engine, it is clearly committed to expanding its electric and hybrid offering. At Pat’s Garage we have been on the cutting edge of the hybrid revolution from the very beginning. Our sister company, Green Gears, produced Prius plugin hybrids before Toyota did - we re-engineered early Prius vehicles to ach ... read more
Posted on 4/15/2020
Karma Automotive has just announced its new Karma E-Flex Platform. It’s a chassis that will become the foundation of a broad range of electric vehicles – from regular, daily driver cars, to autonomous vans, to high-performance electric cars. Karma announced that the platform will first be used in the 2020 Revero GT extended-range electric vehicle (EREV). New designs for battery electric-only vehicles and additional extended-range electric vehicles will be announced soon. Karma is demonstrating its developing capabilities not just in the electric vehicle space, but also autonomous vehicle, and artificial intelligence solutions for personal and utility vehicles. The new platform will allow Karma to significantly lower cost of developing new vehicles. As you probably know, we are big fans of Karma, so we are looking forward to servicing and maintaining new designs from Karma. In the meantime, if you have any concerns or questions about your Fisker Ka ... read more