We Obsessively Cover the Green Scene…

We've heard initial reviews of the Tesla Model S from the media as the "Get Amped" tour – a multi-city test-drive opportunity for reservation holders – kicked off at the company's Fremont, CA factory. But what about the people who really matter? You know, the folks who've been waiting for as long as two years, having plunked down as much as $40,000 for a place in line. What did they think of the shiny new machines?

After reading many first-person accounts and watching a good number of in-car videos, we think it's fair to say they absolutely love it. The sexy fastback looks, the smooth, rocket-like acceleration, the comfortable ride, and confident handling. Love, love, love, and love!

But don't take our word for it. Scroll down for a handful of videos, starting with a relatively short one from Tesla Motors featuring footage from the official launch and customer test-drive reactions (the last in the Tesla Tuesday series), followed by full length (12-13 minutes) clips from individuals.

By all accounts, the Renault Twizy is a surprisingly entertaining vehicle to drive. With its very low center of gravity, firm suspension and wheels at the extreme corners, it can whip around turns with extraordinary confidence. What happens though, if all its grip goes away? Will it drift?

That's the question Autocar asks and answers in a new short-and-sweet video. (Yes, some automotive enthusiast publications prefer to endow electric vehicles with more grip, others like to take it away.) With a mere 17 horsepower on tap, the 2-seat city car/scooter thingamajig isn't able spin its tires into a smoking frenzy on dry tarmac. Throw adequate amounts of water down however, and the equation changes.

Spoiler alert: Due to a nicely balanced chassis and rear wheel drive, the Twiz can whiz sideways in a nice, controllable manner. Of course, this attribute won't be a direct benefit to many, but still, for those brave souls with a down parka (the Twizy doesn't have side windows) and a sense of adventure, this sort of knowledge might come in handy in the winter.

Scroll on down for a bit of entertaining episode of "will it drift?" from Autocar. As a bonus, we've also thrown in their 'straight" review. Extra special double bonus? Fully Charged's Twizy video review.

A skidpad is a simple circle with a 300-foot radius drawn on a flat piece of pavement that is used to judge the lateral g-forces a vehicle can generate whilst completing circumnavigations. Super sporty cars, like the Porsche 911, can hit 1.0 g. The Nissan Leaf, an all-electric hatchback made for efficient commuting, achieves less than that: a modest .79 g.

As an experiment, Car and Driver decided to see if they could improve on that metric and perhaps make the battery-powered commuter perform more like the fire-breathing polluter. They kept it simple by just swapping out different sets of incrementally stickier tires, recording the results as they went along. Though it isn't specifically mentioned in the video, one should keep in mind that what they gained in higher lateral performance capability, they lost in increased rolling resistance and decreased range.

As much as we liked this exercise – we won't give away the results, but will say that we were happy to learn that the Leaf's steering feel could be so easily improved – we wish they had of put a modicum of effort into the suspension as well. While they proved the electric Nissan can increase its skidpad rating, the body roll they experienced in the process seem somewhat disconcerting. Taming that aspect as well would inspire a bit more confidence in real world driving situations.

Scroll on down to watch C&D's Sam Smith put the Leaf and the 911 through their paces on the asphalt at Willow Springs and let us know in the comments if you'd consider trading some range for a little rubber stick-to-it-iveness in your EV.

Tesla Motors is just a few days away from handing over Model S key fobs to the first batch of customers. Yes, the company already gave investor and board member Steve Jurvetson and CEO Elon Musk their Founder Series cars, but this time it's for reals.

While we wait to watch the sleek sedans, painted in the ten four colors of the company's current palette Signature series, passed to their new owners – the big event will be broadcast on Tesla's website Friday at 3:30 PDT – we can now see more of what goes into the manufacturing of this truly innovative electric car. We've already watched the massive metal stamping that begins the process, now we can view the whole assembly and paint application operation. Scroll below for three more videos from the Inside Tesla! series.

In other Model S news, Tesla has revealed what's going to be so special about the area between the front seats, a space Tesla is calling the "Opportunity Console." Based on buyer preferences, this customizable space should one day be able to be outfitted with "compartments, shelves or phone holders to make this area more organized." Tesla will reveal prototypes of the consoles this weekend and will listen to customer input on how the final versions develop.

Robert Llewellyn's Fully Charged video series has, over its many episodes, focused on vehicles of the four-wheeled variety. Now, as if in atonement, it has produced two successive shows centered on two-wheelers. From bicycles with electric assist to scooters to motorcycles, Llewellyn makes up for previous omissions, all in one two fell swoops.

Most of the variety occurs in one episode, with Robert starting out on a basic electric bicycle bearing A2B badging and working his way up through increasingly powerful, longer-range models. The pedals disappear altogether when he steps up to the passenger pillion of the lithium-power Vectrix VX-1. Finally, they pull out the pièce de résistance: the Zero S from Zero Motorcycles.

Although shorter than the multi-bike show, the other two-wheeled episode is special in that it features the Agility Saietta. Now, we might have been a little harsh on the Saietta's aesthetics when it was first unveiled, but we we're not alone. Indeed, one comment we came across asked whether or not this was the same creature that burst out of that guy's chest in that Prometheus sequel. Eighteen months on though, that initial shock has (mostly) worn off and we've been impatiently waiting to see it actually moving under its own power.

We were not disappointed. Much. There is actually footage of it winding out down a city street, but it is over pretty quick. The bike features an interesting "Wide-Base Variable-Geometry" unequal length front double-wishbone suspension that we would have like to seen put through some corners. We'll take what we can get however, and the discussion that ensues the brief bit of riding is well worth the watching. Scroll down and you can do just that.

Watching the video of last week's Tesla Motors shareholder meeting was like eating a box of chocolates, to paraphrase a certain Mr. Gump. Besides finding chewy sales projections and crunchy Supercharger network tidbits, we also found something equally delicious, but with a more subtle texture.

During a brief discussion of its third generation of electric vehicles, one slide (pictured above) seems to reveal that the company plans on using that future platform for a crossover as well as a sedan. The different body types went unmentioned by CEO Elon Musk, but there it was on wall behind him for all the world to see.

Musk did say, however, that the company expects Gen III production to be an order of magnitude greater than that of the Model S sedan and its platform-sharing sister, the Model X SUV. As well as being smaller, we expect the upcoming cars to be about 40 percent less expensive, which should greatly help drive sales.

What we didn't hear any news about during the presentation was the next generation of Tesla sports car. Previously rumored to be coming in 2014, it is still likely in the planning stages, though the focus is clearly now on high-volume vehicles. Hit us up in the comments below and tell us if there's a vehicle type you'd like to see Tesla make.

Supplying energy for cars on the move is an important piece of the electric vehicle puzzle and in this regard Tesla Motors is taking a unique approach. At some time in the future – the company is not saying when, exactly – it plans to reveal what it calls its Supercharger network.

Although the company isn't giving any details about the design of the individual stations, we expect something more than just a post with a plug. Much more. During the recent shareholders meeting where CEO Elon Musk briefly touched on the system, he declared that when people see how awesome it is and what Tesla has planned, it will blow their minds. We await this moment.

Of course, Musk can be given to a bit of hyperbole now and again. When discussing the five-star safety rating of the Model S, he said if there was a sixth star, the vehicle would have been awarded it as well. Still, hints as to what is involved with the Superchargers arose during the Q&A session after the main presentation and makes us think that this will indeed be pretty cool.

For example, we expect it to feature battery swapping. Long a controversial concept in the electric vehicle community, it is clear that Tesla is going to employ it in some fashion. Whether it will be available for every pack size – the Model S comes with either a 40-, 60- or 85-kWh pack – is not yet known, but it shouldn't prevent you from retaining ownership of a specific pack. While fast charging your 85-kWh Model S might take around 45 minutes using the 90-kW station with its proprietary connector, the battery packs are engineered to enable a swap as quickly as one minute.

Another prominent feature will be solar panels. Musk is a big proponent of solar energy and it's been reported that Tesla and SolarCity (where he also serves as chairman) are working together to create rooftop solar storage systems. What better place, we rhetorically ask with no pun intended, to implement such a scheme than atop stations stuffed with batteries. Musk says the panels will help illustrate the connection between sustainable power production and electric transport and go some way to combat the long tailpipe argument.

If you'd like to watch video of the shareholders meeting, it's available at Tesla's website for a while longer. Besides discussion of the Supercharger, there are a lot of little tidbits for those interested in the company and its product. More to come.

After enduring a wait for the Brammo Empulse R reveal that was so long it seemed a construct of Samuel Beckett, the moment of truth seemed to pass us by far too quickly. While we've comforted ourselves with the thought that there will soon be deliveries and real-world reviews of the sexy electric street fighter, we are certainly relieved to have our Empulse cravings calmed somewhat by the release of a promotional video.

Brammo's advertising budget might not be large enough to repeatedly interrupt your favorite TV show with its vision of two-wheeled nirvana, but its web-based commercial certainly isn't lacking in primetime production values. And though the basic elements are traditional – a boy, a girl, a bike – it all seems to comes together using a simple plot and does what it's supposed to do: make you really want to ride this motorcycle.

If two minutes and 38 seconds of Brammo candy aren't enough for your rapacious appetite, relax. The Oregon-based company has also released a video about the making of its video that's almost 10 minutes in length. Besides a look at all the fancy technical gear and behind-the-scenes goings on, we are additionally treated to an appearance by Shelina Moreda, Brammo's newest race rider and enthusiastic spokesperson. Scroll below to see why we're holding up two thumbs.

Fans of electric motorsport generally have a hard time finding decent event coverage. Typically, it's not offered on TV, and video gleaned from the internet usually comes from either fans or individual teams and often lacks the professional production values we are accustomed to. Now, however, and possibly for a limited time only, footage from Britain's ITV 4 featuring the 2012 TT Zero is available to watch online.

Featuring quick pre- and post-race interviews with the top riders along with clips from the roadside, helicopter and on board the bikes, viewers are taken from the start line to the champagne showers in a somewhat condensed 13 minutes. We get to see some awesome footage as well as a fair amount of insight from the professional commentators. For instance, race leader Michael Rutter suffered from a loose "gas tank," forcing him to keep low to hold it in place.

Scroll on down to check it out all the history-making electric-ton-breaking action for yourself. Enjoy!

Those crazy guys at Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG). Not content to rest on laurels garnered by their record-setting assault at Nürburgring last year, they've been working on improving the TMG EV P001 – henceforth to be known as the TMG EV P002 – in preparation of a bid for glory at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

While it's still packing a pair of EVO Electrics axial flux motors within its Radical-sourced chassis, the power has now been pumped up to 350 kW (469.4 horsepower) with 900 Nm (663.8 pound-feet) of torque. Geared specifically for Pikes Peak, however, the top speed has been slightly reduced to 240km/h (149.1 miles per hour). The battery is again of the lithium ceramic variety and holds 42 kWhs.

Whether that is enough for rally driver Fumio Nutahara to hold off a field that includes the likes of Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima's entry, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV Evolution, or current electric class record holder Ikuo Hanawa remains to be seen.

One thing is clear: This event is becoming a serious must-do event on the electric vehicle racing calender. You can check out what the EV P002 looks like in action by scrolling down for video that accompanies the official press release.

The electric ton, she is broken. The magical 100 mile per hour lap speed was shattered during the SES TT Zero when Michael Rutter officially completed a circuit of the Isle of Man's 37.73-mile Snaefell mountain course at an average 104.056 mph aboard the 2012 edition of the Team Segway MotoCzysz E1pc. Besides securing a place in history, Rutter and MotoCzysz also collected a check for £10,000 ($15,490 U.S. at today's rates).

While he was first, he was not alone. John McGuinness crossed in 2nd on the Mugen Shinden with a 102.215 mph lap and Mark Miller completed the trinity with the other MotoCzysz E1pc, making the trip at an average 101.065 mph.

Rob Barbour crossed the line on the TGM IOT entry in fourth, well below the ton, but at least he crossed. Proving that building a reliable electric racing motorcycle isn't easy, of the 18 bikes entered into the contest, only eight actually made it to the start line and only half of those finished.

We can only hope the other teams are better prepared next year, as the performances from the top teams will surely increase. As it is, battery packs – really the most limiting factor – have increased from around 10 kWhs in 2009 to as large as 20 kWhs in this latest contest.

While we'll have to wait a little longer for more complete video coverage of the event, we have a couple clips of fly-bys you can check out be simply scrolling below.

A123 Systems may have expressed doubt in its ability to continue as a going concern in a recent financial filing, but that doesn't mean the company has given up. Indeed, due to increases in its power-grid and commercial transportation portfolios, it has announced it will be hiring an additional 400 workers over the next few months to boost production at its Livonia and Romulus, MI plants. The additional hires would more than reverse the cuts made last November and bring staffing levels to an all-time high of 1,181 employees.

While A123 might be best known for supplying packs for cars like the Fisker Karma, it is also the battery source for Smith Electric Vehicles and its cells will soon start doing energy storage duty in Tata's hybrid buses. It's grid storage business has also scored recently, landing a contract to supply an 11 MW Grid Battery System for the Auwahi Wind project in Maui, HI.

A123 uses a robust chemistry that lends itself to many applications and has a strong client list. Despite recent set backs, it could still become an American success story, though it certainly will require some deft maneuvering by its management team.

Hollywood Electrics is coming to Vegas, baby! What started as a retail outlet for electric bicycles and motorcycles in Hollywood, California is crossing borders and boundaries with the opening of Hollywood EMX: an electric motocross-centered entertainment complex located in Las Vegas, just off the world-famous strip.

With 32 acres at its disposal, the heart of the park is to be centered around motocross tracks. Four or five different courses with varying layouts will cater to skill sets from novice to pro. Along with a stable of bikes from Zero Motorcycles, Hollywood supplies helmets, body armor and other gear – along with riding instruction – to help make your experience both a total blast and safe. For those who prefer four wheels over two, there is also talk of a mini electric trophy truck track as well.

The action won't be limited to just the space in side the park, though. Besides offering sales and rentals of street bikes so you can head out on your own, staff will give guided dual sport tours on the Zero DS bikes of the local desert terrain. Throw in ziplines, a pool and a restaurant/nightclub and you'll be ready to tell Vegas to keep its blackjack tables and Celine Dion concerts. You've got better things to do.

Opening day comes later this summer. You can check out the company's website now and get in on some earlybird specials ($500 for one year unlimited riding & use of EMX Park bikes. Dude!). You can also keep up with them via Facebook and Twitter.

There are lots of fringe benefits to building or buying an electric vehicle. While eliminating the need to visit gas stations probably ranks at the top of our list, a close second might be the opportunity to run hot laps at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca during Refuel. Hosted by Speed Ventures, this event also offers competitive types the chance to win SportElectric Time Trial trophies.

The action isn't limited to the track. The pits are sure to have a great assortment of vehicles to look at and interesting people to talk to. Past years have seen the WrightSpeed X1, the AC Propulsion TZero and lots of Tesla Roadsters make appearances. This year, we can only imagine what prototype or production machine might make come out to play.

Scroll down for the Refuel promotional video along with clips of a Nissan Leaf demonstrating the short way around the iconic circuit and the Kleenspeed EV-X11 laying down a record-breaking lap. You can sign up to take part yourself on the Refuel website.