We Obsessively Cover the Green Scene…

It's been a while since we've paid attention to Fox News attacking electric cars, but has it really been long enough for them to forget some pretty salient details? Looks like it has, according to a new video from Media Matters, which splices together clips from before Tesla Motors made its big profit announcement and the company's other recent items of good news.

In all the "before" clips, the hosts and commentators just can't seem to mention Tesla without also saying something about taxpayer money and losers (ring a bell?). In the "after" parts, well, just watch. It'd be funny if it wasn't so depressing. See how it all comes together below.

One Illinois-based company is taking the "slow and steady wins the race" approach to public plug-in vehicle chargers. Telefonix, which has specialized in making retractable cord reels largely used in the aviation industry, is looking to drum up interest in its L1 Power Post, which is what the company says will be the first Level 1 charging station designed for public use, according to Plug In Cars.

Level 1 systems, which run on the same 120-volt current as US households and uses the standard SAE J1772 connector, only add about six miles of range per hour of charging to a typical EV. More importantly, the L1 Power Post, which Telefonix recently showed off at a Florida conference, will cost about $1,500. That's about 25 percent of what many public Level 2, 240-volt chargers cost, although those add as many as 25 miles of range in an hour.

Telefonix, which has been in operations for about a quarter century, is banking on cash-conscious public and private entities to buy its systems, noting that a Level 1 charging station at a workplace will still provide more than enough juice during a typical workday to get many EV drivers home. Telefonix notes that hotels and airports are other places that wouldn't require the speed of a Level 2 charger in most situations.

The Nissan Leaf isn't exactly synonymous with long-distance racing but that isn't stopping the Japanese automaker from using one of Japan's most recognizable endurance racers to promote the electric vehicle.

Nissan has reached an agreement to sponsor Keiko Ihara, who has the distinction of being the only Japanese woman to race in the World Endurance Championship. In return, Ihara will promote the furthering of electromobility, including the development of electric-vehicle infrastructure. Ihara is a former race queen who started racing in 2000 and will compete at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Read a little more about the sponsorship here, and check out Nissan's nearly six-minute video with Ihara below.

Ford has released fuel economy ratings for the 2014 Fiesta ST, stating that the subcompact hot hatch will return an estimated 26 miles per gallon city, 35 mpg highway and 29 mpg combined. That puts the machine just behind its main competitor, the Fiat 500 Abarth, in terms of efficiency. The 500 Abarth yields 28 mpg city and 34 mpg highway for 31 mpg combined, but falls short of the Fiesta ST on power. The Fiesta ST serves up 197 horsepower and 202 pound-feet of torque compared to the 160 hp and 170 lb-ft available in the Abarth.

Still, as Ford pointed out in an email to Autoblog, the Fiesta ST delivers considerably more cargo capacity at 15 cubic feet in hatchback configuration, while the 500 Abarth serves up just 9.5 cubes. What's more, the US-spec Fiesta ST will be offered as a five-door hatchback, with considerably more rear seat room for people and things.

When asked, a Ford spokesperson confirmed to Autoblog that these numbers are the result of testing done by the automaker, not the EPA itself. The 26/35/29 ratings what Ford has submitted to the EPA for certification, and if the EPA wants to re-test, it can. (This is all standard operating procedure on the path to EPA ratings.)

Now if only someone could turn social-media mentions into cold, hard cash. That's what the folks at Toyota may be saying after a report revealed that the Prius gets the most media dollar value – by far – out of any hybrid or plug-in vehicle from social media networks, according to Automotive News, which cites a study from social analytics company GenSent Insights.

The Prius received $15.5 million in "total media value" through the first four months of the year, trampling the second-place Honda Fit EV's $4.5 million. Those models were followed by the Chevrolet Volt, Tesla Model S and Honda Insight, each of which generated about $3 million worth of social-media value through April.

The report tracked model mentions via sources such as Facebook, YouTube and Google, and found that the Prius, the world's best-selling hybrid, had more Twitter mentions than the next nine most-mentioned green-car models combined. Factoring positive or not-so-positive social-media "sentiment," the Nissan Leaf came out on top, followed by the Fit and then the Prius

Of course, chatter doesn't always translate into moving cars out the door. Through April, US Prius sales across all variants were down 12 percent from a year earlier, down to almost 76,000 units.

The first electric vehicle ever to compete in National Off Road Racing Association's (NORRA) General Tire Mexican 1000 completed five of the race's nine stages while averaging a faster speed that its team expected earlier this month, Plug In Cars says.

The 535-horsepower SRI EV1 never broke down and cost a fraction to operate ($24 per 100 miles vs. $420 for conventional entrants) compared to the gas-powered competitors. The vehicle was built by SRI, SRD and EV West, who say that it houses 82 kilowatt hours of power, or enough battery power to supply an average American home for a week. The battery requires 4.5 hours for a full recharge. SRI, SRD and EV West revealed specs of the SRI EV1 last month.

The team said that it'd take another $250,000 in extra battery sets, generators and other equipment to allow for a battery swapping, which would be the scenario that would let the SRI EV1 to compete fully in the 1,200-mile Baja 1000. We look forward to what happens at next year's event.

Angst or no angst, Germany's government is sticking to its estimate for at least 1 million electric vehicles to be on the country's roads by the end of the decade, Reuters says, despite the fact that fewer than 3,000 EVs were sold in Germany last year.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel reaffirmed the goal as the government conducted a two-day industry conference highlighting advanced-powertrain technology in Berlin. Merkel said cooperation with other European countries on cleaner powertrains and infrastructure investments will be key to reaching the 2020 goal. The German automobile industry will invest more than $15 billion in advanced-powertrain development within the next four years, according to industry group VDA.

Earlier this month, BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer used the term "German angst" to describe what he said was the country's unwillingness to embrace plug-in vehicles. BMW will start sales of the i3 EV later this year, though Reithofer himself has said European emissions standards set for 2020 will be "impossible" to meet without further government funding for technology advancements.

Details on where and when this video of a gaggle of kindergarteners packing themselves into a Tesla Model S was shot are slim – we think Phoenix, AZ, based the license plate and this Tesla Motors Club post. Of course, all of that is kind of secondary compared to the obvious fun these kids are having. It's not a record-setting effort, which is why there's so much room left over – it's more of a chance to try and get an entire kindergarten class into one car. As a member posting on the Tesla Motors forum wrote, "We could have fit three more easily, without anyone sitting on top of someone else."

In any case, it's pretty adorable, and it has also given us our new favorite phrase: "Frunk Monkeys." Hazard your own guess as to how many youngsters will fit, then watch the video below to see how many kids can cram into the benchmark electric hatchback below.

Mercedes-Benz had said its all-electric Vito E-Cell cargo van had sufficient juice to keep the model as a viable transportation option, but the same apparently can't be said for Germans' appetite for the vehicle.

The Daimler division is putting future sales of the E-Cell on hold because of lack of demand, Car and Driver says, citing an interview with Mercedes-Benz van division chief Volker Mornhinweg. Just "a few hundred" E-Cell vehicles have been sold, causing the German automaker to put the model into "hibernation mode."

The Vito E-Cell has a single-charge range of about 81 miles and a top speed of 50 miles per hour as well as 80 horsepower out of its front-wheel drive set-up. In the spring of 2011, Mercedes-Benz and Paris-based rental company Europcar reached an agreement to have a few dozen E-Cells rented out on a trial basis in both Hamburg, Germany, and Paris, France.

Fans of Top Gear should have no trouble remembering the Peel P50. The infamous mini-minicar was first introduced in the early 1960s (and recently brought back into production), and starred in the now-infamous Top Gear test where host Jeremy Clarkson drove the tiny car through the offices of the BBC.

Now, you, too, can get on the same sort of minuscule commuting action with this 1963 Peel P50 replica, available on eBay Motors for the Buy It Now price of $27,000. This P50 was built by Andy Carter's Modern Microcars UK, imported to the United States in 2009, and is currently registered and plated in California. It features a period-correct interior and exterior, but is now powered by a 200cc four-stroke Honda kart engine. Buying this P50 replica also gets you the super cute 1963 Czech PAV single-wheel steel-body trailer seen here, completely restored with a new stainless-steel frame.

Sure, $27,000 is a high price to pay for what's essentially a street-legal novelty item, but remember, you can't drive even the smallest of today's cars through the hallways of your office. Check out the P50 in our gallery above and scroll down to watch six-foot-five Jeremy Clarkson spend a day behind the wheel of the world's tiniest car.

By now, we've all heard that Tesla has repaid its loan from the US Department of Energy – nine years ahead of schedule – and the Model S is selling well enough to put at least a little fear into Audi, but what's next? Well there's the Model X crossover slated for late next year, but it's the long-promised, frequently mentioned "affordable Tesla" that could really help cement the automaker in the automotive industry record books.

According to Bloomberg, CEO Elon Musk talked more about the new baby Tesla recently, saying that the car should come to market by 2017 at the latest. In terms of details, Musk says it will be priced below $40,000 with a range of about 200 miles. Taking a swipe at the would-be competition, he also added that it will be nicer than a Nissan Leaf. Given the recent Tesla-related PR blunders from Audi and Chrysler recently, we hope Nissan won't vent its displeasure at that statement.

Two companies have announced a merger that should assist plug-in electric vehicle drivers around the US. EV mobile application developer Recargo, Inc., is merging with Xatori, Inc., creator of the popular PlugShare charging station finder.

Both companies have seen membership double this year, as more and more EV drivers out there access the companies' charging locator apps, Recargo Station Finder and PlugShare. The companies will now be combining their resources into a mega-directory with more than 20,000 EV charging stations under the PlugShare brand. It will also offer more than 30,000 station reviews and 14,000 photos to assist with navigation.

Recargo's Brian Kariger will remain as CEO of the company, and Forrest North, CEO of Xatori, will serve as COO. All current staff are staying on after the merger. The company will retain its offices in Venice, and Menlo Park, CA, to continue to attract and retain talent and clientele in what it calls "the hottest EV markets." More details are available below.

Tesla Motors turned the "penny wise, dollar foolish" axiom on its head by staking its lithium-ion battery technology on a more expensive and more complex layout than its competitors, according to Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Instead of using battery packs with hundreds of larger cells for its Roaster, Tesla deployed thousands of smaller lithium-ion cells for its inaugural model in 2006. This made the battery pack more expensive to produce, but this costlier architecture was considered safer and less prone to breakdowns. Straubel said. Since then, Tesla has cut the cost of its battery packs in half during the past seven years while avoiding any recalls or reports of breakdowns due to the packs.

Earlier this month, Tesla said it delivered its first quarterly profit during the first quarter, boosting its sales 83 percent from a year earlier to $562 million and selling 4,900 Model S EVs, which was more than what the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in and Nissan Leaf battery-electric achieved.

BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer recently cited "German angst" as a concern for the automaker and its efforts to generate sales from its electric-drive vehicles starting later this year. Good thing the British don't appear to share that angst.

BMW has tapped 46 UK dealers to help launch the i3 battery-electric vehicle late this year and says interest in the car is "extremely high" (someone tell the RAC). In fact, more than 6,000 Britons have indicated that they'd potentially buy the i3, Hybrid Cars says, adding that BMW will sweeten the deal with features such as charging-station locators and route-planning abilities with the car.

The BMW-British partnership appears to have been a good one, as London was one of the "megacities" that company executives visited to get a better idea of how urban dwellers would respond to cars like the i3, Ulrich Kranz, head of BMW's Project i, told Automotive News. Folks from Los Angeles, Mexico City, Tokyo and Shanghai were also interviewed as a way for Bimmer to get a better handle on urban commutes, infrastructure and driving preferences. The first real results of all this research will be available later this year, when the i3 goes on sale.