The Nissan LEAF, the all electric car, is going to have a 3G connection on AT&T"s cellular network in the US and other GSM networks worldwide. The data connection will allow you to connect to your car to check the battery charge remotely or help you find the nearest charging station while you are driving.
earth2tech got to test the Nissan LEAF and said, "In-vehicle IT services include being able to see the radius that the car can drive with the current battery state of charge, as well as being able to identify the closest available electric vehicle charger on a map. The car also has a dedicated iPhone application and LEAF-owners will be able to remotely monitor the state of charge of the battery, and can pre-heat or pre-cool the car."
Nissan chose AT&T as the carrier because of their GSM support, GSM is a worldwide mobile standard unlike Verizon"s CDMA network which only works in the US. Once connected to the AT&T, network all of the data is sent to the Nissan data centers which then send you the information you requested.
The Nissan LEAF goes on sale in December and will carry a $33,000 price tag, which makes it one of the most in-expensive all electric cars on the market. Chevy is also releasing an electric car called the Chevy Volt, it will cost $41,000. The Volt will run on batteries but it also has a gasoline engine that charges the batteries when they are depleted. The Chevy Volt includes 5 years of OnStar Service that include a mobile app for remote control. The OnStar mobile app will allow you to schedule battery charge times, check to see if the vehicle is plugged in, check the charger voltage, get text notifications of interruption or completion of a battery charge, and turn on climate control.