Just to add to this, had a similar problem on a Windows 8.1 box running latest version of npm and cordova. My problem was related to the Ionic Keyboard plugin trying to download to a directory that does not exist… rather than anything to do with cordova being out of date. As soon as I added that directory tree in my AppData directory it worked fine.
Just in case it helps someone. Regards, Graham
Output from console:
DOWNLOADING: https://github.com/driftyco/ionic-app-base/archive/master.zip
DOWNLOADING: https://github.com/driftyco/ionic-starter-blank/archive/master.zip
Initializing cordova project.
Fetching plugin “org.apache.cordova.device” via plugin registry
Fetching plugin “org.apache.cordova.console” via plugin registry
Fetching plugin “https://github.com/driftyco/ionic-plugins-keyboard” via git clone
Error: Command failed: fatal: could not create work tree dir ‘C:\Users\fowlergz.ADF\AppData\Local\Temp\plugman\git\1400749889006’.: No such file or directory
at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:637:15)
at ChildProcess.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:98:17)
at maybeClose (child_process.js:743:16)
at Socket.<anonymous> (child_process.js:956:11)
at Socket.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:95:17)
at Pipe.close (net.js:465:12)
ERROR: Unable to add plugins. Perhaps your version of Cordova is too old. Try updating (npm install -g cordova), removing this project folder, and trying again.
Exiting.