Two high-profile groups have announced plans to field teams for Formula E, the all-electric racing series that will take place in 10 city centers around the world, beginning in Beijing in September 2014. The Virgin Racing and Venturi teams became the ninth and tenth to join, making the roster complete. Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin empire… Read more »
Sekisui Chemical has developed a film-type lithium-ion battery that incorporates several promising innovations. It features a silicon anode, and uses the company’s original materials technology to enable the application of the gel-type electrolytes using a coating process instead of the standard vacuum infusion process. According to the company, the flexible film-type cells can be installed… Read more »
The Prius Plug-In is going wireless, and WiTricity will be providing its resonant power transfer technology. This week, the Massachusetts-based MIT spinout announced an intellectual property license agreement with Toyota, which has been an investor in WiTricity since 2011. Toyota announced plans to add wireless charging to the Prius line in August. “We have heard… Read more »
Mitsubishi has drastically dropped the price of its 2014 i-MiEV, and added several features as standard equipment. The new MSRP is $22,995 – a $6,130 price reduction from the previous 2012 model year vehicle (was there really no 2013 model?). After tax breaks, California residents could be driving electric for $12,995 – no more than… Read more »
We’ve got smart cars, a smart grid…and now a smart nail. Jeff Dahn and his colleagues at Dalhousie University have added some intelligence to the lowly steel nail in order to improve penetration testing on Li-ion batteries. The team described its project in the current issue of the Journal of Power Sources. An abstract: Nail… Read more »
Back in 2012, battery startup Envia was the toast of Silicon Valley. Its innovative battery technology had achieved the highest energy density ever recorded for a lithium-ion cell – a breakthrough that could halve the costs of EV batteries – and the company already had a deal to supply cells to GM. Today, the company… Read more »
Ohio was the site of the latest battle in the war between Tesla and the auto dealers, and the subversives from Silicon Valley seem to have won the day. The Ohio Dealers Association got an anti-Tesla amendment added to Ohio Senate Bill 137 – an unrelated bill that requires drivers to change lanes when highway… Read more »
It’s a nail-biting battle for the lead in the plug-in sales race. The Nissan LEAF barely edged into the lead for November, selling 2,003 units – one more than in October. Sales of the world’s most popular pure EV have already more than doubled 2012’s figure. The 2014 LEAF is in production now and should… Read more »
Mazda doesn’t often make the EV news, but the Japanese brand does have an electric program – it has leased some 100 units of the Demio EV (the Demio is known outside of Japan as the Mazda 2), which has a 20 kWh lithium-ion battery and a 200 km range, to local government bodies and… Read more »
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a formal request for detailed information from Tesla for the agency’s investigation into the recent Model S fires. NHTSA is investigating “underbody deformation in the Model S resulting from impacts with road debris including, but not limited to, consequent intrusion into the battery compartment and associated… Read more »
