Wright Electric, a US developer of ultra-lightweight motors, generators and batteries for the aerospace and military sectors, along with its partners, which include NASA, DOE and DOD, has been awarded a $3.34-million grant from the FAA’s Fueling Aviation’s Sustainable Transition (FAST) program. The funding will be used to develop a new class of batteries for… Read more »
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Wright Electric aims to develop EV battery with 1,000 Wh/kg specific energy
Wright Electric, provider of electric propulsion systems for regional aircraft, has launched an initiative to develop batteries targeting 1,000 watt hours per kilogram (Wh/kg) pack-level specific energy. “When I founded Wright, the best vehicle batteries had [specific energy] below 250 Wh/kg,” said Jeff Engler, CEO of Wright. “Now several large manufacturers are advertising cells at… Read more »
Wright Electric proposes to convert BAe 146 regional aircraft to hydrogen or aluminum fuel cell drive
Electric aviation is in its infancy—as far as we know, no e-planes are yet carrying passengers in commercial service. However, several firms are rapidly developing electric aircraft—Rolls Royce, Bye Aerospace, Heart Aerospace and Eviation are developing battery-electric planes, while ZeroAvia is placing its bet on hydrogen fuel cells. California-based Wright Electric is taking what appears… Read more »
Wright Electric unveils design concepts for electric aircraft
Wright Electric, a partner of European airline easyJet, recently unveiled design concepts for the Wright 1, a 186-seat electric aircraft. Wright is building a 1.5 MW electric motor and 3 kV inverter. The company is in discussions with BAE Systems to develop flight controls and energy management systems. Wright plans to conduct ground tests in… Read more »
Q&A with Ian Wright: The CEO of Wrightspeed on Tesla, gas turbines and electric trucks
Ian Wright is originally from New Zealand. He came to California in 1993, where he happened to be a neighbor of Tesla founder Martin Eberhard. He worked with optical switching systems at a company called Altamar Networks until it went out of business, then decided he wanted to start his own company. Eberhard and his… Read more »
Wright to develop high-power lightweight batteries for US Air Force
US-based Wright Electric, a manufacturer of ultra-lightweight motors, generators and batteries for aerospace and military applications, has been awarded the US Air Force AFWERX SBIR Phase 1 contract to develop Wright’s rechargeable thermal batteries for use in multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles. Wright, in conjunction with NASA, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and the Department of… Read more »
Wrightspeed partners with Matthews Specialty Vehicles to convert buses and trucks to electrified drive
Wrightspeed, the firm founded by Tesla co-founder Ian Wright, builds electric powertrains for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Now the company has announced an agreement with vehicle manufacturer Matthews Specialty Vehicles to convert buses, trucks and specialty vehicles to EVs and/or PHEVs. The companies aim to produce 5,000 vehicles over the next five years. For the… Read more »
Lightning eMotors and Forest River partner to deploy up to 7,500 electric shuttle buses
Lightning eMotors (NYSE: ZEV), a provider of specialty commercial EVs for fleets, and Forest River, a Berkshire Hathaway company, have formed a strategic partnership to deploy up to 7,500 zero-emission shuttle buses. The $850-million deal calls for Lightning to build fully electric powertrains and provide charging products and services for Forest River over the next… Read more »
Wright develops inverter for zero-emissions aircraft
Wright Electric has developed an inverter for large zero-emissions aircraft. Designed to be scalable from 500 kW to 20 MW systems, the Wright inverter targets the following performance levels: 99.5% efficiency—a 6x improvement in heat loss over current in-production aviation inverters resulting in lower thermal management loads. 30 kW/kg power density—in contrast, today’s technology delivers… Read more »
Wrightbus launches fuel cell-powered double decker bus
Northern Ireland-based bus manufacturer Wrightbus showed a production-ready fuel cell-powered double decker bus at the recent Euro Bus Expo in Birmingham, UK. Wrightbus developed the Streetdeck FCEV with funding from the EU-backed Joint Initiative for hydrogen Vehicles across Europe project (JIVE, which some would call a fitting name). The new Streetdeck FCEV bus features a… Read more »