After a gradual build-up, Daimler’s automotive brands are now showing their stuff in the EV arenas of three continents. Stateside, the spotlight lands on the new, competitively priced Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive. Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA), hasn’t been the most visible mover or shaker in electric mobility up to this… Read more »
Posts By: Markkus Rovito
Harley-Davidson’s Chief Engineer on the development of Project LiveWire
As Harley-Davidson tours America testing the waters for its prototype electric motorcycle, LiveWire, early riders like what they see and hear. For decades, few names have been as synonymous with traversing the American landscape as Harley-Davidson. After 111 years, Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Harley-Davidson Motor Company has survived many ups and downs, including outlasting the Great Depression,… Read more »
Impregnating motors with thermal management materials to reduce hot spots
A doctoral candidate plucks a thermal management material out of LORD Corporation’s voluminous catalog, and one Ph.D. later, the EV world may have an exciting new boon for the efficiency of electric motors. Anyone working within the corporate world has probably been battered with the word “synergy” to the point of it being rendered meaningless…. Read more »
Phinergy CEO on aluminum-air batteries and 1,000-mile range-extended EVs
Along with its industry giant partner Alcoa, Israeli startup Phinergy says it has aluminum-air batteries for EVs in the can. More than 550 feet over the National Mall in Washington, DC, the single most significant piece of American aluminum triangulates a point between the White House, the US Capitol, and the Lincoln Memorial. It is… Read more »
Will Nissan’s No Charge to Charge program drive LEAF sales?
Image above courtesy of WSDOT/Flickr Nissan and NRG eVgo have pioneered a multi-network consortium to make topping up the bestselling EV a considerable re-LEAF. When Nissan last graced the Charged cover (March/April 2013 issue), the company was picking itself up and dusting itself off. Its LEAF had taken a shellacking in the press after the… Read more »
OLEV Technologies’ dynamic wireless inductive system charges vehicles while in motion
When one thinks of Nikola Tesla and electric vehicles, the obvious connection points to Elon Musk’s favorite part-time project. However, we also have to give the Serbian inventor proper credit for pioneering technology that eventually may become even more important to EVs than battery breakthroughs. Tesla’s obsession with wireless power transmission defined much of his… Read more »
Silicon rally: EnerG2’s new silicon battery anode material
It seems that every time the hottest new smartphone or tablet comes out, one of the biggest points of contention among users is its battery life. The demands put on the batteries run them down faster than users would like, and the OEMs can’t simply increase the batteries’ size while still hitting their targets for… Read more »
What you need to know about the 2014-2015 FIA Formula E Championship
When it looks like a Formula 1 car and sounds like a hovercraft from a sci-fi movie – or maybe a fighter jet from the spirit world – that’s one of the new Spark-Renault SRT_01E race cars, specially designed for the 2014-2015 FIA Formula E Championship. That’s right: FIA, the worldwide governing body for Formula… Read more »
First look at the Energica Ego, an Italian electric superbike
Bringing four decades of racing heritage with it, Italian 3D-printed parts manufacturer CRP enters the world of electric street motorcycles with its high-performance superbike, the Energica Ego. Throughout Italy, racing pervades the culture. Within a 30-mile radius in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, you’ll find the headquarters of Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Ducati, representing… Read more »
CalBattery’s new SiGr anode material hopes to break the battery bottleneck
California Lithium Battery took advantage of national and local government programs so it could focus on its revolutionary silicon-graphene anode material. Now with EV, electronics, and energy storage customers lining up, it hopes to break the battery bottleneck. When you think about a bottleneck, you think about constriction – something that moves in a particular… Read more »