Tesla and Samsung are talking about expanding their battery partnership, industry officials have told the Korea Times. “With Tesla seeking to diversify its battery sourcing channels beyond its key partner Panasonic, Samsung SDI will have greater room to supply more EV batteries to Tesla,” said an unnamed source. Samsung is expected to supply about 8… Read more »
Newswire
Tesla Q4 earnings: still in the red, but great things coming soon
Tesla’s earnings report for the 4th quarter of 2014 followed the usual pattern: there’s plenty of good news, but the company is still operating at a loss; Elon Musk dropped his customary vague hint of more wondrous goodies to come in the future; and the stock market reacted in its usual way – TSLA shares… Read more »
$30 million in Federal grants to pay for Proterra electric buses
The Federal Transit Administration FTA recently distributed $55 million in grants to 10 transit agencies as part of a program to deploy US-made electric transit buses. More than half of that money will be going to South Carolina-based Proterra, the Greenville News reported. Six transit agencies in five states will buy a total of 28… Read more »
PG&E proposes 25,000 new charging stations
Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has asked state regulators for permission to build an estimated 25,000 EV chargers, using $654 million in ratepayer dollars, at sites across its service area in Northern and Central California. The project would represent the largest deployment of EV charging stations in the country. The chargers are to be located at the usual… Read more »
Two new books describe life with Tesla’s Model S
Tesla is very much a product of the 21st century, so perhaps it’s fitting that, while there are loads of videos and online articles about the company, its cars and its colorful leader, so far there is not a lot in print. There are two good new books about Model S, and both make good… Read more »
Scalable axle module for commercial vehicles promises cost savings
A group of eleven German partners, including the Fraunhofer Institute, is developing an integrated axle module for commercial vehicles that promises high performance and reduced production costs. ESKAM, which stands for Electric Scalable Axle Module, includes a motor, gearbox and power electronics in a single compact housing. Advantages of the axle module include high power… Read more »
New book predicts the demise of the oil economy by 2030
Once in a while a book comes along that makes you see a familiar issue in a whole new light (call it a “paradigm shift” if you must). Such a book is Tony Seba’s Clean Disruption. Not only is it a well-researched and well-thought-out work, but it makes a gripping read, and is the most… Read more »
London charging network in a muddle as stakeholders squabble
The city of London has ambitions to be an EV capital. Under the leadership of Mayor Boris Johnson, a proponent of electromobility, the capital of Cool Britannia is sponsoring trials of electric buses and cabs, and began building a public charging network in 2011. Public charging is especially important in London, as three quarters of… Read more »
Beating the polysulfide shuttle to build a solid-state battery approaching theoretical capacity
The latest advance in lithium-sulfur technology comes courtesy of a research team from Samsung and the University of Rome, who have built a solid-state Li-S battery with a capacity (∼1600 mAhg−1) approaching the theoretical value and Coulombic efficiency approaching 99%. In a paper published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, the team concludes that… Read more »
Tesla hopes better charging infrastructure will mean more Chinese sales
Tesla is hoping for great things in China, but sales seem to be materializing more slowly than expected. TSLA stock took a dive in January, after Musk said that Chinese sales were down in Q4 2014. It may have nothing to do with the sales slowdown, but the head of Tesla’s Chinese operations, Veronica Wu,… Read more »