Scania plans to test a wirelessly charged plug-in hybrid city bus in Södertälje, Sweden. The prototype bus, which is scheduled to hit the streets in June 2016, can be wirelessly charged at one of its stops via a charging station located under the road surface. A six-to-seven-minute charging session delivers enough charge for a complete… Read more »
Battery manufacturer Boston Power has secured $290 million in local government support for the expansion of its two facilities in China. The company’s Liyang facility will increase its manufacturing capacity fivefold by 2016. Its Tianjin facility is expected to reach 8 GWh in manufacturing capacity by 2018. Boston Power expects China’s EV market to be… Read more »
New York-based ultracapacitor manufacturer Ioxus has introduced a new line of high-temperature 1250-Farad cells. According to the company, its proprietary Titan technology meets the requirement of automotive customers for ultracaps with a wider operating range that meets both cold and high temperature standards. Ioxus’ newest line of cells functions at temperatures ranging from -40 to… Read more »
Tesla has a couple of Christmas presents for those of little faith who have been getting impatient for a couple of goodies promised for this year. A prototype battery-swapping station should be up and running within days, and details of the Roadster battery upgrade are to be released soon. “Roadster update details coming next week,”… Read more »
As the 2016 Chevrolet Volt’s official debut at the Detroit Auto Show in January draws closer, GM is revealing more and more details of its second-generation PHEV. In a video released this week, GM Executive VP Mark Reuss and Volt Chief Engineer Andrew Farah demonstrate the new driver-controllable regen. Like the 2014 Cadillac ELR, the… Read more »
Audi has released some details of the 2016 Q7 crossover, which will be offered in a diesel plug-in hybrid version. The new Q7 is built on the Volkswagen Group’s MLB-Evo platform for large cars with longitudinal engines. Audi says high-tech materials have allowed it to reduce the vehicle’s weight by over 700 pounds compared to… Read more »
Renault has previewed a new EV motor that it says will enter production in 2015. The synchronous electric motor offers 65 kW of power and 220 Nm (162 lb-ft) of peak torque, and features an integrated Chameleon charger. Renault designed the new motor with integration, miniaturization and simplification in mind. It uses smaller and fully… Read more »
Semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies and semiconductor foundry United Microelectronics (NYSE: UMC), which have worked together for 15 years, plan to extend their manufacturing partnership into power semiconductors for automotive applications. Infineon will transfer its automotive-qualified Smart Power Technology (SPT9) to UMC, and production will be extended to 300 mm wafers. Production of SPT9 products at… Read more »
Updated 12/19/14 12:50 pm EST to include today’s tweet from Elon Musk’s regarding battery-swap stations. Predictions are a dime a dozen (and so are alliterative clichés), but here are two that always seem to come true: any time the price of a headline stock goes down, media pundits start chiming in with “I told you so”… Read more »
General Electric, together with Con Edison and researchers at Columbia University, is working on a way to use Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition software to help operators of public EV chargers avoid expensive demand charges from utilities. The GE team has developed an EV charging station that uses software to estimate how much electricity will… Read more »
