VIA Motors has received official certification from the EPA for its eREV van, and has begun delivering vehicles to fleet customers. According to the company, 23 vans have already been delivered, with three more in transit and more on the way. SEE ALSO: New white paper urges utilities to electrify their vehicle fleets Based on a… Read more »
Several small companies hope to electrify the commercial fleet vehicle market. Most of them are taking what they see as the path of least resistance – converting existing trucks to plug-in hybrids. However, a North Carolina-based firm with the evocative name EV Fleet is going all the way, betting that companies will opt for the… Read more »
Two California utility companies have requested permission to enter the EV charging station business, and a group of state legislators has recommended that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) lift a 2011 ban on investor-owned utilities owning EV charging infrastructure. The original intent of the ban was to protect competition in what was then a… Read more »
Toyota has announced that its hydrogen fuel-cell sedan, unveiled at this week’s Los Angeles Auto Show, will be called the Mirai, which means “future” in Japanese. “For us, this isn’t just another car,” said Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda at a pre-show press event. “This is an opportunity to really make a difference. This is a… Read more »
Daimler subsidiary Li-Tec will stop producing Li-ion battery cells in December, closing the only German factory currently producing cells for EVs. “Our cells are very good, but at current production figures far too expensive,” Daimler Manager Harald Kröger told Der Spiegel. “We have realized that a car manufacturer does not have to produce the cells… Read more »
Los Angeles Air Force Base has replaced its entire general-purpose vehicle fleet with plug-in vehicles. The 42-vehicle fleet includes 13 Nissan LEAFs, five Ford pick-up trucks with EVAOS PHEV kits, 9 VIA Motors VTRUX vans, four Electric Vehicle International medium-duty trucks and one Phoenix Motorcars 12-passenger bus. Most are equipped with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability, allowing… Read more »
Nissan has added Chicago to its No Charge to Charge promotion, which offers two years of free public charging with the purchase or lease of a new LEAF. RELATED: PlugShare will be official charger locator app for Nissan’s No Charge to Charge program “Nissan LEAF is an attractive option for Chicago car buyers for a number… Read more »
They’re at it again. As Toyota execs talk trash about electric powertrains, subsidiary Lexus has launched a second ad campaign (via Green Car Reports) that makes fun of EVs, touting pure hybrids as superior. In the latest five-minute video (perhaps an outtake from the new Dumb and Dumber movie), two groups of jokers set out on a… Read more »
Celgard, a subsidiary of Polypore International (NYSE: PPO) and Panasonic have agreed to work together to develop coated and uncoated Celgard brand separators for Panasonic’s next-generation cylindrical battery cells. Upon completion of the development effort, the two firms expect to form a long term supply agreement. A battery separator provides a barrier between the anode… Read more »
In the charged world of the future, EVs will take energy from the grid when needed, and return energy to the grid when needed. This will require utilities to have a dependable way to measure the back-and-forth flow of electrons, so they can charge (or pay) their customers appropriately. In the industry, this is known… Read more »
