UQM has launched a new line of PowerPhase HD2 electric motor inverters. The system is half the weight of previous models (16 kg with a volume of 14 liters) and is rated for 950 A, up to 750 V and 250 kW. It is designed for medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles and is set to… Read more »
Passenger cars get most of the press, but heavy-duty vehicles are arguably even more in need of reducing emissions. In California, there’s a comprehensive (and complicated) plan to electrify everything. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has announced up to $205 million in new grants for projects to advance clean freight technologies. The grants will… Read more »
Lucid Motors has made an agreement with Electrify America to provide a nationwide charging plan to Lucid customers. In its first phase of construction, Electrify America will install over 2,000 DC ultra-fast chargers at around 500 sites in metro and highway locations across 40 states and 17 major cities. Lucid selected Electrify America because of… Read more »
Wildcat Discovery Technologies is working with the Tianmu Lake Advanced Energy Storage Technology Institute (TIES) in a new multi-year project geared towards the development and optimization of high energy-density lithium-ion batteries. Wildcat will use its high-speed testing capabilities to provide TIES with as much data as possible. In turn, TIES’s team (headed by Professor Hong Li),… Read more »
innogy eMobility US, a subsidiary of German utility Innogy, has acquired software firm Recargo, maker of the PlugShare charging app. PlugShare is a network-agnostic EV charging application designed to give EV drivers accurate, up-to-date data for all charging stations, regardless of operator. It aims to provide a complete database of every charging location in the… Read more »
The iconic Blue Bird school bus is getting charged. Blue Bird (NASDAQ: BLBD) was founded in 1927, and around 180,000 of the company’s buses are in operation today. Now the company has delivered its first electric school buses to customers in California and Ontario, just in time for the new school year. Seven Type D… Read more »
There’s a new breed of EV in testing at an undisclosed location in Europe. Elaphe Propulsion, an EU-based manufacturer of in-wheel electric propulsion systems, has built a prototype vehicle, based on an Audi R8 space-frame chassis, that uses no dedicated space on the car for the powertrain. Elaphe’s configuration squeezes the motors into the existing… Read more »
Sponsored by Elkem Silicones Heat dissipation is critical for the electronics and batteries to function for their intended lifetime and reach the desired levels of performance and reliability in EV applications. Without proper thermal management, lithium-ion batteries can overheat during charging or discharging. There can also be a non-uniform temperature distribution within the battery packs which… Read more »
Last week, the US DOT and EPA held public hearings on the Trump administration’s proposal to reverse existing federal fuel efficiency and emissions standards. The administration has attempted to justify the rollback of standards by claiming that higher fuel economy would lead to more highway fatalities because of the trend towards reducing the weight of… Read more »
Bill Ford, Executive Chairman of the Ford Motor Company, recently gave a speech to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Rouge, the historic auto plant that he called “the heart of Ford,” and the place “where the industrial revolution took hold.” Mr. Ford says the Rouge is “as environmentally progressive as heavy manufacturing can be,”… Read more »