New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) have announced that over $24 million is available to replace diesel-powered transit buses with new all-electric buses. As part of the state’s $128-million allocation from the federal Volkswagen Settlement, NYSERDA will invest $18.4 million to fund… Read more »
The BMZ Group, an international company headquartered in Germany, produces Li-ion batteries for everything from power tools to stationary storage to industrial vehicles such as forklifts. Now the company is seeing a surge in demand for its batteries from makers of a wide variety of medical equipment, especially ventilators. In some cases, the volume of… Read more »
Cold weather poses a challenge for EVs (though hardly a deal-breaker, as thousands of Norwegian drivers can attest). Not only does battery performance take a hit in low temperatures, but the resistance heating systems used in most EVs consume power, reducing range. Tesla has addressed that issue with the design of the Model Y, which… Read more »
Electric powertrain manufacturer Equipmake has teamed up with additive manufacturing company HiETA Technologies to develop a next-generation motor, codenamed AMPERE. The project is the group’s attempt to produce a lightweight, efficient, low-cost electric motor with peak power density of more than 20 kW per kg. AMPERE is made using additive manufacturing, which allows its metal… Read more »
In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute demonstrated how they can overcome the dendrite problem to create a metal battery that performs nearly as well as a lithium-ion battery but relies on potassium, which the researchers say is a more abundant and less expensive element…. Read more »
Editor’s note: This information is current as of the evening of March 19. Further updates may follow. After several days of contradictory information, and what appears to have been a valiant attempt to keep the vehicle production lines open, Tesla issued the following statement Thursday: Despite taking all known health precautions, continued operations in certain… Read more »
BorgWarner´s latest coolant heaters are expected to appear in 2021 on the next generation of passenger electric cars produced by global OEMs. The company has been chosen as a supplier for cabin heating and battery conditioning solutions for several high-volume vehicle programs. “Our Battery and Cabin Heater has become the technology of choice for some… Read more »
Yellow-machine builder Case has unveiled a new all-electric backhoe, which it claims performs as well as a diesel while saving up to 90% in operating costs. “The CASE 580 EV (electric vehicle) delivers backhoe power and performance equivalent to its diesel counterpart while also providing instant torque, lower jobsite noise, lower daily and lifetime operating… Read more »
Beneath California’s Salton Sea lies a vast pool of super-heated fluid that’s long been exploited as a source of geothermal power. The underground reservoir is also rich in lithium, but over the years, so many companies have tried, and failed, to economically extract the light white stuff, that the area has been called a “graveyard… Read more »
US states have been on an EV-taxing spree over the last couple of years. Many states have established or increased annual taxes on EV ownership—including supposedly EV-friendly states like Oregon and Washington. Proponents of the tax increases invariably argue that they’re needed to make up for a growing shortfall in gas tax revenues (in an… Read more »
