An engineering research team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts recently won a million-dollar contract from the United States Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) to develop an innovative process for recycling used Li-ion batteries. The team, led by WPI professor Yan Wang, it created a patented closed-loop recycling process that works like this: the batteries… Read more »
Schottel, a German manufacturer of ship propulsion and steering systems, has signed a contract with Damen Shipyards to equip two new fully electric double-ended ferries, which will serve Wolfe Island and Amherst Island in Ontario. The new ships are expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by around 7 million kg per year. The new e-ferries… Read more »
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) recently submitted a proposal to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to create new commercial plug-in vehicle charging rates. Right now, fleet operators often pay higher rates to charge their EVs than regular business customers do. PG&E is proposing a subscription-based model that will let customers choose the quantity… Read more »
Trojan Battery, a supplier of deep-cycle electric batteries, has released a new line of lithium-ion batteries to replace existing lead-acid ones. The new Trillium batteries have a life expectancy of over 5,000 cycles. They come in 3 sizes and work in lots of situations that require deep-cycle batteries, such as utility vehicles and other heavy-duty… Read more »
UK engineering icon Ricardo will assist Volvo Cars to develop a large-scale testing program to assess the life-cycle characteristics of new lithium-ion cells to determine their suitability for various future electrified vehicle applications. Ricardo noted that the work will build on the company’s extensive experience in all aspects of electrified vehicle powertrains. In terms of… Read more »
San Diego-based Envision Solar has announced that the European Patent Office has approved a patent for the company’s EV ARC product line. Envision recently announced the issuance of a Chinese patent for its EV ARC product and a US patent for its Transformer ARC product. The company’s EV-Standard and UAV ARC are in advanced stages… Read more »
The federal EV tax credit is something of a blunt instrument, but there’s little doubt that it has encouraged a substantial number of EV purchases. The future of the $7,500 tax credit is uncertain. Recently, one Republican senator introduced a bill to expand the credit, and another introduced a bill to get rid of it… Read more »
Orion Engineered Carbons (NYSE: OEC), a supplier of specialty and high-performance carbon black, has agreed to acquire the French firm Société du Noir d’Acétylène de l’Aubette (which we’ll just call SN2A), a manufacturer of acetylene carbon black. Acetylene black is an ultra-pure specialty carbon black distinguished by its high electrical and thermal conductivity. It’s used… Read more »
Can this be true? Is Tesla, which prides itself on doing things its own way, going to adopt the same DC fast charging plug used by ordinary EVs? Yep. The company has confirmed (via Electrek) that Model 3 vehicles sold in the European market will come with a CCS Combo 2 charge port. An adapter for Models… Read more »
Audi and Umicore, a materials technology and recycling group, have successfully tested a closed-loop approach for recycling components of high-voltage batteries. The companies’ research has shown that 95 percent of raw materials contained in batteries – including cobalt, nickel, and copper – can be recovered and reused for new products. In a closed-loop recycling approach,… Read more »