Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess has been talking some smack about going electric, and giving the big T some competition. In an interview with Automotive News, he threw out a figure of 50 million electric cars, and said VW will be able to offer “much lower” prices than Tesla. According to AN, “VW has booked production… Read more »
Mitsubishi Electric has developed an energy-management system capable of scheduling EV charging, discharging back into the grid, and optimizing the operation of PV and other power-generation systems according to the fluctuating unit price of electricity sold on the grid. A demonstration of the technology is underway at the company’s automotive factory in Changshu, China. The cost… Read more »
Workhorse has begun initial production of a light-weight electric delivery vehicle, the Workhorse NGEN-1000. At 4,000 pounds and with up to 1,000 cubic feet of storage, the van’s weight is less than half that of conventional diesel step-vans with similar storage capacity. The vehicle will boast a 100-mile range, according to Workhorse, and come in four… Read more »
Daimler, the parent company of Thomas Built Buses, recently made a major investment in electric bus maker Proterra. Now the two companies have unveiled an electric school bus featuring Proterra’s powertrain. Thomas originally presented the Saf-T-Liner eC2, aka Jouley, in late 2017. The latest version is being co-developed at Proterra’s Greenville, South Carolina manufacturing facility…. Read more »
Swiss electronics giant ABB is building a new global headquarters and R&D center that will focus on its EVSE products. The $10-million, 3,600-square-meter facility will be built on the TU Delft Campus in the Dutch city of Heertjeslaan, and is due for completion in June 2019. The complex will house up to 120 people, and… Read more »
Daimler is one of several companies, including major OEMs and startups, working on electric trucks. At the American Trucking Association’s annual Management Conference & Exhibition, Roger Nielsen, CEO of Daimler Trucks North America, told journalists that the company’s development of electric trucks is happening “at a greater speed than expected.” Just before the conference, Daimler… Read more »
The Energy Web Foundation (EWF) has introduced a new software toolkit for EV charging that enables the verification and tracking of green attributes associated with electricity generation and consumption. The EV charging toolkit is an extension of EWF’s existing EW Origin blockchain-based toolkits. It’s focused on automatically charging EVs with clean energy and determining the… Read more »
Changes are afoot at Tesla. The company has announced that existing board member Robyn Denholm will replace Elon Musk as Chair of the Tesla Board, effective immediately. Ms. Denholm will be serving as Tesla Chair on a full-time basis, and plans to leave her position as CFO and Head of Strategy at Australian telecom giant… Read more »
Dutch firm RGS has introduced a nano-porous silicon material called E-magy that’s designed to be used in the anodes of Li-ion batteries. The company claims its material can increase battery anode capacity by up to 50%. Battery boffins have long dreamed of replacing carbon material in anodes with silicon, but in practice the amount of… Read more »
One of the most common complaints about Tesla vehicles has been inconsistent fit and finish, specifically abnormally large or irregular gaps between body panels. Now the company has applied for a patent on a new clamping system that it hopes will eliminate the issue once and for all. Tesla explains in its patent application (via… Read more »