Newswire

Volkswagen mobility subsidiary presents concept electric van designed for ride sharing

MOIA, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, introduced a concept electric van designed for ride pooling at the recent TechCrunch show in Berlin. MOIA is currently testing its ride pooling service in Hannover, using a fleet of Volkswagen Multivan T6 vehicles. It hopes to put the entire ecosystem, including the new electric van, into service… Read more »

Fastned raises 12 million euros to expand its European fast-charging network

Dutch charging network operator Fastned has raised 12.3 million euros in a public bond issue. The company will use the new funding to further expand its network of fast chargers in the Netherlands, Germany and other European countries. Fastned currently has 63 fast-charging stations operational, and a new series of stations is under construction. It… Read more »

Chinese shipyard launches all-electric cargo ship – for hauling coal

A shipyard in Guangzhou, the capital of China’s Guangdong province, has launched what it says is the world’s first all-electric cargo ship. According to China Daily, the 230-foot vessel uses a 2,400 kWh battery system comprised of 1,000 individual lithium-ion packs. Range is 50 miles with a load of 2,200 tons of cargo and a… Read more »

Ford plans to launch 15 new electrified models in China

Global automakers are pushing their EV programs into high gear, announcing massive investments and lots of new electric models to be produced in the near future…in China. The Asian giant has the most aggressive electrification strategy of any major country -zero-emission vehicles must make up 10% of new car sales in 2019, and 12% in… Read more »

Battery management device reconfigures battery modules to extend EV range

A pair of Vanderbilt University researchers have developed a battery management device that could increase the useful range of a battery pack by controlling each cell individually. Ken Pence, Professor of the Practice of Engineering Management, and Tim Potteiger, a PhD student in electrical engineering, used the open-source Tesla battery to model their technique, adding… Read more »

Motor Trend compares Bolt, LEAF and Model 3 head-to-head

This is a milestone review – the first head-to-head comparison of three EVs that “really could be your affordable, every-day, one-and-only car” – and Motor Trend assigned it to a star team of electro-journalists. Reviewers Kim Reynolds, Patrick Hong and Alec Brooks have been working with EVs since the days of the EV1 and the… Read more »

SAE J2954 Recommended Practice enables automated wireless charging to 11 kW

SAE International has published a new Recommended Practice (RP), SAE J2954, which provides the first worldwide specification for wireless power transfer (WPT) up to power levels of 11 kW (WPT 3). This follows the organization’s previous Technical Information Report J2954, which dealt with power levels up to 7.7 kW (WPT 2). The new RP also… Read more »

MIT professor wins VW/BASF electrochemistry award for solid-state battery research

Dr. Jennifer Rupp, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, has won the BASF and Volkswagen Science Award Electrochemistry 2017 for her outstanding research results in the area of next-generation energy storage systems. Dr. Rupp’s research focuses on material and electrode designs for solid-state batteries. She explored a novel glassy-type lithium-ion conductor that… Read more »

EVgo installs its 1,000th US DC fast charger

Charging network operator EVgo has opened its 1,000th DC fast charging station in the US, in partnership with Nissan. The milestone station is located in a new apartment complex in Falls Church, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. It includes two DC fast chargers, each capable of delivering up to 50 kW of power. The Loren… Read more »