Ricardo and Orient have announced a partnership to support the development of Orient’s next-generation energy storage systems. The battery pack development support offered by Ricardo includes applying new cell chemistries and battery architectures, designing and building prototype packs, supporting customers and full-scale manufacturing. Orient will use Ricardo’s expertise to incorporate advanced battery state and parameter… Read more »
If EVs are to replace fossil-fuel vehicles, they need to be able to make long highway trips, which means that DC fast charging needs to be reliable, convenient, affordable and ubiquitous. However, as Charged and other media have often reported, we’re still in the early days of public EV charging, and the user experience often… Read more »
Q&A with Hakan Ekmen, Managing Director umlaut US How do the various public fast charging networks compare in terms of reliability, convenience, coverage and price? Charged recently partnered with the German firm umlaut to begin to determine the state of the charging network user experience. After performing a comparative study of network providers in Germany,… Read more »
Hyundai has unveiled a new dedicated EV platform. Beginning in 2021, the Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) will underpin a range of new EVs, including Hyundai’s IONIQ 5 and a 2021 Kia EV. The E-GMP’s compact new power electric (PE) system consists of a motor, EV transmission and inverter integrated into a single compact module. Hyundai… Read more »
Elkem has opened a new production workshop in Shanghai, dedicated to the development and manufacturing of specialized silicones for EVs. Elkem tells us that an EV contains an average of four times more silicone than a legacy car. Silicone is a key component in airbags, cables, hoses and tires, and Elkem is a supplier to… Read more »
Mercedes-Benz Bank, together with insurance partner R+V/KRAVAG, is now offering insurance policies specially adapted to the requirements of commercial EV owners. The full coverage insurance includes cover for inductive charging plates, charging cables and wallboxes, disposal costs for the battery, and replacement value cover for the vehicle and the battery. The eVan insurance is currently… Read more »
Motiv has announced a new generation of its EPIC chassis for medium-duty fleet EVs. The company says its fifth-generation EPIC F-59 and E-450 chassis reduce the total number of components in the electric powertrain by 30 percent, while also improving range, acceleration and top speed. The fifth-generation EPIC chassis incorporates BMW’s high-performance batteries in a… Read more »
Ebusco is a supplier of electric buses and depot chargers, while ROCSYS supplies plug-in robots. The two Dutch companies are working together on a system to automate charging at bus depots, using a robotically-controlled CCS charging system. “The advantages of automating bus depots are many and varied,” says Peter Bijvelds, CEO of Ebusco. “Automating this… Read more »
Volkswagen has begun construction of a Battery Engineering Lab at its Chattanooga Engineering and Planning Center. The $22-million facility will test and validate EV cells and battery packs for the North American region. The new lab will join VW’s under-construction EV production expansion and battery pack assembly facility to form the company’s hub for EV… Read more »
Broader collaboration among key stakeholders and a new generation of finance solutions will be needed to electrify trucks and buses at scale by 2050, according to a new report released by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), MJ Bradley and Vivid Economics. The authors of “Financing the Transition” interviewed more than 30 fleet operators, as well… Read more »
