Newswire

Rollback of clean car standards slammed at public hearings

This week, the US DOT and EPA held three days of hearings to gather public comments on the Trump administration’s proposal to reverse existing federal fuel efficiency and emissions standards. At the hearings in Fresno, Dearborn, and Pittsburgh, hundreds of people, including physicians and health advocates, former EPA officials and technology entrepreneurs, environmental advocates and… Read more »

New book tells the fascinating story of Shai Agassi and Better Place

Does anybody remember Better Place? It seems quite a few people do, especially in Israel. Shai Agassi is one of many brilliant businessmen to come from the country that many know as Silicon Wadi or the Start-Up Nation, but according to Brian Blum, the author of the new book Totaled, “Agassi was, and remains one… Read more »

Porsche unveils new modular concept for fast charging stations

Porsche has been ahead of the curve on fast charging, developing its own 800-volt charging system, while also participating in cross-brand infrastructure projects including Electrify America and Ionity. Earlier this year, the company announced plans to deploy a network of 500 charging stations in North America in time for the launch of its Taycan EV… Read more »

California considers an additional $2,000 EV purchase incentive

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) will hold a hearing this week to consider increasing the state’s plug-in vehicle purchase incentive from the current $2,500 to $4,500, in order to compensate for the phase-out of federal subsidies on Tesla and GM vehicles. The $7,500 federal EV tax credit is designed to sunset for each individual… Read more »

Cummins debuts Hybrid PowerDrive suite of PHEV solutions

Cummins (NYSE: CMI) unveiled the PowerDrive, a suite of plug-in hybrid powertrain solutions spanning light, medium and heavy-duty applications, at the recent IAA Commercial Vehicle Show. The Cummins PowerDrive offers both parallel and series capabilities. It replaces the conventional transmission and switches in real time between two hybrid and two pure electric modes, optimizing the… Read more »

Chinese lithium producer will supply a fifth of its production to Tesla

One of China’s top producers of lithium has agreed to supply a fifth of its lithium hydroxide production to Tesla’s battery suppliers. The agreement with Jiangxi-based Ganfeng Lithium runs from 2018 to 2020, and could be extended by three years. EV-makers have been scrambling to secure supplies of lithium for the past couple of years…. Read more »

eMotorWerks deploys 30 MW “virtual battery” in California energy markets

San Francisco-based eMotorWerks is demonstrating the grid balancing potential of its smart-grid EV chargers with a 30-megawatt, distributed “virtual energy storage battery,” which has been active in California since the start of 2017. With an energy capacity of 70 MWh and eMotorWerks’s JuiceNet cloud software platform as the Battery Management System (BMS), the eMotorWerks virtual… Read more »

Waterloo researchers achieve reversible four-electron conversion with lithium-oxygen batteries

Scientists from the University of Waterloo have devised several new electrochemical processes which greatly increase the lifespan and stability of lithium-oxygen batteries. On paper, Li-O2 batteries have high energy densities and low weights. However, they also have internal reactions (involving superoxides and peroxides) that slowly corrode their carbon cathodes. The superoxide also destroys organic electrolytes in the… Read more »

Axion, Aceleron and Aspire launch battery recycling and reuse initiative

Circular economy and resource recovery specialists Axion, Aspire Engineering and Aceleron have launched an initiative to tackle the growing number of end-of-life EV batteries. They are currently providing a recovery service that begins with Aspire processing the batteries for remanufacturing, reuse and recycling. Next, Aceleron tests and repurposes the batteries. If the batteries cannot be reused, Axion will then… Read more »