The Integral e-Drive division of Integral Powertrain has collaborated with McLaren Applied Technologies and Hewland Engineering to design a new electric axle system. The CTU-400 e-axle features integrated inverter technology from McLaren, two 200 kW permanent magnet motors from Integral e-Drive, and two reduction gear sets for torque vectoring from Hewland. The self-contained CTU-400 is… Read more »
Can Tesla produce Model 3s in volume, and make a profit? That’s the question of the day (or maybe, of the century). Investment management firm Worm Capital (among others) believes that the answer depends on how efficiently the company is able to manufacture its battery packs, and it recently sent a team to visit Tesla’s… Read more »
It has gradually become apparent that Big Auto’s reluctance to embrace EVs is not due to mere Luddism or fear of the future. There are several reasons to believe that electrification will take a major bite out of industry profits, as Daimler execs acknowledged in March. Now Volkswagen has warned that its stated plan to… Read more »
China is by far the world’s largest EV market – nearly 373,000 plug-in passenger cars were sold there in the first half of this year (according to EV Volumes). It’s widely believed that Chinese automakers hope to ride the electrification wave to the top of the global industry, but so far the only Chinese company… Read more »
The Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid is a quiet star. While the Tesla Model 3 and Chevy Volt have been hogging the headlines, the Clarity PHEV has sold 8,109 units in the US since its late 2017 launch. It’s the third best-selling PHEV on the market, after the Prius Prime and the Chevy Volt. In the… Read more »
Electrolyte specialist Tydrolyte has released an electrolyte intended to replace the sulfuric acid found in lead-acid batteries. It claims that the patent-pending electrolyte is well suited for start-stop batteries, offers lower hold currents and water losses and is less toxic than sulfuric acid. Start-stop batteries must induce 100 times as many engine ignitions as a conventional… Read more »
Charging solution manufacturer Tritium will receive a portion of $3.2 million in federal funding awarded to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to develop an extreme fast charging system. EPRI has allocated about $400,000 for Tritium to develop a custom version of its Veefil-PK high-powered charging head, along with providing input for system design and… Read more »
Winnebago Industries (NYSE: WGO) has partnered with Motiv Power Systems to develop an electric Mobile Lung Unit (eMLU) vehicle. Powered by Motiv’s EPIC 6 all-electric chassis, which is based on a Ford F-53, the specialty healthcare vehicle features the Samsung NeuroLogica BodyTom Elite, a portable full-body, 32-slice CT scanner. The vehicle’s electric powertrain eliminates the… Read more »
The National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) has granted Nano One’s “Coatings for High Durability Lithium-ion Battery Cathodes” project $349,000 in non-dilutive and non-repayable funds. The project is intended to study various coatings and dopants that can reduce or remove instabilities in cathode materials. Nano One intends to focus its resources… Read more »
Berlin’s public transit operator BVG has ordered fifteen 12-meter electric buses from the Polish manufacturer Solaris. The new e-buses will arrive in the German capital in 2019, joining five Solaris electric buses already in BVG’s fleet. The Berlin battery buses will be powered by axles with integrated traction motors, and will use a set of… Read more »