For the second month in a row, total plug-in sales fell short of last year’s figures. Overall US sales were 10,365 in June, 10% lower than May, and 16% lower than June 2014. The good news is that worldwide sales have shattered last year’s numbers every month so far this year. After a slow start,… Read more »
Newswire
Railcar traction inverter with SiC power modules achieves 40% power savings
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, which has been testing a traction inverter made with silicon carbide (SiC), has announced that the component has demonstrated a savings in power consumption of around 40%. The traction inverter was installed in a 1000 series urban train in commercial service with a Japanese railroad, and was tested over a four-month period…. Read more »
Proterra raises $55 million in strategic financing
Electric bus builder Proterra has announced the completion of strategic financing intended to fund the company’s business plan to achieve positive cash flow, as production scales up to meet growing demand. The new capital will be used to fully fund Proterra’s new Advanced Manufacturing facility in California. Proterra has closed a $30-million Series 4 equity round… Read more »
South Korean plan turns ordinary 220V outlets into charging stations
Ironically, South Korea, home to some of the world’s leading producers of Li-ion batteries including LG Chem and Samsung, still has a comparatively tiny EV market. Total plug-in sales in 2014 were 850, far below a tenth of 1% of total vehicle sales. Neighboring Japan has around 110,000 plug-in vehicles on the road, compared to around 1,800… Read more »
DOE report examines opportunities for US battery manufacturers
Asia currently dominates automotive lithium-ion cell production – it controls around 79% of the market. However, a recent report by the DOE’s Clean Energy Manufacturing Analysis Center (CEMAC) found that the US has a growing opportunity in the industry, which is expected to swell from the current $9 billion to $14.3 billion by 2020. The… Read more »
Uber CEO: If Tesla’s cars are autonomous by 2020, we’ll buy all 500,000
At the recent Top 10 Tech Trends dinner hosted by the Churchill Club, five of the world’s most famous VCs were asked what they think will be the most significant trends over the next five years. Steve Jurvetson, familiar to Charged readers as an early Tesla investor (and board member), had some interesting things to… Read more »
EVgo is future-proofing its fast charging sites with the ability to double charging capacity
NRG EVgo has over 350 DC fast chargers in 19 markets – more than four times more than any other public network – as of May 2015. The company also lays claim to the most powerful network of CHAdeMO and CCS chargers in the US. While others are rolling out DC chargers in the 20… Read more »
EVs take first and second places at Pikes Peak Hill Climb
Once again, EVs made history at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, as driver Rhys Millen became the first to win the grueling challenge in an electric racer, with a time of 9:07.222, a new record for EVs. Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima took second place in the Rimac E-Runner, with 9.32.401 (bad weather forced race officials… Read more »
Multi-modal urban mobility with Ford’s MoDe e-Bikes
Is it strange for an automaker to invest in developing an e-bike? Not necessarily, considering that, in the future, more and more of the world’s people will be living in dense megacities, where a car is not the best way to get around, at least not for a whole journey. An urban trip from home… Read more »
Volkswagen to install 12,000 charging points in its German parking lots
Volkswagen has announced what must be one of the world’s largest workplace charging programs – it plans to install 12,000 charging points at its company parking lots in Germany over the next few years – 10% of the company’s 120,000 employee parking spaces. CEO Martin Winterkorn made the announcement at the recent National Conference on… Read more »