Tesla’s new residential and utility-scale batteries, which have the potential to revolutionize the energy market, are expected to be publicly unveiled this week. Invitations to the April 30th event teased the new product line as “the missing piece.” The company has been quietly installing systems for a while now – in a California pilot with… Read more »
Tesla’s Model 3, the promised EV for Everyman, is due to disrupt the automotive world in 2017, but the company has yet to complete an alpha engineering prototype. Should we be worried? Automakers are usually secretive about this sort of stuff, but it seems that developing alpha and beta prototypes are milestones that CEO Elon… Read more »
As every truck driver or heavy equipment operator knows, diesel engines can be difficult to start in low temperatures, or after not being started for long periods. Maxwell Technologies’ Engine Start Module (ESM) is an ultracapacitor-based system that takes over the engine cranking function and remains fully charged, even if battery voltage drops. Now Maxwell… Read more »
We’ve become used to the mainstream press insisting that EVs aren’t selling, and that cheap gas will be the final nail in the electric coffin (most recently in a widely-cited report from Edmunds that found that car buyers are rushing to trade in their “hybrid and electric cars” for gas-guzzling SUVs). Bloomberg, however, has long… Read more »
Toyota has made no secret of its disdain for battery-electric vehicles in favor of fuel cells, but like other high-volume OEMs, it was compelled to produce an EV by the California authorities – the RAV4 EV, which the company did not market, and discontinued as soon as possible. Now it seems that the world’s largest automaker will… Read more »
Energica Motor Company has received NHTSA and EPA certification, clearing the way for its Energica Ego electric sport bike to be sold in the US. Deliveries are planned for the third quarter of this year, and the first batch is almost sold out. Energica, located in northern Italy’s Motor Valley, grew out of a company… Read more »
Here come the plug-in SUVs! The Audi Q7 e-tron 2.0 TFSI quattro made its debuts at this week’s Auto Shanghai show, along with the Audi A6 L e-tron. Both are scheduled to go on sale in Asia in 2016. The Q7 e-tron is a large SUV that Audi has developed specially for China, Singapore and Japan. It features a… Read more »
American Volvo fans have been feeling left out, watching the V60 diesel PHEV wagon shatter sales projections in Europe. However, their depression should lift soon, when the Swedish automaker introduces what it considers to be a more US-friendly model, the new XC90 T8 Twin Engine Plug-In Hybrid. The corded crossover will go on sale in… Read more »
“Iron fluoride has the potential to triple the amount of energy a conventional lithium-ion battery can store,” says Song Jin, a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “However, we have yet to tap its true potential.” Jin and his colleagues have been using a novel X-ray imaging technique to visualize and study the… Read more »
The California Energy Commission has awarded nearly $9 million in grants to three companies to encourage the manufacturing of heavy-duty EVs and components in the state. Proterra received a $3 million grant to develop a manufacturing line for battery-electric transit buses in the City of Industry in the San Gabriel Valley. The location is in… Read more »
