Things are stirring at Fisker Automotive. New owner Wanxiang plans to relaunch the Karma plug-in luxury sedan next year, and the company is hiring – its online job board lists some 45 open positions, including engineers, managers and interns. Fisker is renewing its relationship with Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies, the supplier of the Karma’s powertrain… Read more »
Emerging materials such as gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) will eventually displace silicon in power electronic applications, according to a new report from Lux Research, which forecasts that the market for GaN power electronics will reach $1.1 billion, about 5% of the total market, by 2024. While silicon and SiC (SiC-on-SiC) each come… Read more »
Elon Musk hopes Tesla’s success will inspire other automakers to get serious about EVs. The latest buzz in the automotive press is that he may get his wish, as German luxury brands are rumored to be working on their own EVs to compete with the boys from Silicon Valley. Automobile magazine reported earlier this month… Read more »
Tesla’s Gigafactory, now under construction in northern Nevada, is expected to offer some 6,000 manufacturing jobs, which will be welcome in a state whose economy is dependent on gambling and tourism. Most are enthusiastic about the new development, but there are questions about whether local resources and infrastructure will be adequate. As always in this… Read more »
While lithium-ion is the chemistry of choice for EV batteries, almost every ICE vehicle made today still uses the ancient lead-acid battery technology for its 12-Volt starter battery (Porsche and a couple of other makers of high-performance cars offer lithium-ion starter batteries). Auto OEMs and battery providers want to preserve the leaded status quo. In… Read more »
So, it turns out that the much-anticipated Roadster news is not just a better battery, but a package of range-enhancing improvements dubbed Roadster 3.0. Tesla announced the day after Christmas that it will apply several lessons learned from producing Model S to the Roadster. Noting that cell technology has improved substantially since the Roadster battery went… Read more »
Lithium-sulfur batteries are of great interest, as they could offer specific energy densities far greater than those of current lithium-ion chemistries. However, current designs are plagued by low efficiency and capacity degradation. A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Beijing Institute of Technology has devised a three-dimensional sandwich-type graphene sheet-sulfur/carbon composite… Read more »
Scania plans to test a wirelessly charged plug-in hybrid city bus in Södertälje, Sweden. The prototype bus, which is scheduled to hit the streets in June 2016, can be wirelessly charged at one of its stops via a charging station located under the road surface. A six-to-seven-minute charging session delivers enough charge for a complete… Read more »
Battery manufacturer Boston Power has secured $290 million in local government support for the expansion of its two facilities in China. The company’s Liyang facility will increase its manufacturing capacity fivefold by 2016. Its Tianjin facility is expected to reach 8 GWh in manufacturing capacity by 2018. Boston Power expects China’s EV market to be… Read more »
New York-based ultracapacitor manufacturer Ioxus has introduced a new line of high-temperature 1250-Farad cells. According to the company, its proprietary Titan technology meets the requirement of automotive customers for ultracaps with a wider operating range that meets both cold and high temperature standards. Ioxus’ newest line of cells functions at temperatures ranging from -40 to… Read more »
