The city of Columbia, Missouri has taken delivery of three new BYD electric buses, bringing its total fleet to nine. According to BYD, it’s the first and only battery-electric fleet in revenue service in Missouri, and one of the largest in the Midwest. The city is now operating six 40-foot BYD K9 buses and three… Read more »
As a plethora of pundits pontificate about Tesla and the hypothetical competition for its upcoming Model 3, many fall into error because they don’t understand the dynamic between Tesla, which exists to sell EVs, and the legacy automakers, which grudgingly sell a few in order to comply with government regulations. Elon Musk is happy to… Read more »
The Antelope Valley Transit Authority (AVTA), which serves half a million residents of northern Los Angeles County, has taken delivery of a BYD 60-foot articulated electric bus. AVTA has ordered thirteen of the 60-foot e-buses, part of its campaign to fully electrify its fleet by 2018. BYD is building the buses at its factory in… Read more »
What’s this? Tesla is limiting my Supercharging rate, saying I’ve been fast-charging too often? It’s an outrage! I signed up for unlimited Supercharging forever! Splutter…argh..ack! ack! [falls backward, clutching at chest] Not so fast. Calm down and let Tesla explain. Yes, the vehicle software will limit the Supercharging rate for vehicles that have racked up… Read more »
Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG) has introduced curamik ADVANTAGE, a family of features and process enhancements for its curamik ceramic circuit substrate materials. curamik ADVANTAGE materials are designed to enable circuit designers to optimize the performance of high-power circuits through an assortment of services and processes, including several plating options for improved copper surface finish, two different… Read more »
Since it entered service in 1904, the Föri ferry in the Finnish city of Turku has been upgraded from steam to diesel power, and now to electricity. Finland’s oldest operating ferry has now become the nation’s first all-electric passenger vessel after being fitted with a new electric powertrain from Visedo. Local boatyard Mobimar performed the… Read more »
Here’s a treat for any EV fan: a long and meaty talk with Tesla founders Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, delivered at Stanford last October. While there are several substantial talks with Tarpenning available on YouTube (he also graciously granted me a lengthy interview for my book about Tesla), Martin Eberhard has seldom sat down… Read more »
Five fleet operators in London will participate in a pilot program to evaluate Ford’s new Transit Custom plug-in hybrid van, starting this fall. The project, supported by Transport for London, features a 12-month test of 20 new Ford Transit Custom plug-in hybrid vans. London’s Metropolitan Police will deploy 5 of the vans: one marked for… Read more »
Oregon legislators are considering a bill that would establish a $1-million fund to provide a $250 incentive to automobile sales staff who sell electric vehicles to Oregon residents (it exempts sales at exclusively electric dealerships). The bill (HB 2514) addresses two interrelated issues, according to its sponsor, Representative Phil Barnhart. First, $250 would be a… Read more »
Sendyne’s new SIM100 isolation monitoring safety device is designed to detect potential electrical hazards in electric and hybrid vehicles. The SIM100 module can unambiguously detect the electrical isolation state of a high-voltage system while the system is operating and experiencing large voltage variations. The SIM100 detects both resistive leakages and capacitively stored energy. High-voltage battery… Read more »
