Check your safety belts, here we go again. Another Model S has caught fire. Unlike previous fires, which occurred after collisions, the latest incident happened in a garage in Toronto. The car was about four months old and was not charging at the time, according to Business Insider. Toronto Fire Services said that the exact cause… Read more »
Tesla’s stock (Nasdaq: TSLA) is off to the races again – it hit new all-time highs this week, briefly poking its nose above the $200 level. Quite a feat for a stock that was trading in the $120s in November in the wake of the Model S fire incidents. Various tidbits of good news ahead… Read more »
Tesla has always been more likely to take its inspiration from Silicon Valley than from the Rust Belt, one of the reasons for the success of its disruptive doings. This week, the bad boys of the auto industry hired Kristin Paget, who re/code described as a “noted hacker.” Paget helped Microsoft in its efforts to… Read more »
A team of researchers has identified a new class of non-flammable electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries, based on perfluoropolyethers (PFPEs). In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team reports that these electrolytes exhibit thermal stability beyond 200° C and a transference number of at least 0.91 (more than double… Read more »
AMP Holding Inc. (OTCBB and OTCQB: AMPD) announced that it has filed a provisional patent for a new system that extends the range of electric vehicles. E-GEN Drive is designed specifically for the package delivery vehicle market, in which vehicles (commonly known as step vans) tend to stop and restart hundreds of time a day…. Read more »
The next battle in the war between Tesla and the auto dealers is shaping up in Georgia, where legislation has been introduced that would let the company sell more cars directly to the public in the state. Currently, Tesla is allowed to sell up to 150 cars a year under an exemption to the state… Read more »
As EVs multiply, utilities are beginning to see the need to manage EV charging to prevent overloading of the electricity network. The impact of EV charging on peak load and local distribution networks are some of the key challenges. San Francisco-based Greenlots has introduced its SKY Smart Charging platform to address the needs of the… Read more »
Oregon-based Brammo has released details of its 2014 Empulse and Empulse R electric motorcycles. With a top speed of 110 mph, the Empulse claims to be the world’s fastest electric motorcycle in serial production. It sports a water-cooled motor and a six-speed gearbox that translate 90 Nm (66 lb-ft) of torque to over 880 Nm… Read more »
Sumitomo Corporation has developed and installed the first large-scale power storage system that uses used EV batteries. This prototype commercial-scale (600 kW, 400 kWh) storage system consists of sixteen used EV batteries. Located on Yume-shima Island, Osaka, the system begins operation this month. Over the next three years, Sumitomo will measure the facility’s smoothing effect… Read more »
The Japanese-backed DC fast charging standard is steadily spreading across the globe. Nissan recently installed Europe’s 1,000th CHAdeMO charger, and growth in Japan and the US has been similarly swift. As of January 2014, there are 1,967 CHAdeMO chargers in Japan, 1,020 in Europe and 554 in the US. According to a recent statement from… Read more »
