US plug-in sales slowed a tad in May, ending a six-month streak of consecutive monthly records. 11,423 EVs and PHEVs changed hands, just short of the 11,540 that moved in May 2015. The Chevy Volt held onto its lead for the month, as sales of 1,901 units bested the May 2015 figure of 1,618. The… Read more »
Although the material in a battery electrode may look uniform to the naked eye, at the atomic level, it’s a diverse landscape. Tiny variations in materials can affect reaction rates, and thus battery performance, in complex ways. Professor Jiangyu Li and his colleagues at the University of Washington have built a new tool that could… Read more »
Stanley Ventures, the newly-formed venture arm of Stanley Black & Decker, has announced a strategic investment in Prieto Battery, which is working to commercialize a 3D lithium-ion battery technology that uses non-toxic materials and offers the ability to customize shapes. Prieto’s battery is designed around a porous copper structure (copper foam), conformally coated by a… Read more »
Vision Ridge Partners, a climate action‐oriented investment firm, has announced that it will be making a major investment in fast charging network operator EVgo, which was launched in 2010 by electric utility NRG Energy. EVgo currently operates 665 fast chargers in more than 50 US metro markets. Vision Ridge’s new capital, together with funds from… Read more »
Large corporate and government vehicle fleets are increasingly turning to plug-in vehicles to take advantage of dramatically lower fuel, operating and maintenance costs. For the fleet manager, however, the EV infrastructure world is a lot more complicated than it is for gas or CNG vehicles, which can use a single refueling depot. In spite of… Read more »
The Sierra Club, working through its local affiliates around the country, is a reliable advocate for EVs (as well as public transport, renewable energy and other measures to reduce the demand for fossil fuels). The Suncoast Sierra Club, located in Charged’s hometown of St Petersburg, Florida, is housed in a net-zero building that features a… Read more »
A solar carport is the perfect complement to an EV. Not only does it ensure that your pretty new automobile, and the electrons powering it, stay clean, but it keeps things cool, making for slightly more efficient charging, and it serves as a visible advertisement for the new energy future. Charged recently spoke with the… Read more »
Battery giant Samsung SDI has announced that it will completely exit the fuel cell business in order to concentrate on battery-based energy storage. “Samsung SDI decided to drop fuel cell-related business projects, as the outlook of the market isn’t good,” a company spokesman told the Korea Times. The move is part of a strategy to… Read more »
While short-haul applications such as local delivery trucks, port drayage trucks and city buses are perfect candidates for electrification, long-haul trucking will likely prove more of a challenge, because of battery-electric vehicles’ limited range. Now Furrer+Frey, a Swiss firm that provides a wide range of rail transport products and services, has proposed a simple, low-tech… Read more »
Texas Mineral Resources Corp. (TMRC), an exploration company targeting rare earths and other high-value industrial minerals, plans to establish a separate subsidiary to market the lithium it hopes to produce from its poly-metallic Round Top deposit. Recent column leach tests found that Round Top rhyolite crushed and leached in sulfuric acid for 60 days (what… Read more »
