True to its namesake, the Chevy Bolt EV seems to be moving through the pipeline at an impressive speed, at least by auto-industry standards. The company recently revealed that it has built 55 pre-production Bolts, which are handily delivering the desired 200 miles of range. GM also announced that it will invest $245 million and… Read more »
The California Air Resources Board has approved a $373-million funding plan for fiscal year 2015-16 for investments in a wide range of vehicle technologies, from zero-emission heavy-duty trucks and buses to rebates for low- and zero-emission passenger vehicles. The budget for the annual Funding Plan for Low Carbon Transportation Investments and the Air Quality Improvement… Read more »
At the recent Power Electronics Society meeting in Korea, Andy Daga, the CEO of wireless charging system manufacturer Momentum Dynamics, said he believes that 25 kW wireless chargers will be the norm for all EVs within 5 years, with commercialization beginning in 2016. Most current passenger EVs charge at 3.3 or 6.6 kW, although a… Read more »
JuiceBox charging stations from eMotorWerks use a cloud-based platform to adjust charging rates and times to enable grid operators to reduce energy costs, ease grid congestion and absorb excess renewable power. Now eMotorWerks has gone a step farther, collaborating with non-profit software startup WattTime to produce the JuiceBox Green 40, a charger that lets users… Read more »
Samsung Electronics has developed a silicon carbide-free graphene coating that it says could immediately double the capacity of lithium-ion batteries. That would be an impressive feat indeed, considering that capacity has increased only twofold since Li-ion batteries were first commercialized in 1991. Many researchers are investigating the potential of silicon as an anode material, but… Read more »
For the second month in a row, total plug-in sales fell short of last year’s figures. Overall US sales were 10,365 in June, 10% lower than May, and 16% lower than June 2014. The good news is that worldwide sales have shattered last year’s numbers every month so far this year. After a slow start,… Read more »
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, which has been testing a traction inverter made with silicon carbide (SiC), has announced that the component has demonstrated a savings in power consumption of around 40%. The traction inverter was installed in a 1000 series urban train in commercial service with a Japanese railroad, and was tested over a four-month period…. Read more »
Electric bus builder Proterra has announced the completion of strategic financing intended to fund the company’s business plan to achieve positive cash flow, as production scales up to meet growing demand. The new capital will be used to fully fund Proterra’s new Advanced Manufacturing facility in California. Proterra has closed a $30-million Series 4 equity round… Read more »
Ironically, South Korea, home to some of the world’s leading producers of Li-ion batteries including LG Chem and Samsung, still has a comparatively tiny EV market. Total plug-in sales in 2014 were 850, far below a tenth of 1% of total vehicle sales. Neighboring Japan has around 110,000 plug-in vehicles on the road, compared to around 1,800… Read more »
Asia currently dominates automotive lithium-ion cell production – it controls around 79% of the market. However, a recent report by the DOE’s Clean Energy Manufacturing Analysis Center (CEMAC) found that the US has a growing opportunity in the industry, which is expected to swell from the current $9 billion to $14.3 billion by 2020. The… Read more »
