In 2012, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) adopted the Advanced Clean Cars (ACC) program, a set of standards for new vehicles through model year 2025. The program has two components: the Low-Emission Vehicle III regulations, which mandate reductions in emissions from legacy vehicles; and the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) regulation, which requires manufacturers to produce… Read more »
Tesla has announced that it will shut down production at its California assembly plant for a week to prepare to start producing Model 3. “This will allow Tesla to begin Model 3 production later this year as planned and enable us to start the ramp towards 500,000 vehicles annually in 2018,” said a Tesla spokesman…. Read more »
A new report from Navigant Research examines the current market for advanced batteries (defined as mass-produced products aimed at the automotive or stationary energy storage sectors). In the first three quarters of 2016, Navigant says, over 323 million individual battery cells were shipped, representing 16.1 GWh of energy capacity and $3.8 billion in sales. The… Read more »
Are even oil companies starting to hop on the EV bandwagon? Giant multinational Shell has confirmed plans to add EV charging points to some of its gas stations in the UK and the Netherlands. The first EV chargers may be installed before the end of 2017. “We have a number of countries where we’re looking… Read more »
Microvast, headquartered in Stafford, Texas, with offices in China, the UK and Germany, is a manufacturer of lithium-ion battery systems for electric and hybrid transit buses. The company recently announced record annual sales for 2016 – over 7,500 units. As of the end of 2016, more than 15,000 Microvast battery-powered buses were operating in public… Read more »
Japanese automotive supplier NSK has demonstrated what it says is the first transmission-equipped wheel hub motor. In-wheel motors have several advantages – they can reduce the weight of the vehicle, control the drive force of each wheel for improved torque vectoring, and possibly free up room for more passenger and cargo space. However, achieving both… Read more »
The Right to Repair is a concept that aims to make our throwaway society a bit more sustainable by requiring manufacturers to sell replacement parts for their products, and make their diagnostic codes and service manuals available to independent repair shops. The Right to Repair is currently the law only in Massachusetts, which is thus… Read more »
Most major retailers require that electrical products sold in their stores undergo third-party independent safety testing and certification, Amazon does not. After Charged encouraged the company to change its policy for EV charging stations, an Amazon spokesperson provided this official comment, “We monitor the products sold on our website for product safety concerns, and when appropriate, we… Read more »
With a newly-acquired magnetic material caster, NASA’s Magnetic Materials Lab allows researchers to create custom alloy magnetic ribbons as large as one mile long and 50 mm wide. This ribbon can then be used to manufacture parts that generate or transform electrical power more efficiently and at a larger scale than ever before. “As the… Read more »
Car buyers have a growing array of options for going electric, especially in California. However, getting the information they need to decide which plug-in vehicle meets their needs is no simple task – getting objective information from auto dealers has always been difficult, and many of them are sadly uninformed about EVs. A new web… Read more »
