The DOE has selected 162 projects to receive $26.6 million in the 2015 Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) awards. About 16 of these are vehicle-related, encompassing such technologies as batteries, power electronics and hydrogen fuel cells. Under the SBIR and STTR programs, federal agencies with large R&D budgets set aside… Read more »
For several years now, the California Air Resources Board’s ZEV mandate has required the largest automakers to produce a certain number of zero-emission vehicles for sale in the state. Beginning in 2018, smaller OEMs will be subject to the rules, too. Unsurprisingly, these companies would rather skip it, and at a May hearing, Jaguar Land… Read more »
Will Apple’s next blockbuster product line have wheels and a windshield? Well, the company hasn’t said it won’t, and Senior VP Jeff Williams made some tantalizing comments at last week’s Code Conference. Responding to a question about what the company might do with its massive pile of cash, Williams said, “The car is the ultimate… Read more »
The global market for EV chargers is set to grow from about one million units in 2014 to more than 12.7 million units in 2020, according to a new EV Charging Infrastructure report by IHS Automotive. IHS expects public charging to be a small but important part of the picture. In 2020, approximately 10% of… Read more »
Another entrant has joined the suddenly trendy market for stationary energy storage. Daimler’s wholly-owned subsidiary Deutsche ACCUmotive has announced plans to sell energy storage systems to both residential and commercial customers. ACCUmotive’s lithium-ion battery modules have an energy capacity of 2.5 kWh for the residential model, and 5.9 kWh for the industrial version. Up to… Read more »
Tesla isn’t the only company that can play the patent-opening game. Ford has announced that it will make its portfolio of over 650 electrification-related patents available to competing automakers. Unlike Tesla, which has implied that it will allow others to use technology “in good faith” free of charge (and Toyota, which plans to make some… Read more »
Each year, Navigant Research releases a report that forecasts future trends in the plug-in vehicle (PEV) market. The latest edition predicts that annual North American PEV sales should break the one-million mark around 2024. The new report, Electric Vehicle Geographic Forecasts, notes that North America is the world’s strongest market for light-duty PEVs, with more… Read more »
Fiat Chrysler sometimes seems to be the most vocal holdout of the waning oil age. It’s about the only major automaker that offers no hybrid models, and CEO Sergio Marchionne is often depicted in the EV press as an anti-electric curmudgeon – he has stated that the company loses $10,000 on every unit of the Fiat… Read more »
It’s a logical convergence of three tech trends: Uber, EVs and China. The pioneering ride-sharing service, which has already been testing EVs in Chicago and Prague, has announced that it will add ten PHEVs to its fleet in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The new car service, called UberGREEN, will use Guangzhou Automobile’s Trumpchi GA5… Read more »
A pilot program in the Netherlands will give EV drivers the option of scheduling charging to take advantage of lower nighttime rates, and also to choose among different energy suppliers. “Flexible Charging Rates” is a joint project of network operator Enexis, energy suppliers Green Choice and NieuweStroom, and service providers The New Motion and Greenflux…. Read more »
