Over the past couple of decades, major automakers have built an ecosystem in which components of their cars are built by suppliers large and small around the world. This system has served them well, but it has several drawbacks that are becoming more apparent as cars become electric, autonomous and connected (Ian Wright eloquently described… Read more »
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Two more commercial vehicle builders offer EVs using Motiv Power Systems powertrains
California Truck Equipment Company (CTEC) and Indiana-based Rockport Commercial Vehicles are two of the latest vehicle builders to offer electric versions of their existing commercial vehicles. Both are using Motiv Power Systems’ All-Electric Powertrain, an OEM-installed package that includes batteries, motors, charging hardware and power for hydraulics and other accessories (see the July/August 2015 issue… Read more »
Even Bernie Sanders might approve of Elon Musk’s compensation plan
As Tesla promotes a more sustainable transportation system, it hopes to demonstrate a more egalitarian pay policy, at least for its CEO. While overpaid and underperforming executives are drawing the ire of the public (and one presidential candidate), Elon Musk has a compensation plan that’s not only good for him, but also for the company’s… Read more »
Nordic plug-in market soars in Q1 2016
13,896 new plug-in vehicles hit the roads of Scandinavia in the first quarter of 2016. Both Norway and Finland had their best-selling quarters to date. However, sales in Denmark stalled as the government phased out tax breaks. As reported by auto industry publication Insero Quarterly, EVs are still outselling PHEVs, but the latter are closing… Read more »
PARC uses CoEx printing technology to fabricate high-energy, high-power battery electrodes
PARC, a Xerox company, is collaborating with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Ford in a DOE-funded project that will use PARC’s CoEx printing technology to fabricate higher energy and higher power electrodes for EV batteries. The goal of the project is to demonstrate pilot-scale pouch cells with a 20% improvement in gravimetric energy density… Read more »
Early Model X buyers reporting glitches
It’s common for a new car model to have problems – call them teething troubles, bugs, glitches, or more colorful epithets. Tesla’s Model X is not only a new model, but an entirely new type of vehicle, so it would be strange if some substantial snags didn’t come up. In fact, the company has already… Read more »
Ford may be working on a 200-mile EV after all
Are they or aren’t they? After months of refusing to comment on whether Ford is working on a 200-mile EV to challenge competitors GM, Tesla and Nissan, Kevin Layden, Ford’s Director of Electrification Programs and Engineering, seemed to dash our hopes when he said that the 2017 Focus Electric’s 100-mile range should be plenty for… Read more »
A closer look at wire bonding
Wire bonding technology – widely utilized in the microelectronics and power electronics industries since the 1970s – is finding its way into interesting new applications in the growing EV industry – in particular, battery connections. We’re quite certain that a few EVs are using wire-bonding technology for production battery pack connections, but Charged was unable… Read more »
Seaward’s new handheld charge point tester will help bring quality control to a new level
There is no doubt that the early days of charging infrastructure rollout had some bumps in the road. Plug-in vehicles interact with the outside world in a much more complicated way than legacy gas-guzzlers do, which led to early interoperability issues. The automakers needed to quickly learn how to work with many infrastructure and hardware… Read more »
A Tesla city bus?
By itself, vehicle electrification does nothing to alleviate the traffic jams in our cities or the sprawl in our suburbs. But autonomous EVs, working together as part of a coordinated public transit system, could move people around much more smoothly and conveniently. Naturally, Elon Musk has thought about this – he has called gridlock “a… Read more »