The California Energy Commission has awarded a $3 million grant to Proterra to fund the design, development and construction of a new electric bus manufacturing line. The project will also receive $5.4 million in private investment. The proposed facility, to be located in the San Gabriel Valley, is expected to be operational by the fourth… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "our next energy"
A123 shifts focus to starter batteries
Since battery-maker A123 was acquired by China’s Wanxiang Group, it has shifted its focus to concentrate on starter batteries, and has big plans to produce batteries for microhybrids, aka start-stop systems. A quarter of the company’s revenue still comes from EV battery packs – its factory in Hangzhou is running at full capacity to supply… Read more »
Chinese automaker BYD to triple production of batteries
Chinese automaker BYD aims to be a major player in the battery business, adding 6 gigawatt-hours of global production in each of the next three years, company spokesman Matthew Jurjevich told Reuters recently. If it continues at that pace, BYD’s capacity will be some 34 GWh of batteries by the beginning of 2020, putting it about… Read more »
Obama: Federal fleet must be 50 percent plug-ins by 2025
If the federal government wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions, one of the most obvious ways to do so would be to clean up its own vehicle fleet. The feds currently operate some 655,000 vehicles, and only a minuscule fraction of these are truly low-emission. President Obama signed an executive order Thursday directing the federal… Read more »
Researchers discover new high-performance cathode material for lithium-sulfur batteries
Lithium-sulfur batteries are one of the hottest topics in the battery field today, as they could theoretically offer energy density up to four times higher than that of lithium-ion batteries. However, one of several challenges to be overcome is finding cathode materials that demonstrate long-term stability. An international team of researchers from Drexel University and… Read more »
Is String Cell battery technology the future for EVs?
When it comes to finding a way to charge EVs more quickly, human ingenuity has come up with some pretty wide-ranging solutions, from battery-swapping to flow batteries that store energy in tanks of liquid electrolyte. The latest innovative idea comes from startup Tanktwo, and is called a String Battery. Tanktwo’s system replaces a vehicle’s battery pack with a container filled… Read more »
2015 Kia Soul EV: A strong contender in the growing EV market
Charged faithfully reports on every new plug-in vehicle that comes out, and while there are reasons to be excited about pretty much all of them, there’s always a question lingering in the background: Does this manufacturer plan to actively market its new EV, or is this just another compliance car, to be produced in limited… Read more »
Ionic liquid electrolytes may open the door for higher-voltage batteries
The curious case of ionic liquids: Boulder Ionics/CoorsTek Specialty Chemicals Iolyte electrolytes When you think of liquids under the brand name Coors, you think of the Silver Bullet, the Banquet Beer. You certainly don’t think of high technology, unless you’re really easily impressed by cold-activated cans. However, not everyone knows that there’s another huge conglomerate under… Read more »
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate (book review)
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, by Naomi Klein, is a powerful, important book, meticulously researched and beautifully written. I also found it a very disturbing book, and in a way I wish I hadn’t read it. The thesis is that the kind of action required to avert climate catastrophe is incompatible with the… Read more »
Snail shells inspire new battery design
Nanostructured electrodes in Li-ion batteries have several advantages, including shorter distances for charge-carrying particles to travel and a high surface area that provides more active sites for electrochemical reactions to occur. However, working with nanoscale materials is tricky – due to their tiny size, they can be hard to control and hold in place. To… Read more »