Pour the Champagne back into the bottle for now – reports that Panasonic had committed to investing a bundle in Tesla’s Gigafactory turn out to have been premature. President Kazuhiro Tsuga told reporters in Tokyo this week that the company plans to move cautiously to reduce its risk. “Our approach is to make investments step… Read more »
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BYD electric bus deal with Long Beach Transit falls apart…for now
It’s back to the drawing board for BYD, which has mutually agreed with the Long Beach Transportation Company (LBT) to terminate its contract for the delivery of 10 electric buses. In a puzzling twist, Long Beach may still end up buying the BYD buses, but the current deal is dead, and BYD will have to… Read more »
Pot Daimler calls kettle Tesla black re fast charging standards
It seems that not everyone is enchanted by Tesla’s plans to install 40 to 50 Supercharger stations in Germany by the end of 2014. Carmaker Daimler and parts supplier Robert Bosch recently criticized the American company for pursuing its own proprietary DC charging standard. “The future lies in standardization. As with gas stations, we need… Read more »
Johnson Controls and Fraunhofer collaborate on new battery cooling systems
Johnson Controls and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, one of Europe’s biggest organizations for applied research, have signed an agreement to develop next-generation cooling systems for vehicle batteries. The collaboration will focus on technologies and thermal management strategies for lithium-ion battery packs. Currently, systems with fans, compressors or pumps use energy to pull heat out of a battery…. Read more »
Brammo Empulse to compete against gas motorcycles in Isle of Man road races
The UK’s Darvill Racing Team will be fielding a pair of Brammo Empulse TTX electric motorcycles in the Southern 100 Road Races, to be held on the Isle of Man in July. While one of the bikes will race in its stock trim, the other one will have racing-grade enhancements. The Brammos will be competing… Read more »
Arizona considers bill to legalize Tesla direct sales
Tesla’s war with the auto dealers is getting more interesting by the day. Barely a week after New Jersey outlawed the company’s contentious direct-to-consumers sales model, the Arizona legislature is considering a bill that would explicitly legalize it. According to the Associated Press, Arizona House Bill 2123, which was approved by a state Senate committee… Read more »
Tesla Gigafactory location: Tucson throws its hat in the ring, California out of the running
The city of Tucson, Arizona has made a formal proposal to become the home of the Tesla Gigafactory. Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said that the city has identified a potential site with access to the railroad mainline and interstates, and that the city could add tax incentives to those offered by the state. “I look forward… Read more »
German micro smart grid project supplies an EV fleet with renewable electricity
As Germany and Switzerland work to phase out their nuclear power plants, the countries are becoming vast laboratories for renewable energy research, and EVs are an important part of the equation. A team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering, together with Daimler and the University of Stuttgart, has announced a project called charge@work, whose… Read more »
Tesla to open 30 new stores in Europe
Tesla is anticipating great things in Europe – by the end of 2014, it expects combined sales in Europe and Asia to be almost twice as high as in North America. The company announced at this week’s Geneva Auto Salon that it will open more than 30 new service centers and stores across the continent…. Read more »
EU votes in tougher emissions standards for 2021
The European Parliament voted through the world’s toughest carbon dioxide standards for new cars this week. The new rules will limit emissions to 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer (g/km) as an average across all new cars sold in the 28-nation bloc from 2021, compared with the existing limit of 130 g/km. The European… Read more »