Search Results Found For: "conversion"

New report: Wide bandgap technology can make power conversion 90% more efficient

Wide Bandgap (WBG) semiconductor technologies are attracting a lot of attention, and research funding. In January, the Obama administration selected a consortium of businesses and universities to lead an innovation institute focused on WBG materials. Japan and the UK are also funding R&D in the field. A new report from Lux Research, Silicon vs. WBG:… Read more »

Kentucky firm to market diesel hybrid conversion kits for Class 8 trucks

Kentucky-based ePower Engine Systems has placed an order with Axion Power International (OTC QB: AXPW) for Axion’s lead­carbon (PbC) batteries and management systems, which will be used to convert ten Class 8 trucks (the largest category of over-the-road trucks) to series diesel hybrids, using ePower’s proprietary technology. Each conversion kit would require 56 PbC batteries… Read more »

The eDart: My 1974 Dodge Dart Swinger electric conversion

Who does not want to relive their youth? Theoretically, driving one of the mid-70s muscle cars is a great idea: lots of leg room, big power, and of course nostalgia. In Ontario, Canada, you even have the advantage that such cars are, by necessity, exempt from the emission tests. Of course, that assumes you do… Read more »

BMW is building EVs and legacy gas-burners on the same production lines—and it seems to be working

Legacy automakers, keen to make an “orderly transition” to EVs, have embraced all kinds of half-measures, from PHEVs to awkward ICE-to-EV conversions to pick-your-powertrain production lines. Conventional wisdom among EV advocates is that this is a mistake—industry leader Tesla and other startups have generally taken a clean-sheet approach to designing both their cars and the… Read more »

Li-Metal completes concept study for commercial-scale lithium metal plant

Li-Metal, a Canada-based developer of lithium metal technologies, has completed a concept study for a commercial North American lithium metal production facility with an annual capacity of up to 1,000 tonnes. Li-Metal expects its plant to require approximately 5,600 tonnes of lithium carbonate per year. The plant will use Li-Metal’s patented carbonate-to-metal (C2M) lithium metal… Read more »