Search Results Found For: "MIT "

Nissan plans to triple number of US quick chargers

At last week’s Washington Auto Show, Nissan outlined a strategy to deploy at least 500 quick-charging stations over the next 18 months, which it says will triple the public quick-charging infrastructure in the US. The company is obviously hoping that giving drivers additional charging options will increase public interest in EVs, and lead to more… Read more »

Stuck in the MUD: Multi-unit dwellings present major obstacles to EV ownership

The San Francisco Bay Area is widely considered ripe with potential for early and widespread adoption of EVs. Area residents are generally progressive, environmentally concerned, and technologically literate. The area was an epicenter of electric vehicle deployment during California’s earlier EV Mandate era, and nearly 50 years ago the Electric Auto Association was founded by… Read more »

A closer look at switched reluctance motors

The electronically-switched reluctance motor – often shortened to the switched reluctance motor, or SRM – has been gaining in popularity over the last decade because it is simple, robust, and arguably the least expensive of all motor types to manufacture. The reasons for the relatively late blooming of the SRM – the first reluctance motor… Read more »

Accelerating battery development, part 2: Wildcat Discovery Technologies

Wildcat Discovery Technologies is a venture-backed start-up residing in sunny San Diego. Launched in late 2006, it makes efficient use of just 32 employees. The company has developed proprietary methods for rapidly synthesizing energy-storage materials.  Serial entrepreneurs Prof. Peter Schultz and Robert Downs have worked together for a number of years at the Genomics Novartis… Read more »

Plug-in Cadillac debuts in Detroit

GM unveiled what you might call “the Cadillac of plug-in vehicles” at this week’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The 2014 ELR luxury coupe is a plug-in hybrid, or an Extended Range Electric Vehicle, as GM prefers to call it. Developed from the Converj Concept, first shown in Detroit in 2009, the ELR… Read more »

New study: using aluminum instead of steel can reduce the cost of an EV

Automakers are devoting a lot of effort to making cars lighter these days, and the quest is especially critical for builders of electric vehicles, as less weight can translate into more range…or lower cost. A German research institute called FKA has done a new study, at the behest of a pair of aluminum trade groups,… Read more »

Judge dismisses Massachusetts auto dealers’ lawsuit against Tesla

The good news just keeps rolling in for Tesla. This week a Massachusetts Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit that the Massachusetts Automobile Dealers Association had filed against the company, based upon the auto dealers’ lack of standing and failure to state a claim. Tesla plans to build its own network of stores, rather than… Read more »