Search Results Found For: "Panasonic Energy"

Tesla to acquire ultracapacitor developer Maxwell Technologies

Tesla plans to acquire Maxwell Technologies at a price of $4.75 per share, or approximately $218 million. The merger, which was unanimously approved by Maxwell’s board of directors, is to be finalized around the second quarter of 2019. Maxwell is based in San Diego and has about 380 employees. The company will be familiar to… Read more »

Electric truck maker Workhorse secures $35 million in new financing, works with Duke on battery leasing program

Workhorse Group (NASDAQ: WKHS), which manufactures electric delivery vans for UPS, FedEx and other fleet operators, has secured $35 million in new financing from Marathon Asset Management. Workhorse will use the proceeds to repay a July 2018 round of senior secured notes, and to acquire parts to fulfill customer orders. Marathon will provide the funds… Read more »

Analysts share a behind-the-scenes tour of Tesla’s Gigafactory

Can Tesla produce Model 3s in volume, and make a profit? That’s the question of the day (or maybe, of the century). Investment management firm Worm Capital (among others) believes that the answer depends on how efficiently the company is able to manufacture its battery packs, and it recently sent a team to visit Tesla’s… Read more »

Tesla Model 3: Will this machine kill the Oil Age?

It’s hard to overestimate the importance of the Tesla Model 3 (although the media has been doing its best). There’s no question that it’s a momentous motorcar on (at least) three levels. First, Model 3’s success is widely assumed to be an existential issue for the company – if it fails to deliver on its… Read more »

Analyst predicts Tesla will have a near-monopoly in EVs

As Tesla soars and the legacy automakers waffle, a classic disruption scenario, unthinkable only a couple of years ago, seems ever more likely. The latest to reach this conclusion is analyst Alexander Haissl of Hamburg’s Berenberg Bank, who predicts in a recent report that Tesla will end up with a near-monopoly of the EV market…. Read more »

Workhorse CEO on the company’s new plug-in hybrid pickup truck and its expansive plans for the future

We all acknowledge the absurdity of ignoring an elephant, when one is present in the very room in which important matters are being discussed, but what about a hulking, jacked-up, V8-powered monster truck? Tesla permanently changed the conversation about EVs when it electrified a sporty two-seater, a luxury sedan and a crossover SUV, but few… Read more »

New study finds V2G discharging harmful to EV batteries

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology is seen as a potentially valuable resource for balancing electrical grids and facilitating the use of renewable energy. However, a new study by a team at the University of Hawaii suggests that the additional cycling to discharge vehicle batteries to the grid is detrimental to battery performance. In “Durability and reliability of… Read more »

Southwest Research Institute consortium conducts independent battery benchmarking

Comparing the spec sheets from different parts manufacturers is tricky business for engineers in any industry. However, the advanced battery market seems to be uniquely challenged in this regard. As Tesla CEO Elon Musk often points out, when it comes to batteries, the BS factor is outrageous. Even if you assume that every vendor provides… Read more »

California utility orders 500 Workhorse PHEV pickup trucks

Workhorse Group (NASDAQ: WKHS) has received a Letter of Intent from Southern California Public Power Authority for 500 W-15 Plug-In Electric Pickup trucks. The Workhorse W-15 light-duty platform design is an extension of the E-Gen electric technology used in Workhorse medium-duty delivery trucks.  It uses Panasonic 18650 Li-ion battery cells, and is expected to offer… Read more »