Proterra’s electric buses are on a roll. The company has sold buses to 16 transit operators around the country, from Metro LA to Seattle to Massachusetts to Florida. The recent round of Low or No Emission grants from the Federal Transit Administration funded purchases of 33 more Proterra buses. Proterra has a smooth marketing operation… Read more »
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WAVE wireless charging helps transit agencies save money by going electric
Wireless charging technology is almost ready for the big stage. Qualcomm has demonstrated its Halo system in various vehicles, including the Drayson B12/69 electric race car. Evatran’s Plugless aftermarket system is now commercially available for the Volt and the LEAF, and a Model S-compatible version is coming soon. Several major automakers have indicated that they’re… Read more »
BMW’s X5 xDrive40e spearheads its plan to offer PHEVs in every market segment
BMW has taken a bold approach to electrification. It began test-marketing EVs in 2012 with the Active E and Mini E, and escalated to full-scale production in 2013 with the i3 EV and i8 plug-in super-sports car, which together passed the milestone of 50,000 worldwide sales in January. BMW deserves a lot of credit for… Read more »
From racing cars to street sweepers: Williams collaborates with Wille on electric platforms
Williams Advanced Engineering is famous for its high-performance powertrains – it’s involved in building the Jaguar C-X75 hybrid supercar and an Aston Martin electric concept, as well as supplying batteries for the Formula E electric racing series. The company’s expertise about combining energy efficiency and performance can be applied to more prosaic vehicles as well…. Read more »
New NREL study measures the public’s attitude about plug-in vehicles
A new report by Mark Singer of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) aims to highlight what consumers think about plug-in vehicles, including pure EVs and PHEVs, and to gain some insights about what may be needed to encourage widespread adoption. The report, Consumer Views on Plug-in Electric Vehicles – National Benchmark Report, presents the… Read more »
New study identifies one culprit behind Li-sulfur battery capacity fade
Lithium-sulfur batteries theoretically offer high energy density, and are widely seen as a promising next-generation energy storage system. However – you guessed it – they have several drawbacks. Among other issues, capacity tends to fade quickly. Researchers at the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have identified one of the reasons behind this problem, and found… Read more »
Canadian government budget includes $62.5 million for alternative fuel infrastructure
Canada’s newly elected Liberal party unveiled its first budget this week. It anticipates sizable deficits for the next two years, so there seems to be little cash to spare for promoting EVs. No federal tax credit or other purchase incentives were announced, but there is a respectable amount for investment in fueling infrastructure. From the… Read more »
A closer look at electrolytes in advanced batteries
The electrolytes in advanced batteries are based on incredibly complicated formulations. If you calculated all of the possible combinations of solvents, salts and additives while trying to find the optimal ratios for just one electrolyte formulation, it would add up to an extraordinary number of possibilities. Because it plays such a critical role in battery… Read more »
Winning Google Little Box Challenge inverter powered by GaN Systems transistors
Google and the IEEE Power Electronics Society established the Little Box Challenge to stimulate the development of inverters, key components of both solar energy installations and EV systems. The challenge to engineers: “Figure out how to shrink an inverter down to something smaller than a laptop (a reduction of 10× in volume), and you’ll win… Read more »
Greenlots and Hawaiian Electric demonstrate fast charger with storage and vehicle-grid integration
Greenlots and Hawaiian Electric Company have collaborated to demonstrate a fast charger that incorporates Greenlots’ SKY vehicle-grid integration (VGI) platform, as well as stationary storage. The Greenlots SKY Smart Charging platform, which uses OpenADR and the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP), can respond to demand response load modification requests and allow Hawaiian Electric to remotely… Read more »