Search Results Found For: "Tesla Semi"

Parsing the objections to California’s 2036 diesel truck phase-out

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently voted to finalize its Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) rule, a set of regulations that requires new medium- and heavy-duty vehicles sold or registered in the state to be zero-emission by 2036, and requires all trucks to be zero-emission by 2042. The rule is a complement to CARB’s Advanced… Read more »

Alternatives to permanent magnet motors in EV traction applications

In my very first article for Charged over 10 years ago, I opined that the Switched Reluctance Motor, or SRM, would eventually come to dominate the EV traction market, if for no other reason than the fact that it is almost as cheap as dirt to manufacture. I won’t sprain my shoulder patting myself on… Read more »

How to make heavy-duty electric trucks work in practice

Fleets tested Volvo VNR Electric Class 8 tractors for three years: Here’s what they learned. Large commercial trucks and other heavy equipment have run on diesel fuel for many decades now. Requirements for more aggressive emission after-treatment and the hardware to achieve that add cost and complexity for fleet operators. Rising fuel-economy standards during the… Read more »

Volvo Trucks provides electrification consulting for fleet customers

One of the keys to Tesla’s early success was that the company understood that winning drivers over to electric drive involves more than just selling cars. The importance of a more comprehensive customer relationship applies with even more force in the commercial vehicle market, and savvy commercial EV makers are offering “turnkey” electrification solutions, helping… Read more »

EV sales hit new record in Q2, as legacy vehicles struggle

The legacy auto industry is crying the blues—US new-vehicle sales in the second quarter were up only a tiny bit from the previous quarter, and down over 20% from Q2 2021. However, the new auto industry is doing very well, thank you. Kelley Blue Book tells us (via Cox Auto) that sales of pure EVs… Read more »

Silicon carbide is becoming the material of choice for EV power electronics

Silicon carbide is a hot topic in the power electronics field these days. As a recent article in the New York Times explains, SiC is a wide-bandgap (WBG) material that designers are increasingly choosing to make power electronics devices more efficient. WBG advantages The WBG classification has profound implications for device behavior and performance. This… Read more »

Rivian working on 800-volt architecture, bidirectional charging, in-house drive units and battery cells

EV startup Rivian’s Q4 2021 Shareholder Letter is reminiscent of the ones we used to see from a certain other Californian EV startup in its idealistic younger days—full of forward-looking technical innovations. Rivian appears to embracing several current trends on the EV scene—going bidirectional and moving towards 800 volts, LFP cells and more in-house production… Read more »