Taking a page from Tesla’s book, Toyota plans to make some 5,680 patents on fuel cell technologies available royalty-free. The motivation appears to be much the same – just as Tesla hopes to encourage other automakers to produce battery EVs, Toyota wants to “open the door to the hydrogen future” and “spur development and introduction… Read more »
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The EV Show: a roundup of the month’s EV conversion news
The electrical gurus at EV West have started a monthly youtube show about EVs. On The EV Show, Hosts Michael Bream and Eric Hutchison (with Ono the shop dog in the background adding an occasional “woof”) cover a wide variety of news from the EV world, with an emphasis on conversions. This is no mere… Read more »
PG&E and BMW team up to test V2G services
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and BMW are working together to test the ability of EV batteries to provide services to the electrical grid. PG&E selected BMW after a competitive solicitation to manage a minimum of 100 kilowatts of electric demand on PG&E’s system, as other large industrial and commercial customers do today as… Read more »
Your EV may not be so green – but then again, it may.
Here we go again. A mainstream news source distills (some would say “distorts”) a complex scientific study into a sensational headline, and the online echo chamber spins the story into a narrative that’s almost the opposite of what the study actually found. The study, Life Cycle Air Quality Impacts of Conventional and Alternative Light-Duty Transportation… Read more »
Tesla Model X to be the first EV with towing capability
When Tesla’s category-killing electric SUV finally goes on sale, it will be available with an optional trailer hitch, the company revealed this week. A letter to Model X reservation holders posted on the Tesla Motors Club forum (via Green Car Reports) reads, in part: We’ll be spending much of 2015 building and testing production-intent prototypes before delivering… Read more »
Volvo’s new plug-in hybrid SUV
The XC90 T8 is the first Volvo designed from the ground up for plug-in compatibility, according to the company. Built on the Scalable Product Architecture platform, the 7-seat SUV features a 4-cylinder Drive-E gas engine with supercharger and turbocharger, an 8-speed automatic gearbox. The high-voltage (270–400 V) lithium-ion battery has a 9.2 kWh capacity, capable of… Read more »
Utilities launch initiatives to electrify their vehicle fleets, encourage workplace charging
Utility industry bigwigs joined Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz at the White House to announce two initiatives to promote electric transportation technologies. More than 70 investor-owned electric utilities will increase investment by about $250 million over 5 years to add more electric vehicles to their fleets, starting in 2015. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and the… Read more »
Celgard to work with Panasonic on next-generation battery cells
Celgard, a subsidiary of Polypore International (NYSE: PPO) and Panasonic have agreed to work together to develop coated and uncoated Celgard brand separators for Panasonic’s next-generation cylindrical battery cells. Upon completion of the development effort, the two firms expect to form a long term supply agreement. A battery separator provides a barrier between the anode… Read more »
Every inch an EV: Tesla’s Model S redefines the automobile (new book excerpt)
This article is an excerpt from Tesla Motors: How Elon Musk and Company Made Electric Cars Cool, and Sparked the Next Tech Revolution by Charged Senior Editor Charles Morris. This 270-page book is a comprehensive history of Tesla, told by the entrepreneurs who made it happen, as well as an assessment of the company’s lasting influence… Read more »
EU scraps official targets for EV charging stations
The European Union has dropped proposed targets for the number of public charging stations member countries must install by 2020. The EU’s new alternative fuel law, due to come into force later this month, will contain no binding rules on how many charging stations are to be deployed. The law states only that governments must… Read more »