Several EV owners in the Vancouver, British Columbia metro area have been frustrated to find public Level 2 charging stations inoperable after thieves snipped off the attached cables with bolt cutters. According to Transport Evolved, the thefts are becoming widespread in the area, with some sites falling victim multiple times. TE has also reported similar… Read more »
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CD-adapco’s new set of battery simulation tools
CD-adapco has developed a set of Li-ion battery simulation tools designed to enable faster design and development of EV power systems. The new technology is available within CD-adapco’s flagship software package STAR-CCM+ and the application-specific Battery Design Studio. The new software tools were developed as part of the DOE’s Computer Aided Engineering of Electric Drive Batteries… Read more »
Fraunhofer Institute develops front-end wireless charging system
Most wireless EV charging systems use an induction coil on the underside of the vehicle and a floor-mounted charging station, but researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology (IISB) in Germany are developing an alternative method that makes the connection at the front end of the vehicle. This addresses a number… Read more »
Security buffs win a prize for hacking into a Tesla Model S
The hyperconnected automobile presents all sorts of opportunities for criminal mischief, and it’s no hypothetical danger – last year, DARPA researchers were able to remotely hack into Toyota and Ford vehicles and disable the brakes. At this month’s Symposium on Security for Asia Network (SyScan360), a security conference in Beijing, security buffs were invited to… Read more »
Phinergy CEO on aluminum-air batteries and 1,000-mile range-extended EVs
Along with its industry giant partner Alcoa, Israeli startup Phinergy says it has aluminum-air batteries for EVs in the can. More than 550 feet over the National Mall in Washington, DC, the single most significant piece of American aluminum triangulates a point between the White House, the US Capitol, and the Lincoln Memorial. It is… Read more »
Q&A with Ian Wright: The CEO of Wrightspeed on Tesla, gas turbines and electric trucks
Ian Wright is originally from New Zealand. He came to California in 1993, where he happened to be a neighbor of Tesla founder Martin Eberhard. He worked with optical switching systems at a company called Altamar Networks until it went out of business, then decided he wanted to start his own company. Eberhard and his… Read more »
Daimler and BMW commit to common technology for wireless charging
Daimler and BMW have agreed to jointly develop and implement a common technology for wireless charging. The system consists of two components: a secondary coil integrated into the under tray of the car and a primary coil integrated into a floor plate that can be placed on a garage floor. Electrical energy is transmitted at… Read more »
A closer look at the semiconductor switch
In this article I’ll be giving an overview of that most important of power electronics components: the semiconductor switch. I’ll first address what a switch is, and then delve into some of the more important compromises and shortcomings that exist in real-world switches that engineers must contend with when designing chargers, motor controllers, DC-DC converters… Read more »
Will Nissan’s No Charge to Charge program drive LEAF sales?
Image above courtesy of WSDOT/Flickr Nissan and NRG eVgo have pioneered a multi-network consortium to make topping up the bestselling EV a considerable re-LEAF. When Nissan last graced the Charged cover (March/April 2013 issue), the company was picking itself up and dusting itself off. Its LEAF had taken a shellacking in the press after the… Read more »
Automotive segment consumes 10.5% of global advanced battery production
Batteries are big business. According to the latest Advanced Battery Tracker from Navigant Research, more than 6 billion advanced battery cells were sold in 2013, representing 40 gigawatts of power capacity and more than $13.4 billion in sales (a modest increase over 2012’s $12.8 billion). The majority of these batteries were manufactured in China. Most… Read more »