Search Results Found For: "FLO"

Cadillac ELR keeps it quiet

Naturally, the 2014 Cadillac ELR’s interior is silent when running on battery power. The luxury coupe’s engineers went to great lengths to keep it that way when the range-extending generator kicks in. ELR uses active noise cancelling, a technology that samples noise and generates a sound wave with the same amplitude but with inverted phase,… Read more »

ChargePoint launches new financing program for EV charging stations

It’s one of the hottest trends in green tech: offering creative financing to get around the problem of high upfront equipment costs. EV charging giant ChargePoint is the latest to take advantage of this idea, partnering with Key Equipment Finance to launch a $100 million lease-to-own program for EV charging stations. The new offer will… Read more »

Chargepoint offers trade-in credit to Blink charger operators

As some analysts are predicting spectacular growth in the public charging market, something of a Wild West atmosphere is developing. Last month, Ecotality, one of the country’s largest network operators, filed for bankruptcy. Last week, Florida-based Car Charging Group announced that it would purchase Ecotality’s Blink charging network. Now Chargepoint, another giant network, is looking… Read more »

Dual battery pack could give next-generation Tesla unprecedented range

Is Tesla working on a new type of hybrid pack that combines two different battery technologies to deliver a huge increase in range? This question has been floating around the discussion groups for a few months, but several outlets reported it as breaking news this week after a couple of stock analysts discovered the story… Read more »

The challenges of battery state of charge measurements

Your BMS’s fuel gauge is lying to you. Here’s why that’s not a big deal. Battery management systems (BMSs), and the fuel gauges in them, are a part of daily life for almost everyone. You’ll find them in vehicles, laptops, cell phones, grid-attached energy storage – basically, anything that does work and needs to be plugged in,… Read more »

Connecting Europe’s charging networks

Many have posed the question of why the EV market in Europe has lagged behind the market in the US, considering the Continent’s higher fuel prices and strong green tradition. While there are several plausible answers, on closer examination the question itself makes little sense, because in fact there is no European EV market, but… Read more »

Multiphase cooling: CapTherm’s technology takes the heat off

Canada’s CapTherm Systems’ multiphase cooling technology could take the heat off of EV batteries and charging stations more efficiently, taking up less space using fewer materials while improving longevity and performance. Charged takes an early peek at this innovation before it goes commercial next year. If you’ve never dropped your smartphone 10 feet onto pavement,… Read more »

Plug-in fleets: small challenges, huge savings

Four plug-in truck companies talk to fleet managers about electrification opportunities Plug-in vehicles are different. Aside from the obvious changes in technology, they present a different financial model for corporate number crunchers. This means some challenges for those pitching EVs and PHEVs to fleet operators. Fortunately for the EV industry and the fleets of the… Read more »

Resonating with the OEMs: WiTricity’s wireless energy transfer technology

WiTricity hopes to leverage a wireless energy transfer breakthrough out of MIT into a commercial solution with far-reaching potential Inside a standard electrical transformer are two coils that transfer power wirelessly. They utilize the principle of magnetic induction, sending energy from a primary coil to a secondary coil without a direct electrical connection.  Inductive chargers,… Read more »

A closer look at back electromotive force

Why motors generate and generators motor In a previous article I took a closer look at regenerative braking, and mentioned an old engineering saying that every motor is a generator and every generator is a motor (along with the caveat that some are more suited to the opposite purpose than others). This time around I’ll… Read more »