Search Results Found For: "LG Chem"

Battery giants square off for court battle over lithium-ion patents

Two of the world’s biggest industrial companies are preparing for a high-stakes court battle over an arcane battery chemistry, and the outcome could have important implications for next-gen EVs, according to Quartz. Chemical colossus BASF and the Argonne National Laboratory have filed a lawsuit against Belgian battery-maker Umicore, accusing it of selling a battery component to… Read more »

Is String Cell battery technology the future for EVs?

When it comes to finding a way to charge EVs more quickly, human ingenuity has come up with some pretty wide-ranging solutions, from battery-swapping to flow batteries that store energy in tanks of liquid electrolyte. The latest innovative idea comes from startup Tanktwo, and is called a String Battery. Tanktwo’s system replaces a vehicle’s battery pack with a container filled… Read more »

2015 VW e-Golf ushers in an era of interchangeable drivetrains for every Volkswagen model

Rising above the waters of the Mittelland Canal in Wolfsburg, Germany, four iconic smokestacks cut through an otherwise sparse skyline. These are the most recognizable – and among the last – vestiges of the original Volkswagen factory from 1938. Symbolically, however, the smokestacks represent much more than the symbols of a power plant that –… Read more »

A better way to battery-swap?

The idea of battery swapping for EVs has been around for some time, but the reality has not been auspicious. Better Place bet on the concept and went bankrupt. Tesla successfully demonstrated a battery swap in 2013, but so far has not gotten around to opening any swap stations to the public. A team of… Read more »

Tom Gage on ZEV mandates, Tesla’s early days, BMW’s EV commitment and V2G tech

Q&A with the EV trailblazer Tom Gage Tom Gage is one of America’s true EV pioneers. He’s perhaps best known as one of the designers of the tzero electric sports car that provided the inspiration for the Tesla Roadster. However, that is far from his only contribution to the electric mobility field. Charged recently caught up… Read more »

Fuel cells vs batteries for vehicle powertrains

Jeffrey Wishart, a Senior Project Engineer at Intertek, conducts research and development on products and services in the areas of energy, the environment, and advanced transportation. In addition to his supervisory position at Intertek, Dr. Wishart worked for several years at ETEC LABS (the research and consulting division of ECOtality) and at a utility company… Read more »

Polypore and Sumitomo sign license agreement for battery separator coating

Polypore International and Sumitomo Chemical have entered into a Settlement and License Agreement which ends outstanding litigation between the two companies. Last February, Charlotte-based Polypore’s Celgard unit filed a patent-infringement suit against Sumitomo over Celgard’s lithium-ion battery separators, which are designed to prevent short circuits and limit safety problems from overheating. Under the new License… Read more »

Report: sharp growth for battery materials market, driven by EV industry

Dallas, Texas market research and consulting company MarketsandMarkets predicts that the global battery materials market will be worth $11.3 billion by 2018. In 2012, its value was $5.1 billion, and the firm estimates a 13 percent compound annual growth rate from 2013 to 2018. They expect electric vehicles to be the key revenue generators for… Read more »

EVSE: the low-hanging fruit of smart city buildout

How installing a few charging stations is more of a long-term solution than meets the eye. We often hear about the need for smart cities, smart grids, and sustainability in general, but what does it really mean? How can we ever hope to build a smart and sustainable global ecosystem, considering the energy-consuming path that… Read more »

ams introduces improved architecture for cell monitoring and balancing

ams AG, an Austrian provider of analog ICs and sensors, has introduced a simpler and more robust method of monitoring and balancing cells in lithium-ion battery systems. The company has implemented the new architecture in a highly integrated chip, the AS8506, to perform distributed cell monitoring and balancing operations for stacked cell modules, including Safe… Read more »