As the legacy automakers finally begin to get serious about electrification, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the accelerating transition will result in a major restructuring of the industry, which seems likely to include substantial job losses. As a recent Bloomberg article reports, fear of the electric future is an underlying reason for the United Auto… Read more »
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UPS partners with TEVVA Motors to introduce new PHEV vans to UK fleet
UPS is an electrification pioneer – the company has invested over $1 billion in alternative fuel projects since 2009, and currently has more than 10,000 alternative fuel vehicles in its global fleet. The logistics giant has teamed up with TEVVA Motors to develop a new class of electric delivery vehicles that addresses a particular problem:… Read more »
A closer look at current sensors in EVs
Pretty much every electronic circuit that handles significant power utilizes some means of measuring current, whether to simply protect against overload or because it is a basic functional requirement. In this article we’ll cover some of the more common devices and circuit techniques for measuring current in the major subsystems of an EV, including when… Read more »
Florida to use VW Dieselgate funds to install fast charging stations, and to buy more diesels
The good news: Florida plans to invest $25 million from Volkswagen’s Dirty Diesel settlement in a network of highway charging stations. The (potentially) bad news: the state could choose to spend the rest of the settlement funds to replace existing diesel engines with newer, slightly cleaner, diesel engines. As part of Volkswagen’s punishment for getting… Read more »
Automated Tritium 175 kW chargers to serve terminal tractors at Port of Long Beach
EV charging equipment manufacturer Tritium will supply and install 33 DC high-power chargers at the Port of Long Beach, where they will power a fleet of electric-drive terminal tractors operated by SSA Marine. Tritium’s Veefil-PK 175 kW DC High Power Chargers will charge 33 terminal tractors automatically and simultaneously. The chargers will be equipped with… Read more »
SiC vs GaN semiconductors for EV power converters: Tech Opinion
Just as engineers are starting to get used to the advantages (and quirks) of silicon carbide (SiC ) devices, another semiconductor material joins the fray: gallium nitride, or GaN. Though there are some superficial similarities between these two materials, and even some overlap in their areas of best use, it is my opinion that only… Read more »
A closer look at the losses in power semiconductors
A previous article examined loss mechanisms in traction motors, which tend to be the single biggest source of losses in a modern EV drivetrain. This time, the focus is on the various power semiconductors, as they are the next biggest source of losses. Also covered in brief are ways to mitigate these losses and design… Read more »
Tesla Q1 deliveries disappoint, stock stumbles
Just as the Tesla story has always elicited comments from both well-informed and uninformed writers, TSLA stock attracts investors of wildly varying levels of sophistication – or, to put it colorfully, “smart money” and “dumb money.” While the dumb money periodically causes large temporary tumbles in the stock price, triggered by Elon Musk pretending to… Read more »
Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car – And How It Will Reshape Our World (book review)
When it comes to vehicle autonomy, you could hardly find someone more experienced than Larry Burns, who was deeply involved with GM’s autonomy and electrification efforts as Corporate VP of R&D and Planning from 1998 to 2009, and later an important consultant to Google’s Waymo. In “Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car –… Read more »
Regenerative braking: A closer look at the methods and limits of regen
All motors are generators, the old saying goes, with the caveat that few types are equally good at both modes of operation, and some are downright awful as generators (a classic example being the single-phase shaded pole induction type, used in myriad small appliances the world over). Fortunately, both types of AC motor commonly used… Read more »