Global interest in plug-in vehicles continues to grow, but Big Auto continues to take only timid and halting steps toward electrification. This presents opportunities for bold new competitors to establish footholds in the auto market of the future. A new report from Guidehouse Insights identifies some of the “leading EV upstarts.” Guidehouse notes that momentum… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "NIO"
Battery swapping is back: NIO Power has completed more than 500,000 swaps
Remember battery swapping? Following Tesla’s abandonment of the concept, and the spectacular rise and fall of Better Place, most in the EV industry probably wrote it off as a failed transitional technology. However, over in China, NIO has been diligently improving its battery swapping technology. The company introduced its Power Swap system in December 2017,… Read more »
Dominion Energy selects Thomas Built Jouley for electric school bus initiative
Dominion Energy has selected Thomas Built Buses (TBB) as the provider of 50 electric school buses, which will make up the initial phase of Dominion’s electric school bus replacement program in Virginia. According to TBB, this program represents the largest deployment of electric school buses in the US to date. TBB’s Saf-T-Liner C2 Jouley is… Read more »
Unions fear electrification will vaporize their jobs
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 »
Chinese EV startup NIO to cut 1,200 staff
Chinese EV maker NIO plans to reduce its workforce by at least 1,200 by the end of September, CEO Li Bin revealed in an internal e-mail (as reported by Gasgoo). Bin said NIO will retain roughly 7,500 staff after the cut. The layoffs are part of the company’s recent efforts to control cost, improve operation… 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 »
VW and Northvolt form European Battery Union to advance EU battery research
VW and Swedish battery maker Northvolt will lead a new consortium, the European Battery Union (EBU), which aims to push battery research forward in Europe. Through the EBU, the partners plan to research the entire battery value stream – from raw materials through cell technology to recycling. The group’s prime objective is to accumulate broader… Read more »
Chinese EV-makers are coming: NIO debuts on NYSE
China is by far the world’s largest EV market – nearly 373,000 plug-in passenger cars were sold there in the first half of this year (according to EV Volumes). It’s widely believed that Chinese automakers hope to ride the electrification wave to the top of the global industry, but so far the only Chinese company… Read more »
Cambridge study reveals fast-charging potential of niobium tungsten oxides
Cambridge research has shed light on the potential of a previously ignored class of electrode material: niobium tungsten oxides. These compounds display several promising properties, including a lack of the dendrite formation which plagues graphite-based designs. They have a relatively large particle size and a structure that allows lithium ions to travel freely. This high transport rate can… Read more »
Clean Energy Credit Union directs investment to green projects including EV loans
The Clean Energy Credit Union (CECU) is now taking savings account deposits and making clean energy loans. CECU received its federal charter from the National Credit Union Administration in September 2017, and completed a soft launch in May, during which it beta-tested its online banking services. CECU is an online-only financial institution that focuses exclusively… Read more »