There is no doubt that the early days of charging infrastructure rollout had some bumps in the road. Plug-in vehicles interact with the outside world in a much more complicated way than legacy gas-guzzlers do, which led to early interoperability issues. The automakers needed to quickly learn how to work with many infrastructure and hardware… Read more »
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WAVE wireless charging helps transit agencies save money by going electric
Wireless charging technology is almost ready for the big stage. Qualcomm has demonstrated its Halo system in various vehicles, including the Drayson B12/69 electric race car. Evatran’s Plugless aftermarket system is now commercially available for the Volt and the LEAF, and a Model S-compatible version is coming soon. Several major automakers have indicated that they’re… Read more »
BMW’s X5 xDrive40e spearheads its plan to offer PHEVs in every market segment
BMW has taken a bold approach to electrification. It began test-marketing EVs in 2012 with the Active E and Mini E, and escalated to full-scale production in 2013 with the i3 EV and i8 plug-in super-sports car, which together passed the milestone of 50,000 worldwide sales in January. BMW deserves a lot of credit for… Read more »
A dealership perspective: How we can sell millions of EVs
Sales of EVs and PHEVs are growing at what seems like an impressive pace, but are still tiny in relation to the larger auto market. Total new vehicle sales reached an all-time high of over 17 million in 2015, but plug-in sales just cracked the one-percent mark in Europe, and are still well under one… Read more »
Members of development team for BMW i3 and i8 defect to Chinese startup
The Wall Street Journal reports that three key executives from the BMW i EV team have left the Bavarian automaker to join Future Mobility Corp, a Chinese startup backed by Tencent Holdings. Carsten Breitfeld, a 20-year BMW veteran who developed the i8 plug-in sports car, left BMW last month to become CEO of Future Mobility…. Read more »
Ford has no plans for a 200-mile EV
At a Ford conference about a year ago, Charged asked CEO Mark Fields (and every other exec we could buttonhole) if the company had any plans for an answer to the 200-mile Bolt that GM had just announced. His coy answer of “nothing we can talk about” led willing minds to believe that there was… Read more »
Tesla joins Charging Interface Initiative – what does it mean?
Tesla has joined the Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN), an organization formed a few months ago by several automakers and EVSE manufacturers with the mission of promoting technical standards for the Combined Charging System (CCS), and working to increase its capabilities. Observers of the charging scene differ as to the significance of the move. In the… Read more »
Wrightspeed to provide its turbine-based PHEV powertrain to New Zealand bus operator
Ian Wright was a co-founder of Tesla, but he soon left to start his own company, partly because he felt that large commercial vehicles represented a better target for electrification than passenger cars (read more about Wright’s electrifying adventures in the April 2014 issue of Charged, and in the book Tesla Motors). Since then, Wrightspeed’s… Read more »
Volkswagen reopens Transparent Factory as showcase for electric mobility
Volkswagen’s Transparent Factory, which allows customers to watch their new vehicles being assembled, has been redesigned as a showcase for electromobility and digitalization. The site now features some 50 interactive exhibits, including a glass frame model of the e-Golf. Several of VW’s electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles are available for test drives. The exhibition is… Read more »
Cummins wins DOE grant to develop Class 6 PHEV trucks
Heavy vehicle manufacturer Cummins (NYSE: CMI) has been awarded a $4.5-million grant from the DOE to develop a Class 6 commercial PHEV. Class 6 vehicles weigh between 19,000 and 26,000 pounds fully loaded – examples include school buses and single-axle work trucks. The goal of the project is to reduce fuel consumption by at least… Read more »