Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) captured a record amount of total plug-in vehicle battery capacity sold in 2019, with 17.4 gigawatt-hours of total capacity. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) accounted for a smaller portion of total vehicle battery capacity due to their lower sales volumes, and because they require smaller battery packs than BEVs. PHEV sales… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "Tesla"
Xpeng P7 review: The company’s making headlines, but how is the car?
Chinese automaker Xpeng is the most recent of a string of EV-makers to launch a headline-grabbing IPO. The company’s US stock-market debut (NYSE: XPEV) raised $1.5 billion off the bat, and the stock posted healthy gains on its first day. However, as John Voelcker writes in The Drive, the exploits of Xpeng and its Chinese… Read more »
Nissan achieves breakthrough in carbon fiber parts production
Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) was once seen as an ideal body material for EVs, because of its high strength and light weight. It was used in the Tesla Roadster and the BMW i3, but fell out of favor because of its high cost. Now Nissan has developed a new production process that speeds up… Read more »
Accelerated electrode drying could reduce battery production cost
A new EPIC project coordinated by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is aimed at accelerating the drying of electrodes for lithium-ion batteries, increasing the energy efficiency of this process and reducing production cost. KIT says innovative electrode drying management can reduce the cost of battery production and improve environmental performance. The quality of Li-ion battery… Read more »
Rear seat delete option converts the Chevy Bolt to a tiny electric van
Cargo capacity has always been a sore point with legacy-brand (non-Tesla) EVs. The already limited cargo space in hatchbacks such as the LEAF and Bolt has been cannibalized for the battery, and the rear seats are not designed to fold flat. Well, if you’re willing to sacrifice the rear seats entirely, you may be able… Read more »
NIO’s Battery as a Service (BaaS) brings down up-front EV costs, allows battery upgrades
Battery leasing has often been proposed as a way to bring down the up-front cost of an EV, and to allay consumers’ fears about battery degradation. Chinese EV-maker NIO has embraced this concept, and launched Battery as a Service (BaaS) for customers in China. NIO BaaS users can purchase a car without owning the battery,… Read more »
VW’s ID.4 electric SUV will have towing capability; Elon Musk drives an ID.3, calls it “pretty good”
Volkswagen’s ID.3 is all very well, but we Americans are more excited about the ID.4, an electric SUV that’s slated to go on sale here in the US in late 2020 or early 2021. Production has started in Germany, and VW recently revealed some details of the interior. Now VW has released a new video… Read more »
Lucid Air unveiled – new electric luxury sedan to be delivered in spring 2021
In a year packed with new EV launches, few vehicles have been as eagerly anticipated as the Lucid Air. Lucid had already been around for over a decade when we profiled the company in our March/April 2018 issue. The company has built some impressive prototypes, including a converted delivery van that beat a Ferrari and… Read more »
New study reaffirms carbon emissions of EVs lower than ICEs, lists flaws in long-tailpipe arguments
Journalists sometimes have to write the same articles over and over, like teachers repeating the same lecture for a new class each semester. The myth of the “long tailpipe”—the notion that EVs generate just as much carbon emissions as ICE vehicles do—has been debunked by dozens of scientific studies (see below for a partial list)…. Read more »
Electric truck startup Xos raises $20 million in new funding
Commercial EV startup Xos Trucks, formerly known as Thor Trucks, has raised $20 million in new funding from a group of investors including Proeza Ventures and BUILD Capital Group. Xos will use the capital to scale up production of its X-Platform chassis. The company anticipates a surge in demand following CARB’s new zero-emissions mandate for… Read more »