Connecticut, one of 14 states that have adopted California’s clean-air standards, has set a goal of putting 300,000 zero-emission and hybrid vehicles on the state’s roads by 2025. To further that aim, it has established an incentive program with a new wrinkle: instead of having to apply for a rebate after buying a new vehicle,… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "US Hybrid"
Mercedes confirms plans for high-end EV
Daimler is accelerating into the electric future. Last year the company spent about half of its 5-billion-euro R&D budget on electrification and other emission-reducing technologies, and announced that it would introduce 10 new plug-ins by 2017. The Mercedes S550 Plug-In Hybrid, the group’s third model with a cord, went on sale in the US in… Read more »
Efficient Drivetrains builds fleet of plug-in trucks for Port of Shanghai
Efficient Drivetrains, Inc. (EDI) has partnered with Shaanxi Automotive to build a fleet of plug-in hybrid trucks to the Port of Shanghai. Shaanxi said it expects to provide up to 200 of the PHEVs in 2016. The two companies are already working together on plug-in natural gas hybrid city buses. Shaanxi built a prototype bus… Read more »
StoreDot says its battery tech charges 10 times faster
Put this one in the “If it can do what they claim, it really will be revolutionary” category. Israeli battery developer StoreDot says its EV FlashBattery can charge a 300-mile battery in 5 minutes – almost 10 times faster than today’s state of the art. In 2014, StoreDot demonstrated the FlashBattery, which it says can… Read more »
New poll: Consumer interest in EVs hasn’t budged since 2013
Even as automakers are developing ever-more-capable EVs, and network operators are steadily rolling out new charging infrastructure, the average consumer has little more interest in electrified vehicles than two years ago. That’s the inescapable conclusion of a recent Harris Poll, which was conducted this May and repeated the questions of a poll from two years… Read more »
PG&E donates plug-in disaster response truck to city of Napa
On the anniversary of last year’s South Napa earthquake, California utility PG&E has donated a plug-in hybrid truck to the city of Napa for use in future disaster response operations. The truck, developed in California by Efficient Drivetrains, Inc (profiled in the March/April 2015 issue of Charged) in partnership with PG&E, has a 30-mile electric… Read more »
Evolute’s MSYS transmission for EVs demonstrates 18% efficiency gain
The UK firm Evolute Drives makes a multi-speed transmission system for hybrids and EVs that it says allows a vehicle’s traction motor to be smaller and more efficient by running it in a more power-efficient regime. The company will present test results for its 3-speed MSYS transmission at the upcoming CTI Symposium in Shanghai. In… Read more »
Navigant: Global market for automotive Li-ion batteries will quadruple by 2024
The battery business is booming, and a new report from Navigant Research aims to flesh out the picture with some facts and figures. “Advanced Energy Storage for Automotive Applications” predicts that the global market for automotive Li-ion batteries will grow from $7.8 billion in 2015 to $30.6 billion in 2024, an almost fourfold increase. Total… Read more »
With acquisition, Leclanché expands its expertise in batteries for heavy-duty transport
Swiss battery manufacturer Leclanché has acquired Trineuron, a business unit of the Belgian company Emrol that specializes in lithium titanate battery technology. With this acquisition, Leclanché adds a new development center and 10 engineers, and expects to increase its development capability, especially in transport applications such as electric/hybrid buses, ferries, mining vehicles, and automated guided… Read more »
European plug-in sales up 53% from 2014
US plug-in sales may be stuck in a traffic jam at the moment, but in Europe, they’re taking off like a Model S on a highway onramp. The latest report from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association shows that, for the first six months of 2015, 52,889 plug-in vehicles were sold in the EU, an increase… Read more »