Tesla made automotive history on March 31, when it unveiled the culmination of its master plan to bring EVs to the masses. The company has committed to delivering a car with the parameters that pundits have identified as the tipping point for widespread EV sales: 200 miles of range and a price tag in the… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "Xcel Energy"
Nordic plug-in market soars in Q1 2016
13,896 new plug-in vehicles hit the roads of Scandinavia in the first quarter of 2016. Both Norway and Finland had their best-selling quarters to date. However, sales in Denmark stalled as the government phased out tax breaks. As reported by auto industry publication Insero Quarterly, EVs are still outselling PHEVs, but the latter are closing… Read more »
Researchers use superionic conductors as electrolytes for solid-state batteries
Researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, in collaboration with Toyota and two other research institutions, have designed and tested solid-state batteries using a novel type of solid electrolyte. In “High-power all-solid-state batteries using sulfide superionic conductors,” published in Nature Energy, Yuki Kato and team members explain the advantages of superionic materials as solid electrolytes…. Read more »
Bee pollen forms carbon microstructures for Li-ion anodes
Much research in the battery world focuses on finding a replacement for graphite as an anode material. One candidate is hard carbon, which can be formed in various morphologies to deliver the desired properties. But in fact, there are already millions of tiny factories around the world, cranking out as many carbon particles as could… Read more »
EV Fleet CEO on building a highway-capable light-duty all-electric truck
There are a lot of great opportunities for companies building EVs for niche markets, but getting an independent automotive startup off the ground is anything but easy. EVs can be very practical from a financial point of view. So it’s a bit of a shame that for the world’s most practical vehicle buyer – the… Read more »
Tesla sales challenging in China, but healthy in Hong Kong
Along with every other automaker, Tesla spends a lot of time thinking about China, where a rising middle class is buying more cars and the government is strongly promoting EVs. However, doing business in the Middle Kingdom is not always easy for Western firms. Although Tesla’s Q3 2015 Chinese sales figure of 3,025 vehicles was… Read more »
Can Tanktwo redefine the battery pack with big data?
A Finnish-American start-up with ambitious goals wants to change how we think about batteries. The concept of an EV that supports the quick removal and replacement of a discharged battery pack was all the rage about 5 years ago. Since then, however, various systems have been attempted and subsequently abandoned by companies like BetterPlace, Renault,… Read more »
Formula E battery power increasing to 170 kW for season two
Williams Advanced Engineering, the supplier of the battery packs for the Formula E electric racing series, has announced that the maximum power output of the racers’ batteries will increase to 170 kW for season two of the Championship. The battery packs use cells from XALT Energy, and have maximum usable energy of 28 kWh. The… Read more »
New paper: Cost of hybrid systems will be halved by 2025
For those of us who are puzzled and discouraged by the recent decline in sales of hybrid vehicles, a new paper from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) offers plenty of hope for the future. According to “Hybrid Vehicles: Technology Development and Cost Reduction,” the costs of full-function hybrid systems are likely to drop… Read more »
Samsung says it can immediately double capacity of Li-ion batteries
Samsung Electronics has developed a silicon carbide-free graphene coating that it says could immediately double the capacity of lithium-ion batteries. That would be an impressive feat indeed, considering that capacity has increased only twofold since Li-ion batteries were first commercialized in 1991. Many researchers are investigating the potential of silicon as an anode material, but… Read more »