Motiv Power Systems, maker of the EPIC all-electric chassis for buses and trucks, has secured $60 million in equity funding, led by investors GMAG Holdings and Winnebago. The funds will support the overall growth of Motiv, which includes opening a new engineering and manufacturing facility in Detroit and facilitating further growth in the large-fleet customer… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "demand charge"
Volkswagen CEO: electrification won’t hurt profit margins
Volkswagen, which has unveiled the most ambitious electrification plans of any of the legacy automakers, does not believe the transition to EVs will hurt its profit margins, CEO Herbert Diess said in an interview with la Repubblica (via Reuters). “We do not expect a deterioration in margins. Our advantage is that all our brands have… Read more »
New front in the war against EVs: ferreting out erroneous tax credit claims
Governments often use selective law enforcement to blunt the effects of unwanted policies instituted by previous administrations. Is this what’s going on with an audit of federal EV tax credit claims? The Wall Street Journal reports that the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), an arm of the Treasury Department and thus of the… Read more »
Tesla non-pickup truck to be revealed in November
Tesla’s pickup truck is surely the most eagerly-awaited new vehicle since…well, Tesla’s last vehicle. Pickups are the biggest segment of the US auto market, and electrifying them will be a major, and necessary, turning point for EV adoption. Ford, GM and startup Rivian all have electric pickups in various stages of development, but Tesla is… Read more »
EuroGroup’s new gluing technology promises to improve motor efficiency and reshape electric machine design
Groundbreaking glue: New results show as much as 44% core loss reductions for the same steel and lamination thickness. Many design decisions in the EV industry are still driven by range. Engineers remain focused on delivering system efficiency improvements, because it directly translates into delivering more range without increasing the size and cost of the… Read more »
AC Fast Charging: The right fit for medium-duty EVs
What’s the largest mass transit system in the United States? Is it the public transit network? Nope. Commercial airlines? Guess again. Passenger rail? Not even close. Here’s a hint: the vehicles are colored yellow. Give up? It’s school buses, and in terms of sheer numbers this fleet is 2.5 times larger than all other forms… Read more »
VW and Northvolt join to build battery facility in Germany
Volkswagen and Swedish battery maker Northvolt have created a 50/50 joint venture to build a factory for lithium-ion batteries. Construction of the production facility is scheduled to start in Salzgitter, Germany in 2020. The companies plan to start production by the end of 2023 and initially produce 16 GWh per year. VW has invested €900… Read more »
BMW launches local assembly plant in Thailand for PHEV batteries
In July of this year, BMW launched a high-voltage battery production plant in Thailand, in partnership with parts maker DRÄXLMAIER. The investment, worth a total of 500 million baht ($16 million), was supported with incentives from Thailand’s Board of Investment. The assembly lines, located at the DRÄXLMAIER plant in Chonburi assemble both battery modules and… 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 »
Delphi and Cree partner on silicon carbide devices
Delphi Technologies and Cree have partnered to use Cree’s silicon carbide semiconductor technology in Delphi’s electronic systems for EVs. The partnership will combine Cree’s silicon carbide-based metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) with Delphi’s traction drive inverters and DC/DC converters and chargers, aiming to extend driving range and provide faster charging times. To start, Cree’s MOSFETs will… Read more »