If you’ve got an idea for cheaper, lighter, safer or more durable batteries or electric powertrain components, you may be eligible for a piece of a new $10 million pot of research funding. The DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) has issued an Incubator Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for projects that address any of several “areas… Read more »
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2014 Cadillac ELR: Technology trickling up
Nowadays, when the in-crowd thinks of the planet’s coolest car, a Model S or one of the European brands might come to mind, but there was a time when the unchallenged monarch of automotive luxury was the Cadillac. Surely no other car has been mentioned in as many classic movies and blues songs. And a… Read more »
Creatively displaying BMS data
Brian Gallagher has had a variety of engineering and management roles designing human machine interfaces (HMIs) in the biotech and automotive industries. Most recently, he is the cofounder of Andromeda Interfaces, which develops HMIs for many different industries. With the adoption of lithium-ion battery technology in electric vehicles, the role of battery management systems (BMS) has become… Read more »
Fuel cells vs batteries for vehicle powertrains
Jeffrey Wishart, a Senior Project Engineer at Intertek, conducts research and development on products and services in the areas of energy, the environment, and advanced transportation. In addition to his supervisory position at Intertek, Dr. Wishart worked for several years at ETEC LABS (the research and consulting division of ECOtality) and at a utility company… Read more »
SwRI V2G system lets fleet operators sell services to the grid
Supply and demand across an electrical grid vary continuously, but AC frequency levels must be maintained within a narrow range. Electric utilities perform frequency regulation services by adding or removing generators and load resources as needed. In the future, fleets of EVs equipped with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability could perform this necessary service much more quickly… Read more »
New paper: US policies to support plug-ins are ineffective
Governments around the world are taking many different measures to encourage the adoption of plug-in vehicles, but it’s far from clear which of these policies will prove to make sense in the long run. A new paper published in Energy Policy argues that current US policies are inefficient and ineffective. One of the main culprits… Read more »
The most interesting part of the 2014 Cadillac ELR is the software
We often hear automotive engineers talk about the need for a better understanding of the components of an EV. Some have said that there is an inherent inefficiency in many systems because the parts – like the battery cells, motors and inverters – have historically been developed independently of each other and then integrated together…. Read more »
Virgin and Venturi racing teams round out Formula E roster
Two high-profile groups have announced plans to field teams for Formula E, the all-electric racing series that will take place in 10 city centers around the world, beginning in Beijing in September 2014. The Virgin Racing and Venturi teams became the ninth and tenth to join, making the roster complete. Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin empire… Read more »
Via Motors presents solar tonneau for its plug-in pickup
The first question the “average Joe” asks about an EV is often, “Why don’t they put a solar panel on it?” Leaving aside technical details about surface area, insolation, voltage levels and the requirements of vehicle design, the simple answer is that it wouldn’t produce enough energy to justify the cost. However, Via Motors’ VTrux… Read more »
Researchers demonstrate major advance in lithium-sulfur battery chemistry
Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have demonstrated a lithium-sulfur (Li/S) battery that has more than twice the specific energy of current lithium-ion batteries, and that lasts for more than 1,500 charge/discharge cycles with minimal capacity loss. This is the longest cycle life yet reported for any lithium-sulfur battery. The results were reported in the… Read more »