As more European cities begin trials of battery-electric buses, a group of bus manufacturers and charging infrastructure providers has agreed to develop voluntary charging standards in advance of official regulations. The objective is to ensure reliability and compatibility across bus brands and charging systems. The European body CEN-CENELEC and the international standards organization ISO/IEC are… Read more »
There’s a new macro trend occurring with electricity rate structures. In an effort by utilities to match their real-time costs with pricing models, new variable rates are being tested and implemented. The problem is that the cost to generate and distribute power is extremely variable, and has a lot to do with what’s happening on… Read more »
FreeWire Technologies, a technology company based in San Leandro, California, has partnered with global technology powerhouse Siemens to commercialize the Mobi Charger, a portable charging station powered by second-life EV batteries. Mobi Charger is designed to be easily rolled around a parking lot to wherever it is needed, enabling businesses to offer mobile EV charging… Read more »
Four years ago, researchers from nine European countries launched the MotorBrain project, which aimed to develop an EV drivetrain that didn’t need costly rare earth metals in the motor. Now they’re ready to present a prototype of a fully-integrated drivetrain with a rare-earth-free permanent magnet synchronous motor at this year’s CWIEME Berlin exhibition. “Rare earth metals… Read more »
Siemens’s new VersiCharge Smartgrid (SG) is a Wi-Fi-enabled charging station that allows residential owners to monitor and control usage remotely through a mobile app. Users can automatically turn charging on or off, schedule charging when rates are lowest, and view past power consumption data in graphical form. The cloud-based charging station can also interact with… Read more »
Screw it in and drive Among the companies pushing the boundaries of packaging efficiency is the German engineering colossus Siemens. The company has developed an integrated motor and inverter contained in a single housing, the Siemens Sivetec MSA 3300. The new drive unit reduces weight, frees up six to seven liters of additional space, lowers… Read more »
As gains in energy efficiency and the plummeting cost of home-generated solar power threaten to shrink their revenues, some electric utilities seem to see EVs as a source of future demand for centrally-generated power. A case in point is Duke Energy, which, while leading the charge against efficiency and solar in its Florida service area,… Read more »
The latest idea for reducing vehicle weight comes from the German engineering colossus Siemens, which has developed a way to integrate an EV’s motor and inverter in a single housing. An inverter, which converts the battery’s direct current into alternating current for the motor, is a key component of any EV. Siemens’ Sivetec MSA 3300… Read more »
As part of Germany’s Visio.M electromobility project, researchers at Munich Technical University (TUM) have developed a torque vectoring transmission that’s designed to improve handling and recoup the maximum amount of braking energy. “While drive torque is normally distributed 50/50 to the wheels of the drive axle, our torque vectoring system doses the torque between the… Read more »
Siemens, in partnership with EV manufacturer StreetScooter, is developing a centralized computing architecture for EVs that will make it possible to retrofit new features using a “plug-and-play” process, and to push software updates to vehicles as is currently done with smartphones (and Tesla vehicles). The RACE (Robust and Reliable Automotive Computing Environment for Future eCars)… Read more »