Month: March 2021

President Biden’s next priority is a massive infrastructure bill, and e-mobility is very much a part of the plan to upgrade and modernize the country’s transportation system. The administration is going big. “The American Jobs Plan will invest in America in a way we have not invested since we built...

Commercial vehicle OEM Lion Electric has received a purchase order from fleet truck supplier Pride Group Enterprises, for 100 all-electric Lion6 and Lion8 trucks. The order represents Lion’s largest single order of zero-emission trucks to date. Pride will integrate the electric trucks into its existing logistics, maintenance, leasing, rental and...

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies has expanded its material testing capabilities to include performance and compatibility evaluations of the rubber, elastomers and thermoplastics used to seal and safely maintain lithium-ion batteries. The company has installed equipment and adopted new testing protocols in its Plymouth, Michigan Central Laboratory that will provide data on...

Sponsored by Coolmag Coolmag Thermo Conductive SL presents its CoolMag TM range for thermal management in power electronics and automotive, produced and designed in Barcelona for the improvement of performance and efficiency in Power Electronics A fatal failure in the power electronics (overheating) usually ends with the car stopped and...

Rivian isn’t the only company that has visions of electric off-roading (or off-road EVing?). Following the launch of the 2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe plug-in hybrid, Jeep has announced a partnership with Electrify America to create the Jeep 4xe Charging Network. The new network will consist of Jeep-branded EV charging stations...

Following his two informative presentations at our September conference comparing 10 leading EV motors and Tesla’s inverter technology versus other BEVs, Sandy Munro returns to the Charged Virtual Conference on EV Engineering, April 19-22, 2021. For many years, Munro & Associates has been performing teardowns—taking cars apart to find out...

Parker LORD has received UL 1446 certification for several of its CoolTherm potting compounds for use in thermal management systems. The company says its thermally-conductive, low-viscosity materials optimize heat dissipation, protect components from dust and moisture, and help reduce vibration. These thermal management materials have now been tested and certified...

PepsiCo says it expects to take delivery of 15 Tesla Semi electric trucks by the end of this year. The soda and snack seller placed an order for 100 Tesla Semis shortly after the e-truck’s 2017 launch. Since then, Tesla seems to have put the Semi program on a back...

EVSE manufacturer Circontrol has launched a 100 kW fast charger, the Raption 100. The new model retains the design and most of the features of its predecessor, the Raption 50, which Circontrol introduced three years ago. Circontrol’s Raption chargers use a modular architecture, which allows for scalable power levels of...

J&M Sanitation, a waste and recycling collection company serving Kuna, Idaho, has deployed two all-electric Class 8 refuse trucks. J&M boasts that it’s the first company in the state to operate electric refuse trucks. The BYD 8R heavy-duty trucks feature a proprietary electric propulsion system designed by BYD specifically for...

dSPACE has introduced its Smart Charging Station Emulator, which emulates charging stations with a power level of up to 85 kW. This enables EV and battery manufacturers to test their new products with different technical charging standards and protocols, simulate a large number of faults, and develop them in line...

Nissan was an EV pioneer with the LEAF, then became an EV laggard as the LEAF was superseded by more advanced models from Tesla, GM and others. Will the Japanese automaker regain relevance with the release of the upcoming Ariya? Nissan has now released some photos and specs for the...

Bus manufacturer New Flyer of America has unveiled its next-generation electric heavy-duty transit bus, built on its proven Xcelsior platform. New Flyer’s battery-electric Xcelsior CHARGE and fuel cell-electric Xcelsior CHARGE H2 buses have logged 4.5 million service miles to date. The new and improved Xcelsior CHARGE NG incorporates three distinct...

Sion Power, a specialist in lithium-metal batteries, has announced advancements in its Licerion-EV cell, achieving 400 Wh/kg (700 Wh/L) in a large-format 17 Ah pouch cell.  Sion is producing the cells at its facility in Tucson, Arizona, by stacking electrodes with an approximate size of 100 mm x 100 mm...

Ricardo has opened a new Electrified Propulsion Research Centre at its Shoreham Technical Centre in West Sussex. The £5.5-million research facility was designed to enable the development of the next generation of EVs, from component-level subsystems to fully integrated powertrains.  Managing Director Steve Dyke said, “We continue to consolidate our...

Fifteen public buses in Vancouver, Canada, will be fitted with BAE Systems’ Series-EV electric propulsion system. Series-EV integrates electric motors, controls and batteries. The latest version of the system uses fewer, lighter, and more compact components compared to the previous generation. It’s designed to be easy to install and extremely...

Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, has announced plans to invest some 5.2 billion euros in measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality. Under the city’s Green City Action Plan and the related Action Plan for Sustainable Energy and Climate, the funds will be used to increase the efficiency of...

Magna’s roadmap to e-mobility now includes the company’s new connected hybrid powertrains and EV drives. The company recently demonstrated both systems at its winter test driving site in northern Sweden. The Magna EtelligentEco, an intelligent, connected PHEV system, offers a cloud connectivity feature that allows it to perform several new...

At the Osaka Prefecture University, Atsushi Sakuda and colleagues have been studying a type of battery that they believe holds the key to the future of energy storage: all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs).  “In 2019, we developed a solid electrolyte using sodium ions, which showed the highest conductivity in the world reported...

Bring the prices of EVs down, and people will buy. That’s the latest lesson from China, where customers took delivery of an astonishing 200,000 Wuling Hongguang Mini EVs in the vehicle’s first 200 days of production. According to the Asian auto industry gurus at ZoZo Go, it’s the strongest product...

FLO, a Quebec-based charging network operator and EVSE provider, has added Greenlots to its list of roaming partners, giving users of its smartphone app access to an even greater number of public charging stations across the US and Canada. Los Angeles-based Greenlots, a subsidiary of oil giant Shell Group, has...

EV manufacturer Mullen Technologies has announced a strategic partnership making NexTech Batteries an EV battery supplier and partner for battery development and technologies.  Mullen plans to produce more than 100,000 vehicles over 5 years using NexTech Li-S pouch format batteries. NexTech says its battery materials are fully recyclable, sustainable, readily...

HORIBA has announced the availability of STARS VETS, its vehicle emission test automation software for Windows 10. STARS VETS is part of the company’s STARS Automation platform. HORIBA says the platform ensures vehicle emission tests run smoothly and efficiently, with preloaded cycles, configuration data and results calculations for a wide...

Teijin and Applied Electric Vehicles (Applied EV) have developed a polycarbonate solar roof for future mobility applications.   The new solar roof uses Teijin’s Panlite polycarbonate resin glazing for its surface, which is then molded into shape. Teijin says the material achieves the strength and rigidity required for vehicle roofs. Conventional...

Lightning eMotors, a provider of complete zero-emission-vehicle solutions for commercial fleets, has announced that EV manufacturer and powertrain specialist Proterra will supply the battery technology for the Generation 4 Lightning Electric Transit commercial van. The Lightning Electric Transit commercial van is a purpose-built Class 3 commercial EV. It’s available in...

Migrol, a chain of gas stations associated with the Swiss grocery giant Migros, has announced plans to roll out a network of DC fast charging stations. Migrol currently operates more than 300 gas stations, many of them adjacent to convenience stores, car washes and/or auto repair shops. The chargers will...

School bus manufacturer Blue Bird is rapidly ramping its EV production. The company, which produces electric versions of all three popular school bus body configurations—Type A, C and D buses—now has 400 electric school buses either delivered or on order, and it anticipates further growth this year. “We achieved almost...

Sponsored by Elektro-Automatik Growing demands placed on modern batteries and accumulator systems present manufacturers with major challenges. On one hand, their systems have to provide more performance, service life and safety; on the other hand, end consumers expect products that have an attractive purchase price and energy-efficient operation. Changing market...

The UK has been an EV leader—along with California, it’s one of the few global regions that’s been taking a comprehensive approach to electrification rather than piecemeal measures. So auto industry groups and media observers were unpleasantly surprised by the government’s recent decision to cut back its existing grants for...

Chakratec, a provider of kinetic energy storage technology for EV charging, has completed  a project with British hotel chain Premier Inn, enabling guests at the hotel’s Leipzig, Germany location to charge their EVs throughout their stay. Premier Inn is the first to deploy Chakratec’s charging technology in Germany, and Chakratec...