Chevrolet has confirmed plans for the production of its next-generation pure electric vehicle, based on the Bolt EV concept, to be constructed at its General Motors’ Orion Assembly facility near Detroit. “GM North America President Alan Batey made the announcement ahead of the Chicago Auto Show. The Bolt EV concept was introduced last month at… Keep reading →
San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) brings Texas the latest example of an intelligent, demand-side resource that can play an active role in the power grid and offset the use of fossil-fuel power plants. Late last month, SwRI announced that its innovative vehicle-to-grid system got the green light from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the grid operator,… Keep reading →
Korean engineers may have found a way to allow electric vehicle batteries to recover and reuse energy from braking. “These guys have built high-performance supercapacitors out of graphene that store almost as much energy as a lithium-ion battery, can charge and discharge in seconds and maintain all this over many tens of thousands of charging… Keep reading →
It might seem like a strange idea to launch a car company these days, especially in the challenged electric vehicle sector. But viewed from the perspective of evolving energy technology and shifting generation and energy use priorities, electric cars are in many ways just one facet of energy storage at a scale accessible to most consumers.
Coda, a California company that views itself as an advanced technology firm leveraging the lithium phosphate battery, is also an electric car company. Keep reading →
An expected sharp fall in the price of automotive lithium ion batteries over the next decade could make electric vehicles competitive with conventional cars, raising wide-ranging questions for the future of the electric power and petroleum industries, as well as for car makers, according to a new report from the management consultants McKinsey & Co.
The study predicts prices for the automotive battery packs could drop to about $200 per kilowatt hour by 2020 and $160 by 2025 from $500-$600 currently because of manufacturing economies of scale, lower component prices, and improvements in battery capacity. Keep reading →
A forum hosted by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to explore potential impacts of alternative fuel vehicles on critical infrastructure heard a good news, bad news scenario from the CEO of the PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator.
PJM CEO Terry Boston told the forum that with smart grid controls in place and re-charging properly synchronized between midnight and 7 a.m., the electric distribution system could accommodate 25 million EVs, according to coverage of the forum in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Keep reading →
The greatest roadblock to developing smart grids in the US is not high up-front investment, good news when 65 million electric vehicles could be on the road by 2025, according to the results of a recent annual electric utility industry survey. Infrastructure firm Black & Veatch queried over 500 qualified industry participants about some of the most prescient issues of the day and the results may surprise you.
The top issues the industry is concerned about in 2012 are aging infrastructure, reliability and the environment. Aging infrastructure steadily crept to the top of the list over the past three years – in the 2009/2010 survey the issue ranked sixth in a list of the top ten. The importance of security has also gained importance according to the survey participants. Keep reading →
If it’s true that it takes a crisis to force change then the US car manufacturing sector understands this better than anyone. Detroit has undergone a renaissance in the wake of the global economic and financial meltdown, broadening their offerings to include more fuel efficient passenger vehicles, hybrid models and electric cars.
“We are experiencing technological changes in automobiles that I have not seen in my lifetime,” said Ford Motor Company Chairman Bill Ford at a recent reception to promote Ford’s partnership with sustainability innovator SHFT.com. AOL Huffington Post is also a founding partner of the site. Keep reading →
