Plug-In

Researchers at Nanotek Instruments, Inc, and its subsidiary Angstrom Materials in Dayton, Ohio have developed a breakthrough in energy storage design which outpaces supercapacitor and battery technologies. The new devices could not only power long-range and fast charging future electric cars but also provide efficient energy storage capacity to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and hydro. Called surface-mediated cells (SMCs), the  fundamental breakthrough behind the technology is that it isn’t actually a battery at all. The elegance of the SMC ...

  While the traditional fossil fuel vehicle is pretty much a dead weight when it’s not in use, electric cars offer promise of increased utility. Automakers have been on a roll finding - and implementing - novel ways of integrating the electric car into our lives. Ford’s foray into sustainable energy partnership with SunPower is one just positive step forward. On August 2nd, Nissan took a similarly bold step forward in increasing the utility of electric cars in our lives with the introduction ...

Perhaps the single greatest barrier to widespread adoption of plug-in automobiles is the time it takes to charge them.  We have looked into charging times in the past, and even with the most advanced infrastructure in place at charging stations, you are still looking at one hour or more to fully recharge your battery.  The [...]

Perhaps the single greatest barrier to widespread adoption of plug-in automobiles is the time it takes to charge them.  We have looked into charging times in the past, and even with the most advanced infrastructure in place at charging stations, you are still looking at one hour or more to fully recharge your battery.  The automobile industry (and investors), however, have not been deterred, and many have pointed to a trend in developing lower-cost, more efficient rechargeable batteries.  Lately, it seems, their ...

This year, the Nissan Leaf and the Ford Focus Electric will hit showroom floors across America, becoming the first mass-marketed all electric cars of the century. But they were not the first to be invented - the technology behind electric vehicles is actually much, much older than many people realize. Electric Motors The mid nineteenth century saw a steep rise in the study of electricity, with crude electric motors developed as early as 1828 by Hungarian Physicist Anyos Jedlik. His contemporaries with similar inventions ...

Hitachi, Japan's largest industrial electronics manufacturer, is devoting significant resources to capture the global car battery market.   Already, they are able to boast of the 100,000 hybrid car order that GM has placed for its lithium-ion batteries.  But, of course, that is not enough.   The Tokyo-based corporation is ramping up its capacity in order to accommodate the needs of 700,000 electric vehicles a year, a gain of 600%. The Nikkei Business Daily has estimated the expansion costs at between $200 and ...

The lithium-ion battery cell has emerged as a clear favorite with the plethora of car manufacturers who are announcing their electric ambitions. And as this demand rises, suppliers of battery technology are in a race of their own to provide high-quality, low-cost lithium-ion solutions. Several Asian firms have established dominant footholds in the industry, winning contracts with major auto companies, and they offer a formidable challenge to newer entrants: South Korea's LG Chem was the supplier chosen by GM to manufacturer batteries ...

General Motors opened this week what's being called the largest battery factory in the U.S.  But before we start to analyze the numbers, let's first get them all listed: The new Global Battery Systems Lab is located at the Warren Technical Center campus on the outskirts of Detroit. According to information coming from the company, it cost GM $25 million to construct, takes up 33,000 square feet, and employs over 1,000 engineers. The facility will operate 42 thermal chambers and 160 test channels ...

You might call them swapping stations, battery cell replacement stations, charging stations or any combination of the above. The important thing is, we will be talking about them soon: there's a $400 million startup company, and billions of dollars in capital set aside by its partners, who are all banking on it.   Their idea?   The future, as they see it, is one where drivers will be provided with ultra-cheap cars and then billed by the mile/kilometer as they move around. ...

- With an electric car plug standard about to be finalized, and charging stations beginning to pop up in the U.S. and Europe, an important question to ask is: How long will it take to fill up a car battery? And like most matters, the answer is, "It depends!" Automobile batteries, whether they are nickel-metal hydride or lithium-ion, can be made up of many cells, with larger cell quantities capable of a larger storage capacity. The tradeoff, however, is that cars with more ...