Tonight Tesla Motors announced what we’ve expected, but it’s a bigger deal than expected. Specifically, Tesla Motors is launching what’s essentially a new business unit, Tesla Energy, and positioning itself not as an automaker but as an “energy innovation company”. Tesla Energy’s product line is, initially, grid-tied energy storage units…
Brusa, a major supplier of electric car charging units to OEM automakers, has just licensed WiTricity’s patent portfolio. WiTricity makes technology for wireless charging of devices – like cell phones – to “cut the charging cord”. Supposedly the company founder had a Eureka Moment one night when his cell phone…
Santa Clara CA just approved a “road diet” on a section of Tasman Blvd that’s extremely over-built for current traffic needs (6 lanes of road, where 4 lanes would suffice). The plan would create a bicycle lane going each direction, but some on the City Council objected because of a huge…
Today, after several actions related to California’s water crisis, Gov. Jerry Brown issued an Executive Order enacting the strictest climate change targets of any North America territory. The new goals are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. California is on target to reach the existing goal…
Long-term trends are that electric vehicles will take over, and fossil fuel will be rendered obsolete. That’s according to a Bloomberg News report last week with good news for anyone rooting for the demise of the fossil fuel industry. It’s not government mandate, but technology improvements that will create this…
Back in early 2013 it seems that Tesla Motors was so close to bankruptcy that Elon Musk and Google’s Larry Page had discussed Google buying out Tesla. Even though Page agreed to the deal and even shook hands on it, the deal reportedly fell through because of Musks demands —…
Late last week a “wastewater injection well” blew up after water storage tanks were struck by lightning. The site is operated by NGL Water Solutions near the Greely-Weld County Airport outside Greely Colorado, and has storage tanks to hold fracking wastewater that’s to be injected underground. While these are tanks full…
Supposedly electric cars pose a risk to stability of the electricity grid. That somehow the electricity grid will be overwhelmed and blow up if every car is switched to electric power. Reuters is reporting today that Toyota’s Chef Engineer for their fuel-cell car, the Mirai, Yoshikazu Tanaka, said that electric cars…
A piece of news has come which could cheer anti-electric-car “Conservatives” — GM is ending production of the Chevy Volt. But the actual reason for ending Volt production isn’t what those so-called-Conservatives had predicted. Instead of the Volt being a dismal flop (it’s not, quite), GM is stopping Volt production to…
Implementing a proper road trip with an electric car “simply” requires ultra-fast charging above the 100 kiloWatts charging rate. Tesla Motors Supercharger system has proved this , with the 120 kiloWatt charging rate giving Model S owners a 1 hour (or less) recharge time for up to 265 miles of range. While that’s not quite as…
In my previous post about EVTEC’s four-port 100+ kiloWatt DC Fast Charging station, there’s a little footnote that deserves more attention — the Kia Soul EV supports 100 kiloWatt DC Fast Charging via CHAdeMO. The Kia Soul EV is getting strong reviews, with Kia making it available in several European…
The debate over electric car fast charging systems has been going on for years, and the only sign of a settlement is that some of the automakers are investing in dual-protocol fast charging infrastructure. While it’s a great interim solution, as a practical matter the existing dual-protocol DCFC stations can…
All electric car drivers face a bugaboo – charging station reliability, availability and compatibility. It’s always a hit-and-miss affair whether a given public charging station will be functioning, or not. Some of us rely on public charging stations to get around (personally, I cannot charge at home) and others are…
