Lithium-air batteries have been one of the supposed saviors of electric vehicles, with ultra-high energy density. Some researchers at the Institute of Physical Chemistry at Justus-Liebig-University Gießen in Gießen, Germany have developed Sodium-air battery technology they say is far better than Lithium-air. The key flaw of Lithium-air batteries is, according to…
Recently Coda Automotive laid off 50 employees, some of them senior, in what they called a “rightsizing” effort. At the same time the company has sold very few cars since launching production of their electric car in March 2012. Coda hasn’t released sales figures, but a recall operation last summer…
This film (a part of GE’s Focus Forward film series) goes over a break-through in graphene supercapacitors, technology that could replace lithium-ion batteries for all sorts of gizmos. The video describes this as one of those fortuitous accidents where they were studying Graphene for one purpose, but found that it…
Here in California we passed a law requiring a certain percentage of automobile sales from each manufacturer to be zero emissions vehicles, in order for the manufacturer to continue doing business in California. That simple law has been twisted around in many ways until now it is a complicated mess…
The following is my inaugural “week in review” posting covering weekly events in the adoption of electrified vehicles. It occurred to me this morning that I’m tracking the news about electrified vehicles anyway, why not create a weekly posting summarizing events from the week just finished. The goal will be…
The Chevy Volt has always struck me as an excellent trade-off of electric range versus gasoline usage versus convenience. The 35-40 mile electric driving range neatly fits the US Dept of Transportation figures on average vehicle miles traveled per day (VMT). This means the typical commuter will be able to…
Electric car startup manufacturer Coda Automotive has laid off 50 people, 15% of the staff, for what a spokesperson describes as “rightsizing”. Electric car startup manufacturer, Coda Automotive, had a layoff on Friday, according to reports published on Tuesday and verified by email from a Coda spokesperson. The layoff was…
The Parable of the Talents talks about someone who hid their talent and basically starved, while the person who used and multiplied their talent thrived. Does that mean to leave fossil fuels like oil, natural gas and coal in the ground is a form of “hiding talents” that God gave…
The Project Better Place model was always interesting, but I was never confident that the company would work out. The service the company offers, fast battery exchange for electric cars, offers electric car drivers a convenience similar to what gasoline car drivers enjoy at the ubiquitous gasoline stations. A fast…
Jon Lauckner spoke in Beijing today about GM’s research into vehicle electrification, and the expansion of GM’s electrified vehicle research and development operations in China. In Beijing on Tuesday, Jon Lauckner, GM Chief Technology Officer, vice president of Global Research & Development, and president of GM Ventures, told the FISITA…
Last weekend I had the chance to meet Ford’s Director for Sustainability at the SF Green Festival. Ford had a big presence offering test rides of the range of electrified vehicles as well as have a large booth in the center of the show. The SF Green Festival is a…
Earlier this year a long-running legal battle between the State of California and a couple of NRG’s subsidiaries was settled in a way that stands to vastly improve the electric car recharging infrastructure in California. The lawsuit stems from the California Energy Crisis of 10+ years ago, and to settle…
Start-up automaker Tesla Motors has won a prestigious award for the company’s first self-designed self-manufactured electric car, the Tesla Model S. One of America’s top automobile magazines, er Automobile Magazine, has awarded it’s top honor, Automobile of the Year 2013, to a brand new electric car, the Tesla Model S.…
What if international container ships, the cargo ships of the modern globalized age, had zero emissions running on electricity, sunlight and wind power? There are many who look at the current implementation of container ships, and the reliance on extremely dirty bunker fuel (worse than diesel), and complain about the…
Are electric car sales “bogged down” and “slow”? It depends on whether you compare sales figures to sales of equivalent gasoline cars, or whether you compare them to previous era’s of electric car sales. I fall in the latter camp, and am overly excited about the large growth in electric…
