Last year when I was covering the Dieselgate problem (the Volkswagen committing fraud by finagling emissions testing protocols) I had a haunting thought — in how many industries are the manufacturers pulling similar tricks? Our society has caused governments to enact emissions controls, energy efficiency measures, and more, in the name…
The race is on to deliver an affordable long-range electric car, with 200+ miles range and $35,000 MSRP as the next target. Several car makers are working on this, promising to deliver such vehicles in the next couple years. The rush to declare this vehicle or that a Tesla Killer…
At the beginning of 2015, BMW, VW and ChargePoint declared a plan to establish fast charging corridors along the East and West Coasts of the USA. Initially I thought this would be bad, because they’d install just ComboChargingSystem stations leaving CHAdeMO station owners in the lurch, and worsening the Big…
There have been several one or two fatalities this year of Tesla Model S drivers who were perhaps overly trusting the autopilot mode. In January 2016, well before the well-known crash in Florida, a fatality occurred when a Tesla Model S drove into the back of a street sweeper truck. Going by…
Electric vehicle charging stations with WiFi support could become commonplace. Texas Instruments, a.k.a. TI, has just published an EVSE (a.k.a. electric vehicle service equipment) reference design that includes WiFi support and an ARM-based processor. I believe many companies use these published reference designs as the starting point for products, sometimes…
This week Tesla Motors unveiled a larger battery pack for the Tesla Model S. With a 100 kiloWatt-hour battery pack they’re now up to 315 miles EPA range, and it also let Tesla juice up the Ludicrous mode for an even faster 0-60 miles/hr time and claim to be selling…
A battle is being fought in California over whether electric utility companies can own/deploy electric vehicle charging infrastructure. In the case of PG&E’s proposal, it has drawn huge amount of criticism and in late 2015 the CPUC forced PG&E to limit their plan while the Commission weighed whether PG&E should be allowed…
Yesterday the Solar Impulse 2 (HB-SIB) finished its around-the-world journey when pilot Bertrand Piccard flew it from Cairo to Abu Dhabi. This is certifiably a big historical achievement ranking up there with Lindbergh’s first flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Where Lindbergh’s flight opened the door to what’s now routine, taking airplanes…
Bertrand Piccard today finished the first around-the-world flight with a solar-electric airplane, the Solar Impulse 2 (a.k.a. HB-SIB). That’s over 40,000 kilometers flown, leaving Abu Dhabi in March 2015 and returning to their starting point today, July 25, 2016. This flight, as did several other Solar Impulse flights, demonstrated this…
History is being made this weekend as Bertrand Piccard is piloting the Solar Impulse solar-powered airplane from Cairo to Abu Dhabi. In March 2015 the Solar Impulse set out from Abu Dhabi, and the team has been flying the airplane (in legs) around the world since. It was to have…
Ten years ago Elon Musk posted the first super-secret Tesla Motors master plan on the company blog. It seemed that nobody remembered he’d done so, because the company is routinely attacked over making playthings for rich people when the plan all along has been to build the Model 3 (affordable 200+ mile…
I think there are military coup’s happen which do not generate worldwide alarm. On Friday, parts of the Turkish military announced they’d taken over in order to reestablish constitutional order etc. But within a few hours President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reestablished control and was cracking down on the dissidents — and perhaps…
We don’t think of the Midwest as a hotbed of electric vehicle activity, do we? In actuality, the Kansas City area has had electric vehicle owners for 20 years or more. Over the last couple years, the local electrical utility (Kansas City Power and Light) has built up an impressive…
In March 2015, the Solar Impulse took off from Abu Dhabi on a journey to fly around the world while using zero fuel. As a solar powered electric airplane, the Solar Impulse flies in the face of conventional wisdom, in that it flies long distances without burning liquid fuel. It…
Tesla Motors just released production figures for Q2 2016 — 18,345 vehicles for a 73,380/year annualized rate. This is the Tesla Model S and Model X, both of which target the luxury car market. The company also announced projected production rate increases for 2016, and that they should (knock on…
