Air pollution has been linked to heart attacks, strokes and atherosclerosis (“hardening of the arteries”), thanks to research published on Tuesday in PLOS Medicine. The study found that high concentrations of fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) were linked with faster thickening of artery walls. The thickening was found in the…
The Brusa NLG6 22 kilowatt 3 phase AC electric car charging unit is making an appearance in the Volvo C30 electric car. Volvo sent out an announcement today that they’d upgraded the drive train and charging unit on the C30. With the Brusa NLG6 the charging time is reduced to…
Yesterday, GreenTech Automotive announced a new phase of the company’s electric car product line in which they’ll work with JAC Motors, a Chinese automaker, to start manufacturing a five passenger electric car. The car will be based JAC’s award-winning Rejoice vehicle platform, and use as the electric drive train what…
Coverage of Detroit Electric’s electric sportscar, the SP:01, is portrayed as if the SP:01 is the fastest electric vehicle on the planet. At 155 miles/hr top speed it’s a fast electric vehicle, but it’s not the fastest electric vehicle in existence. It isn’t even the fastest production electric vehicle in…
Today is Earth Day, and the Formula E guys went to Los Angeles to show off their electric race car and give Angelenos a preview of the racing championship. Los Angeles is one of the 8 cities that have committed to hosting Formula E during 2014. The FIA Formula E…
Renault has announced they will announce something about “When the worlds of Formula 1 and electric cars meet…”. That obtuse announcement of a pending announcement was accompanied by a nearly useless picture showing something vaguely electric performance car related. I hesitated posting anything, preferring to wait until the April 25…
This may seem like an obvious observation: Ubiquitous fast charging will improve electric car adoption, and electric car utilization. To me that’s a “DUH” sort of thing to say, but at the same time the U.S. planning for electric car charging is dominated by public level 2 charging stations. Obviously…
Why is Fisker Automotive on the brink of collapse? (reportedly) The news is full of stories today saying that Fisker Automotive is unable to pay its bills, has laid off 75% of its workforce, is being sued by the landlord and the webmaster for lack of payment, that the negotiations…
Could the Protean hub motor (a.k.a. in-wheel electric drive system) be more significant than I’d thought. They’re at the SAE World Congress this week showing the production version of their in-wheel drive system, and the specs are catching my attention in a big way. And the simplicity of integrating their…
A bunch of my friends are up in arms about the Keystone XL pipeline, and the “carbon bomb” it would be if built. Why carbon bomb? Because it is a vast store of hydrocarbon fossil fuels, and building the pipeline would facilitate extraction of those fuels. There’s another deposit of…
The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DoE) and Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) have signed an agreement, announced on Tuesday, to begin the process of expanding exploitation of Alaska’s “vast unconventional energy reserves.” This phrase refers to fossil fuels other than the typical fossil crude oil that is the source…
A law currently being considered by the Florida Legislature, HB4001, would repeal Florida’s Renewable Fuels Standard, which had been enacted in 2008. This move would end the state mandate for biofuels adoption, according to a press release sent on Tuesday by the Florida Biofuels Association. Because of the Federal mandate…
Could “hackers” abuse electric car charging stations to crash the grid because of smart grid features? That piece of fearism was presented recently at a security conference, and while the researcher laid out several plausible attack routes, he didn’t demonstrate a working attack. The basic idea is that electric cars…
Why do electric car charging stations have to be part of a charging station network? To charge an electric car why do we have to be a member of ChargePoint or Blink or whatever? Gasoline car owners don’t have to maintain a membership to buy gasoline, they just drive to…
Chip Yates is making a return to electric motorcycle racing for the 2013 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, riding in the saddle of a Lightning Motorcycle superbike. The press release sent by Chip Yates describes it as a an electric head-to-head battle between Yates and 6-time Pikes Peak motorcycle champion…
