Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) could diversify its supply chain by signing up a new battery cell maker. Tesla Motors is talking with Samsung SDI to supply battery cells, according to a report in the Korean Herald. This would diversify a critical component in Tesla’s supply chain, and potentially give the company a much-needed boost…
Most “technology” developments are enjoying a rapid pace of development, and in computer technology there is a truism known as Moore’s Law that claims CPU’s will double in complexity/capability/speed every 18 months. It’s Moore’s Law that explains why our cell phones have more computing power than the supercomputers of the…
Routinely some news makes the rounds touting some far off future battery technology as the savior of electric cars. The headline vaporously screams we’ll be driving cars powered by graphene, or lithium air, or compressed air, or something or other. There are several ways to think about this and the…
Toyota has long clung to the Nickel-Metal-Hydride (NiMH) batteries, claiming that lithium-ion batteries are too expensive. While that might be the case, there are dozens of research projects going on that aims to increase energy density, increase power density, and reduce the cost of batteries. What it means is that…
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) believes that a single cell failure, a short circuit in one cell, on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner airplanes is the culprit in the battery pack fires that have grounded those airplanes. The problem began occurring about a month ago, several planes had fires…
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…
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…
Lithium battery startup company Envia Systems plans to announce tomorrow, at the ARPA-E conference, development of a high energy density lithium battery (400 watt-hours per kilogram) which could be the tipping point enabling long range affordable electric cars. Long range electric cars have been possible for quite awhile, Solectria built…
Lithium battery maker Ener1 inconveniently declared bankruptcy the day after President Obama’s State of the Union declared support for the domestic advanced battery industry. Any company can run into trouble if the market conditions shift, that’s what bankruptcy courts are for. Last week when lithium-ion battery maker Ener1 entered bankruptcy proceedings it was…
After ten years in an electric car like the Nissan Leaf, its battery pack might still have 70% of its original capacity, theoretically making it reusable in the smart grid. One of the questions related to electric vehicles is the disposition of the battery packs after a few years when…
At the core of electric cars is the electricity storage technology being used. Most commonly electricity is stored in chemical batteries, which store electricity as chemical bonds in a soup of specific elements. The key thing which is enabling the wave of electric vehicle advances is advances in battery pack…
Flux Power, a San Diego based startup company, has introduced (on Nov 20) a family of lithium-iron-phosphate battery products. The product line includes a battery packaged with battery management circuits, a charger, and a “drive system” promised to be available in mid-2010. The battery shares look and feel with the…
Ford Motor Company has announced an intelligent vehicle-to-grid communications and control system for its plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The system is meant to exchange data with the electric grid in the “smart grid” future. The data exchange is meant to help recharge the onboard battery pack without strain on the…
Because electric vehicles have so few moving parts many claim there are low maintanence requirements and they are more reliable. While it’s true you don’t have to change the oil every 3000 miles or perform other required maintanence at regular intervals there are many things which can break and which…
It is the battery which makes an electric vehicle go. The electronics of sending an electric current through an electric motor to spin wheels is very well understood and has been used in vehicles for over a hundred years. Key among the technological advances enabling todays electric vehicles to begin…
