Kopf Solarschiff

Electric vehicles harvest more power

"Many land, water and airborne electric vehicles harvest all the energy they need. They never plug in. It is the way of the future" says IDTechEx Chairman Dr Peter Harrop.

Electric vehicles harvest more power

Many land, water and airborne electric vehicles harvest all the energy they need. They never plug in. It is the way of the future.

Progress with electric boats

At the recent event Electric Vehicles Land Sea Air in Stuttgart Germany, there was strong coverage of electric boats.

Boxster E prototypes

The Boxster E, with one electric motor apiece on front and rear axle, runs on purely electric power with four-wheel drive and is equivalent to a Boxster S in terms of driving dynamics. Together with two other Boxster Es, in which an electric motor drives the rear wheels, the prototype is being used to explore the everyday practicality of all-electric vehicles and how they are used, especially in terms of driving and battery charging. What the researchers are after is an understanding of the requirements facing future products, where to go next with Porsche Intelligent Performance and how to integrate electric vehicles into the infrastructure.

Electric vehicles become electronic

About 80% of the value of a military jet aircraft lies in the circuitry, up from almost nothing a century ago. Civil airliners are about 50% electric and electronic, whereas the family car is around 30% so far, all these percentages steadily rising. The point is that an aircraft has far more than the radar, communications and other instruments accessed by the pilot: it is a sea of sensors, fuel controls and servo systems in the engines, wings and elsewhere. Even the family car adds much more than the satnav, phone, proximity sensors and other electronics directly assisting the driver, the MEMS accelerometer controlling the air bags being just one of an increasingly huge number of out-of-sight safety and other measures controlled by circuitry.

Global benchmarking for e-mobility at last

Best practice in e-mobility first occurs in very different countries and with very different vehicles. The most useful events on the subject therefore need an international speaker lineup.

Electromobility has a new key enabling technology

Foreign manufacturers of electric cars in China can own only minority shares and they must surrender intellectual property on at least one of what the government considers to be the three key enabling technologies for e-mobility. These are batteries, motors and control electronics. In exchange, foreigners gain access to a market they hope will be large enough to create cash flow that can be repatriated if the dominant partner approves.

Comprehensive line-up for Electric Vehicles Land, Sea & Air

Analysts IDTechEx have added a number of carefully chosen best-in-class speakers to the lineup for their unique event that covers the whole subject for the first time. There are six on-road vehicle manufacturers plus two companies involved in off-road electric vehicles. Six organisations describe electric aircraft work and four speakers cover their inland and seagoing electric boats.

Energy harvesting for electric vehicles

Energy harvesting is the production of electricity from ambient energy. Usually the objective in electric vehicles is to increase range and safety. Range is increased in two ways. Either a very powerful form of energy harvesting such as shock absorbers or regenerative braking adds significant amounts of energy to the traction battery or wireless sensors and actuators improving safety also save many kilograms of wiring this also increasing range significantly.

Electric Vehicles - But Not As We Know Them

Today's electric family cars are useless in telling us anything about the future. The design and adoption of electric vehicles is subject to sudden change driven by surprising factors. The unique event "Electric Vehicles - Land Sea Air" in Stuttgart, Germany is alone in looking at the big picture in order to clarify what is really going on.

A catamaran powered by electricity from renewable sources

The catamaran is propelled by electric energy generated by solar panels, wind turbines, hydrogen batteries and diesel-electric thermal generators.

New GS Yuasa traction battery orders

GS Yuasa Corp has just announced that it has reached a broad agreement to supply lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles now under joint development by PSA Peugeot Citroen and Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

Nano College awarded $57.5M

The University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering has been awarded $57.5 million by the U.S. Department of Energy to create a solar manufacturing consortium that could rival what Sematech did for the computer chip industry and the city of Austin, Texas two decades ago.

Highest publicly reported efficiency for thin film solar

General Electric has announced that a full-size, thin film solar panel developed by the company has been independently certified as the most efficient ever publicly reported milestone for the technology.

GE achieves highest publicly reported efficiency for Thin Film Solar

Plans to Build US Manufacturing Plant Highest-Ever Reported Efficiency of Nearly 13 Percent on a Full-Size CdTe Thin Film Solar Panel More than 100 Megawatts of New Orders for Thin Film Solar Products GE to Build 400-Megawatt Manufacturing Facility, will be Larger than Any Existing US Solar Panel Plant Today Solar Strategy Complemented by Announced Acquisition of Power Conversion Technology Company Converteam GE Completes Acquisition of PrimeStar Solar, Inc.

Some impressions from Printed Electronics Europe

Printed Electronics Europe in Düsseldorf grew again, remaining Europe's largest event on the subject.

Printechnologics recognized with 2 printed electronics industry awards

Printechnologics - a leading technology developer in field of printed electronics - was awarded with the Printed Electronics Award 2011 for the best product development and the best in show award at the Printed Electronics conference

Concept-derived Bluecar EV produced through leased business operations

Italian automotive company Pininfarina is offering its resources to electric vehicle production by leasing their business operations, which is currently at the preliminary contractual stage.

Schindler joins Solar Impulse as a main partner

Schindler, a global elevator and escalator provider, has decided to support Solar Impulse, the zero fuel airplane aiming to fly around the world propelled only by solar energy. Schindler will closely follow and support cutting edge technology in various disciplines.