Electric vehicles

This article shares some of the research carried out for the new IDTechEx report "Electric Vehicles Military, Security, Police 2011-2021". Electric vehicles are appearing for military, security and police purposes that are on land, on and in the sea and airborne.

As electric vehicle charging infrastructure becomes a key consideration for governments aiming to progress the wide spread adoption of EVs, innovative, smart solutions are becoming imperative. Google and the U.S. Department of Energy lead a collaboration to increase the ease with which EV motorists can locate their nearest charging stations.

Two forthcoming events in Germany reflect the intense interest in energy harvesting for electric vehicles. Energy Harvesting Europe 21-22 June covers many forms of harvesting for other applications as well and drills into the technology, investment and other aspects of harvesting in general. On the other hand Electric Vehicles Land Sea Air in Stuttgart 28-29 June is entirely vehicle oriented.

Hyundai's Blue Drive range is the company's spring board into next generation motoring. In addition to improving fuel consumption and reducing emissions in conventional combustion engine powered cars, the company is also experimenting with new technologies including alternative drive-trains and hydrogen fuel cells.

The British Electric Bicycle Assocation had a splendid little meeting at the Houses of Parliament in London 10 May, demonstrating twenty or so ebikes with pedals in Black Rod's tiny garden.

A recent partnership between IKEA Corsico and Movitron sees one thousand Teener microcars set for production by the end of 2011.

The Volvo and SAIC Electric Bus partnership will develop driveline systems for hybrid and electric buses in Shanghai, pending governmental authorization.

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 harvesters do not necessarily make sense in all potential applications where a battery is replaced.

In 2008 engineer Terry Hope began designing and building a small, novel electric scooter; so small in fact that it would fit inside a suitcase. The KPV (Kinetic Photovoltaic Vehicle) stands as the fruition of these efforts, incorporating both battery and photovoltaic power in a zero emissions personal vehicle.

Small pure electric aircraft take off, fly and land almost silently and now the Polytechnic University of Turin is figuring out how large feeder aircraft can at least land silently in all electric mode without waking local residents at night.

Funded with a recent $2.25 million stimulus grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy, or ARPA-E, Welsch will try to make a capacitor ready for market within three years.

In the framework of its European solar flight campaign, Solar Impulse, under the patronage of the European Commission, has selected Brussels as its first international destination.

Azure Dynamics Corporation, a world leader in the development and production of hybrid electric and electric components and powertrain systems for commercial vehicles, today announced 18 Ford Transit Connect Electric van sales, including a five unit sale to Ford Motor Company to support various engineering, marketing and demonstration programs.

Turkish manufacturer Etox is to launch a pure electric version of their Zafer sports car.

The latest IDTechEx report concerns electric vehicles for military, security and police duty. Even excluding regular hybrid and pure electric cars minimally modified for such use and the excluding the huge development contracts, the IDTechEx projections show a strongly rising market. It becomes around 15% of the total electric vehicle market by value in 2021, primarily due to the high prices attracted by the specialist constructions for land, sea and air use that are involved.

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.

Coulomb Technologies furthers innovation on the ChargePoint network: announces industry-first charging station reservation system.

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 new analysis by Ernst & Young reveals where US venture capital for green projects is now being directed. In the first quarter of this year, venture capital investment into clean technology companies by US firms has increased by about two-thirds since the economic dip of early 2009.