Electric vehicles

Protean Electric, the global leader in the development and commercialization of in-wheel electric drive systems, has received $84 million in new funding from GSR Ventures, New Times Group, Oak Investment Partners and the city of Liyang, Jiangsu Province, China. This capital will be used to bring Protean's breakthrough electric drive technology to production by establishing manufacturing facilities in Liyang.

Long-range electric aerospace company Flight of the Century announced their intentions to design, build, and fly an all-electric aircraft from New York to Paris along the same 3,600 mile historic route pioneered by Charles Lindbergh in 1927.

Cella Energy's American subsidiary has signed on with Kennedy to make its micro-bead technology practical enough to be used as a fuel in most kinds of machinery, cars and perhaps even spacesuits and portable electronics.

US and European funding for electric vehicle batteries continues to trickle in but at a more modest scale than before.

London's bus fleet is on track to be one of the greenest in Europe following the introduction of the 300th hybrid bus into its fleet.

L2 Aerospace and Cella are developing plug and play hydrogen power solutions that use lightweight flexible polymer packaging that can be carried by dismounted soldiers or packaged into unmanned aerial vehicles UAV's. This significantly extends range and/or operating time.

Following a redundancy, rehiring and large quality recall, struggling lithium-ion traction battery maker A123 Systems is trying some niche marketing now that most of the orders for the world's hybrid and pure electric car batteries over the next three years have been cornered by the big four - LGChem, Panasonic inc Sanyo, AESC and SBLimotive as analysed in detail by the Institute of Information Technology of Japan.

Materials scientists at Harvard have demonstrated a solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) that converts hydrogen into electricity but can also store electrochemical energy like a battery. This fuel cell can continue to produce power for a short time after its fuel has run out.

MECc (Modular Energy Carrier concept) has developed a clean, simple and competitive range extender for battery electric vehicles based on bio-methanol fuel cells as energy carrier. ECOmove plan to use the technology in their upcoming electric vehicle QBEAK.

Rockwood Lithium, a division of Rockwood Holdings is announcing global price increases, as contracts permit, of up to $1,000 per metric tonne for its lithium salts, especially lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, effective July 1.

Heat can damage the batteries of electric vehicles - even just driving fast on the freeway in summer temperatures can overheat the battery. An innovative new coolant conducts heat away from the battery three times more effectively than water, keeping the battery temperature within an acceptable range even in extreme driving situations.

Toyota and BMW signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at long-term strategic collaboration in four fields: joint development of a fuel cell system, joint development of architecture and components for a future sports vehicle, collaboration on powertrain electrification and joint research and development on lightweight technologies.

Tesla Motors delivered Model S, the world's first premium electric sedan, to its first customers at an invitation-only event at the Tesla Factory in Fremont, California last week - approximately one month earlier than previously announced.

ArcelorMittal the world's largest steel and mining company unveiled 'iCARe' electrical steel product range for EVs.

Nissans joint venture in China, Dongfeng Motor Company signed a contract to deliver 1,000 VENUCIA-branded electric vehicles (EVs) to the pilot program conducted by Dalian Municipal Government by 2014.

Honda which has been extracting rare earth metals from used nickel-metal hydride batteries at the plant of Japan Metals & Chemicals from April of this year, has plans to begin reusing the extracted metals before the end of 2012.

US energy storage company PowerGenix has partnered with the China City Construction Corporation (CCCC) for the creation of the world's first nickel-zinc battery manufacturing centre

Vorbeck Materials, in partnership with Pacific Northwest National Labs (PNNL) and Princeton University, was recognized last week by R&D Magazine for developing one of the 100 most significant scientific and technological products or advances of the year.

An application has been made for a patent on a new range extender concept based on arrays of range extenders.

Boeing's Phantom Eye unmanned airborne system (UAS) completed its first autonomous flight June 1 at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California.