Electric vehicles

Electric vehicle charging infrastructure will see a frenzy of change over the next ten years. That will involve how it is made and installed, how it operates and even whether it is needed at all. For example, the 1.3 million electric vehicles for the disabled, obese and elderly being sold this year will rise to over three million in 2021 and none of them will have a charging station - you simply plug them into a regular socket. Registering that the most convenient and affordable charging station is none at all, the e-bike manufacturers have at last started to move in the same direction. Adoption of the new lithium-ion batteries releases a huge amount of weight and space and a charger can now be fitted into the e-bike. That will become more affordable as the years go by. Here are some more of the surprises revealed during the research for the new IDTechEx report, "Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure 2011-2021".

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.

BASF is entering the business of electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries (LIB) and is forming a global electrolytes team in its Intermediates division for this purpose. By adding electrolytes to its existing portfolio for the LIB industry, BASF is able to offer another key component for the battery technology.

The world's largest chemical company is either BASF of Germany or Dow Chemical of the USA, depending on how you make the measurement. Both have been belatedly but strongly entering the electric vehicle business with materials and participation in device manufacturing joint ventures.

MU students are poised to be on the forefront of innovation as they explore another alternative fuel - hydrogen.

Sony was once the leader in the lithium-ion "Li-ion" battery market. In 1991, it was the first in the world to commercialize them. It has focused mainly on compact batteries for PCs and mobile phones. The lithium-ion battery market continues to expand, driven by strong demand for mobile phones, PCs and now electric vehicles. For example, such batteries are seen in an increasing minority of pure electric forklift trucks and boats, in most off-road electric vehicles and in virtually all Autonomous Underwater Vehicles AUVs, electric aircraft and electric airships, not just in on-road electric vehicles from buses to trucks, cars and some e-bikes. Sony is noticeably absent from all this vehicle activity, despite Sony CEO Howard Stringer announced plans, in 2009, to enter the automotive battery business.

Belectric and Sun & Life are building the largest solar power plant of Saudi Arabia in Dhahran. The 10 Megawatts Photovoltaic Carport System is situated at the recently built North Park offices of Saudi Aramco in Dhahran and will cover all of the 4,500 parking spaces.

It is like waiting for a bus. You wait and wait then two come at the same time. Alternatives to short lived, toxic lead acid traction batteries, with their indifferent performance, have been sought for over 100 years. Now both lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors are near to replacing lead acid traction batteries in the many traction applications where they are still used.

Those making subsystems, components and materials for electric vehicles gain little from meeting only the high profile electric car companies at e-mobility events. The queue is very long to supply these companies and the pricing is often extremely challenging. By contrast, a look at the big picture of electric vehicles by land, water and air reveals a huge number of often highly profitable niche applications.

A report covering the analysis of over 40,000 patents granted in the last five years in the field of energy storage technologies for electric vehicles - meaning e-mobility - shows that two Japanese players - Panasonic and Toyota now dominate the scene closely followed by two Korean firms - Samsung SDI and LG Chemical.

24M intends to greatly reduce the inactive material in a battery. According to estimates in a new paper.

The highly successful manufacturer of conventional off-road vehicles, $2 billion Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE: PII) has recently launched a pure electric Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle NEV. Now it has added the leader in that sector encompassing closed communities rather than open highways. Global Electric Motorcars LLC (GEM), a wholly owned Fargo, N.D. based subsidiary of Chrysler Group LLC. GEM is a leader within the low-speed vehicle market, with approximately $30 million in sales during the 2010 calendar year. Since the company was established in 1998, it has placed more than 45,000 electric-powered NEVs on the road worldwide.

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.

Suppliers and developers of electric vehicles for the US Military.

On 27 September 2010, the Turanor PlanetSolar set out from Monaco to circumnavigate the world using the power of the sun alone, and earlier this week reached Brisbane, Australia.

BAE Systems says it has cumulatively delivered more than 3,500 units of its hybrid electric propulsion system called the HybriDrive series, netting it over $350 million and making it one of the most successful suppliers of subsystems in the history of the electric vehicle.

150 miles range is the new benchmark for affordable electric vehicles: the 100 miles range of today's pure electric vehicles will quickly become an embarrassment.

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.

Car2go recently announced it will bring its innovative mobility program to Amsterdam before end of 2011 and decided to run one of the world's first large scale car-sharing fleets of pure electric vehicles there with 300 smart fortwo cars.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE are currently in charge of a project that shall make it possible for large-scale operators to integrate electric vehicles into an existing vehicle fleet. The project "Efficient Mobility" is subsidized by Badenova's Innovation Fund for Climate and Water Protection.