Electric vehicles

National Electric Vehicle Sweden an international consortium formed by Japanese, Swedish and Chinese stakeholders who bought Saab in 2012, have issued a statement to confirm the company is not insolvent.

A new ferry, named Texelstroom is being built for Dutch ferry operator TESO and will run between Texel Island and the Holland mainland.

The V-CHARGE consortium, comprising six partners from four countries, is working on a fully automated parking - and charging - system for electric cars at public car parks.

The UK government is committing up to £10m in further research and real world trials that would allow and encourage driverless cars to be used in the UK.

The Swedish Royal Institute of Technology set a new Swedish fuel efficiency record with 181.5 km/kWh in the Shell Eco Marathon competition.

Supercapacitors continue to improve faster than lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries, something pointed out by Bombardier and IDTechEx some time ago. There is near consensus that commercial Li-ion batteries will not improve more than a factor of two in cost and energy density in the next decade.

IDTechEx are hosting a free webinar on Tuesday 19 August.

The Advanced Propulsion Centre has selected the University of Warwick as the site for its Hub location, supporting the ten year, £1 billion industry and government commitment to the development of low carbon propulsion systems.

Water-borne electric vehicles are much more than 100 year old river boats, toy boats on ponds and tiny trolling outboards for leisure fishing. The rapidly increasing military, commercial and industrial applications now dwarf leisure applications in value and sophistication.

ABB has announced a partnership with Volvo Buses, one of the world's leading bus manufacturers, to co-develop and commercialize electric and hybrid buses with open standards-based direct current (DC) fast charging systems.

Researchers have developed a platinum-yttrium catalyst which is stable and even more active than the existing platinum catalysts. This paves the way for cheaper fuel cells.

This article primarily investigates the hybrid and pure electric powertrains and electrics being used or considered for UAVs and the new missions made possible by electrification. UAVs survey military threats but also the melting ice caps and natural disasters. They can carry ordnance but also drop aid and locate disaster survivors and lost climbers and trekkers. Little wonder then that new electric UAVs are announced frequently these days.

IDTechEx Research's brand new report, "Functional Materials for Supercapacitors / Ultracapacitors / EDLC 2015-2025", forecasts that the functional materials for supercapacitors market will reach $5 billion before 2025.

Electric and Hybrid Vehicles Forum 2014, taking place on September 17 - 18 at Angelo Hotel Munich Westpark will be hosting the top speakers from leading car, bus and truck manufacturing companies, the electric power industry, regional authorities, as well as research technological institutes and universities, to answer critical questions, such as battery development, EV infrastructure development or incentives, policies and strategies.

The BMW Group and Samsung SDI plan to expand their supply relationship for battery cells for electro-mobility.

The German Agricultural Society Field Days 2014, held recently showcased many new innovations in crop production for the German and other European producers present. This year's event had special emphasis on drones, notably quadcopters and other multicopters for spotting disease, underwatering and many other conditions plus some fixed wing versions.

When representative of OPEC, Sheik Yamani famously said, "The stone age did not end for lack of stones", it is now clear that the coming decade will see a collapse of coal power and not because coal supplies are running out. The writing is on the wall for oil as well - it will help electric vehicles because it will no longer be true that they use "dirty" electricity in the main.

A Mercedes-Benz E 300 BlueTEC HYBRID has travelled the 1968 kilometres from Tangier in North Africa to Goodwood in England without having to refuel - and on reaching its destination still had enough fuel left for a further 160 kilometres.

In two parts of the world — along the U.S. and Canadian coasts, and in the Baltic and North seas as well as the English Channel — the SOx limits are ultra-strict. As of 2010, the sulfur content of marine fuel in these "emission control areas" must be 1 percent or lower. As of 2015, the sulfur content must be 0.1 percent or lower.

The electric drive systems for buses are in a key position as cities target on reducing emissions and fuel consumption of public transportation.