Energy Storage

The Latvian built OSCar eO has become the first range-extended electric-drive vehicle to complete the Dakar rally, an 8400 km long gruelling challenge through Argentina, Chile and Peru. The two week rally is arguably the toughest motorsport event in the world with less than half of the starters making it to the finish podium in Lima.

Researchers at the Polytechnic School of Montreal in Canada have built a battery that can be woven into a garment.

IDTechEx is currently in Silicon Valley having spent over a week in Tokyo at EV clients and events. Both are a bellwether of what is really happening on the ground with EVs because they have a relatively large number of early adopters.

Last summer Electric Vehicles International (EVI) announced the purchase of 100 electric delivery vans by UPS. The new e-vans are due to begin replacing the diesel versions early this year.

General Electric recently unveiled their WattStation electric vehicle charging stations; both pedestal and wall mounted.

PowerGenix, a developer and manufacturer of Nickel-Zinc (NiZn) batteries is entering a joint venture with China City Construction Corporation (CCCC), one of the largest infrastructure investment and development companies in China.

Promethean's Thermal Energy Battery is a technology aimed at bringing cold-storage infrastructure to emerging economies.

Infinite Power Solutions, Inc. (IPS) has announced that their award-winning THINERGY® Micro-Energy Cell (MEC) products are the ideal energy storage solution for many Bluetooth® Smart (also known as Bluetooth Low Energy) devices.

Blue Spark Technologies, the leading supplier of thin, flexible, eco-friendly printed batteries, announced it has opened a new high-volume printing and production facility located in West Bend, Wisconsin.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) recently granted a EUR 180 million loan to the Renault Group to contribute to R&D for a new generation of batteries and motors for electric vehicles.

More and more giant corporations are buying into printed electrics by acquiring companies partly or wholly in the field.

This week, Printed Electronics World visited Mr Etsuo Nakagawa and Mr Kiichiro Ito of JNC Corporation (parent company Chisso) in Japan. JNC Corporation manufactures worldwide and that includes structural plastics and Li-ion battery materials for electric vehicles. In printed electronics, it is about to sell RFID inlays with a secret new antenna deposition process on plastic film.

Old electric vehicle reports are useless: the subject is moving too fast. IDTechEx is the only analyst with 18 current reports forecasting sales of electric vehicles and their key components and they are kept up to date. Information is fed into these documents continuously as the PhD level IDTechEx analysts tour the world's companies, research institutes and conferences to spot the many changes in technology and business success and interpret them.

Toyota's established nationwide battery recycling system collects end-of-life Nickel metal hydride batteries safely from the market and makes sustainable use of limited resources possible.

The conference speakers were surprisingly blunt in their appraisal of batteries and motors for electric vehicles at last week's EV Japan conference. Batteries control the cost of pure electric vehicles by a big margin and they are the largest part of the cost of hybrids, though a lesser percentage.

You have to listen to the world leader in electric vehicles, Toyota, because it pulled even further ahead of number two in the last year. Its hybrid car sales nearly doubled to about 1.32 units in 2011, more than all other hybrid cars put together.

A team of researchers at the University of Cambridge led by Professor Arokia Nathan are working on harvesting energy from light to power an OLED display in a step towards energy harvesting for smartphones.

We have entered 2012 with an electric vehicle scene that is very different from that which was envisaged not long ago. There are now six key enabling technologies not three and vehicle makers increasingly make some of them, so suppliers increasingly have to compete with their largest potential customers. Precious metals in EV components are being removed remarkably rapidly.

OLED versus LED lighting, the energy storage gold rush, replacing ITO and more.

Of course, as markets mature, one can make excellent enduring profits as a niche player, not just as volume leader such as those Chinese e-bikes and scooters on display at very affordable prices of around Euros 1000 upwards but are those cheaper batteries safe?