Electric vehicles

In the new age of the electric vehicle, almost everything has to be rethought.

Government backs region's major project to install electric vehicle plug-in points

Lithium polymer construction - whatever the cathode chemistry - is also taking market share because it can have lightweight plastic casing and tolerate high pressure and it is highly unlikely to leak.

The German federal government supports the introduction of e-mobility based on batteries and fuel cells with two huge programs. One focus of the support is the development of eight model regions, where e-mobility will be tested under everyday conditions.

Bosch is entering the bicycle industry with a new high performance electric drive for ebikes.

A consortium of automotive partners including US owned European electric vehicle manufacturer Think, Indian owned, Jaguar Land Rover of the UK, US owned Lotus of the UK and Nissan of Japan has been granted £9.5m by the UK government to aid research into range-extended electric vehicles (REEV).

Gas-powered engines could be used during takeoffs, when aircraft use the most energy, while battery-powered motors could power the aircraft while it is cruising or landing.

IDTechEx technology analyst Harry Zervos attended and presented at the EV2010 VE conference on electric vehicles, organized by EMC-MEC, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of electric mobility as a solution to the energy and environmental issues in Canada.

Those seeking to create multibillion dollar businesses in electric vehicles, their components, intellectual property and services should look at the world's largest market - East Asia. This region of the world purchases about 56% of the global market value of electric vehicles for land, sea and air and it will still be doing that in ten years time. For Western companies to take this huge opportunity seriously they first need to slay six myths.

The Ohio State Buckeye Bullet team successfully claimed another international record.

Orange County Race Team Unveil World's Most Powerful and Technically Advanced Electric Roadracing Motorcycle.

The government hopes that by 2020, 20 per cent of passenger cars in South Korea will be solely electric. Subsidies and tax incentives to promote sales of electric vehicles will be offered once the vehicles begin rolling off production lines.

With joint efforts the federal government and the German economy is going to develop Germany into an international driving market for e-mobility. The objective is to have one million electric vehicles and a further 500,000 fuel cell powered vehicles operating on Germany's roads by 2020. Germany is also strong in electric aircraft such as PC-Aero and in industrial EVs.

Although Mitsubishi hybrid forklifts and other new electric heavy industrial vehicles get little publicity and deserves much more, the remarkable sales success of its iMEV pure electric car, priced head to head with the impending Nissan Leaf, is gaining great attention.

Like Toyota and Fiat, Nissan is one of the few automotive companies with a range of industrial vehicles that can also leverage advances in electrification.

At the other extreme from the Tesla performance sports car being approved for sale in Japan, following bamboo bikes and taxis; we have a bamboo electric car.

Demonstrating its role as an area leader in promoting new technologies, North Carolina State University has installed the first Level 2 charging station for electric vehicles in Raleigh. The station is available free for public use, though those who use the station will be asked to sign a log book to help researchers collect user data.

The Japanese postal service plans on 21,000 electric vehicles. Japan Post has been testing the vehicles since 2009 to evaluate their cost and performance.

Taxis are an excellent proving ground for electric vehicle technologies because they are professionally managed, intensively used, standardised in fleets and can have depots dedicated to their needs. That is why they are being used to trial fuel cells and/or lithium ion batteries in, China, Japan, the USA, the UK and elsewhere. Battery swapping is more feasible with standardised, centrally managed taxis than with the confusion of design and management of electric cars.

Saft, the world specialist in the design and manufacture of high-tech industrial batteries, is due to introduce its advanced Li-ion (lithium-ion) battery technology that offers interesting new possibilities for the creation of highly efficient and cost-effective marine propulsion and auxiliary systems.