Sony Corporation

Can Sony Li-ion batteries recover market share?

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.

Thinfilm opens Japan office

Prof. Jiro Kasahara, former executive technical director at Sony, will represent Thinfilm in Japan

New e-mobility event is better for component suppliers

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 car battery at half the price

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

Report on advanced energy storage highlights big changes in five years

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.

Report on advanced energy storage technology highlights big changes

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.

Electric vehicles become electronic

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.

Off-road electric vehicles see rapid change

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.

Profiles of military electric vehicle suppliers

Suppliers and developers of electric vehicles for the US Military.

BAE Systems exceeds 3500 hybrid bus drive trains

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.

Amsterdam and car2go go electric

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.

Goodbye 100 mile range electric vehicles

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.

Fraunhofer ISE and Badenova present project on electric mobility

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.

Hyundai presents hydrogen fuel cell EV

Hyundai is participating for the first time at the European Business Summit in Brussels, speaking on sustainable mobility and displaying the company's latest products, including the ix35 Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV).

Smart transformers among top 10 emerging technologies

The smart solid-state transformers being developed by the NSF FREEDM Systems Center at North Carolina State University have been named to MIT Technology Review's 2011 list of the world's 10 most important emerging technologies.

New report on advanced energy storage technologies

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.

Senator Padilla announces $6M grant to build better EV batteries

Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) today announced that Quallion LLC, a battery manufacturer based in Sylmar, CA, will receive a state grant of over $5.8 million to mass-produce standardized, lower-cost Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries for electric vehicles and other green technologies. The $5.8 million grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC) is in addition to a $1 million grant they received last year, making their total grant awards from the CEC over $6.9 million.

Coextrusion printing of battery and fuel cell electrodes

PARC has demonstrated a manufacturing technology—co-extrusion printing—for depositing thick films of densely interdigitated functional materials. This is a promising method for making advanced battery and fuel cell electrodes, particularly air cathodes.

Volvo cars and the development of inductive charging

Volvo Car Corporation is participating in an inductive charging project. Together with Belgian technological and development specialists Flanders' Drive and others, Volvo Car Corporation is developing systems and methods that need neither power sockets nor charging cables. With inductive charging, energy is transferred wirelessly to the car's battery via a charging plate buried in the road surface.

Best for batteries: Not too hot, not too cold

With average U.S. gasoline prices approaching $4 a gallon, drivers and automakers are thinking electric. Previously steered in this direction by concerns about pollution and dependence on foreign oil, consumer interest in electric-drive cars continues to surge. But before Americans are able to flip the switch from gasoline to electricity, automakers need batteries for the next generation of electric vehicles that can deliver the range, performance, reliability and safety drivers expect.