Month: November 2022

The Biden administration, through the US Department of Energy (DOE), today announced that applications are now open to states, tribes, and utilities to tap into $13 billion in new financing opportunities for the expansion and modernization of the US power grid. The Grid Resilience Innovative Partnership (GRIP) program and the Transmission Facilitation Program are funded
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JB Straubel’s Redwood Materials will supply remanufactured battery cathode material to Panasonic, beginning in 2025, for a new factory the Japanese battery-maker is currently building in Kansas. Panasonic’s $4-billion factory, which is said to be larger than Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory, is expected to begin production of 2170-format cylindrical cells by March 2025. Spurred by the
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Ford has filed a patent application for roof-mounted airbags that would deploy from a vehicle’s headliner and surround occupants for added crash protection. The application was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on April 7, 2021, and published Oct. 13, 2022. It shows ring-like housings mounted above each of the seats,
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Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee
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Electrified Debuts Dominate the Scene Most of the vehicles debuting at the 2022 Los Angeles Auto Show were powered by some sort of electricity. Not all were, of course, as there is still plenty of interest around gasoline-propelled cars, SUVs and trucks. Here, in alphabetical order, are the World or North American debuts.  2024 Fiat
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A Nissan representative has stated that the Leaf is “here to stay” despite slowing sales. Nissan’s first mass-market EV was very popular in the early-mid 2010s however increased competition has had a significant impact on sales in recent years. The arrival of a second-generation Leaf in 2018 did little to improve things, with only around
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One of the keys to Tesla’s early success was that the company understood that winning drivers over to electric drive involves more than just selling cars. The importance of a more comprehensive customer relationship applies with even more force in the commercial vehicle market, and savvy commercial EV makers are offering “turnkey” electrification solutions, helping
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This week on Electrek’s Wheel-E podcast, we discuss the most popular news stories from the world of electric bikes and other nontraditional electric vehicles. This time that includes Amazon getting in hot water for selling kits to hot-rod electric bikes, reviews of interesting new electric bikes, Erik Buell’s electric motorcycle starts taking reservations, there’s an upcoming electric
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Battery management specialist AMP has integrated Wolfspeed’s E-Series silicon carbide MOSFETs into its Energy Management Unit. AMP’s market-ready energy management solution integrates DC charging, DC-DC conversion and bidirectional onboard AC charging into a single platform. Wolfspeed’s E-Series MOSFETs are optimized for use in automotive applications such as traction inverters, onboard chargers and high-voltage DC-DC converters.
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Chinese automaker Geely Holding Group has unveiled its SEA-M architecture that will be used by future driverless mobility products, starting with the Zeekr robotaxi for Waymo. Derived from Geely’s original Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA), the SEA-M architecture supports a range of future mobility products including robotaxis, multi-purpose vehicles, and logistics vehicles. Targeting global autonomous driving
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ZEV Station has now launched its first public charging stations, at the Palm Springs Art Museum in California. The new chargers offer both CCS and Tesla charging plugs. ZEV Station recently secured three California ZEV infrastructure Grants totaling $2.7 million: CEC Rural Charging; EnergIIZE Jumpstart; and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Incentive (HVIP) for ZEV Fleet’s electric vans.
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Tesla has expanded to Italy its pilot program to give Supercharger access to non-Tesla electric vehicles. It now covers most of Europe. Over the last year, we have been reporting on Tesla ramping up its effort to open the Supercharger network, its extensive global network of fast-charging stations, to electric vehicles from other automakers. In November 2021,
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Governments around the world are dedicating taxpayer money to hydrogen projects, and these are invariably presented as using green hydrogen (produced by electrolysis using renewable energy). Hydrogen detractors often warn that, once these projects are funded, green hydrogen, which isn’t yet available at any scale, will prove impractical, and boosters will quietly switch to grey
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