EDITOR'S PICK

Explained: Getting Electric Airplanes Off the Ground

27 Nov 2024 | Synopsis

When building an electric airplane, the primary challenge is energy density. This is the amount of energy the battery contains per kilogram...AV Gas are exceptionally energy-dense at around 43MJ/kg or 12kWh/kg. By comparison, the best battery technologies today are around 0.3kWh/kg, meaning they are 40 time heavier...One business case that meets these tight constraints is flight schools.

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Federal EV Tax Credit At Risk - How Much Does It Really Drive Sales?

23 Nov 2024 | Synopsis

"Some of the best-selling EVs on the market today - like the Ford Mustang Mach-E and the Hyundai IONIQ 5 - are ineligible for the federal tax credit...

"Across all of the electric vehicles sold in the United States, credit-eligible models sold at about 1.4 times the rate of ineligible vehicles...The difference between the two groups is likely even larger than the 1.4 times figure we found...ven before the discount from the federal EV credit, credit-eligible cars are nearly $9,000 less than their ineligible counterparts..."

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US Army Taps Raytheon To Replace Fuel Lines With Beamed Power

23 Nov 2024 | Synopsis

"The average US soldier today carries up to 140 lb (64 kg) of gear on their back – and a lot of this is in the form of batteries to run their equipment...

"Raytheon's Advanced Technology team...[aims to beam] high-energy coherent microwaves that are transmitted from a secure generator to forward positions where it's converted back into electricity...series of demonstrations, with one in 1975 transmitting 475 W of microwave power across distance of a mile (1.6 km) and then converted to DC electricity with an efficiency of 54%."

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NIST Trains AI To Hear The 'Oh Crap' Moment Before Batteries Explode

23 Nov 2024 | Synopsis

"The nature of lithium-ion battery fires is that by the time smoke triggers a traditional smoke alarm, the fire might be well under way...One hint that things might be about to go awry is when the safety valve breaks in a hard battery case to release the pressure caused by a chemical reaction within the unit...Overheating batteries were subsequently detected 94 percent of the time...the safety valve gave two minutes' notice in testing..."

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Northvolt CEO Resigns As Europe's Big Hope For A Battery Champion Files For Bankruptcy

23 Nov 2024 | Synopsis

"Northvolt said it would continue functioning as normal during the restructuring process, which is expected to finalize in the first quarter of next year...the reorganization of the company would help it access approximately $245 million in new financing, totaling around $145 million in cash and $100 million debtor-in-possession financing...Northvolt Ett, the company’s flagship battery gigafactory...in north Sweden...will remain operational."

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This Street In LA Will Be The First In California To Wirelessly Charge EVs

20 Nov 2024 | Synopsis

"The project at UCLA will the first in California...the school is also shifting its whole fleet of buses to electric.

"...as the fleet keeps growing, adding more charging infrastructure in one place is challenging because of the power demand, Bench says. Being able to charge throughout the day, in different places, will help. It also means that buses can keep running longer each day, so riders have better service."

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Tesla Has the Highest Fatal Accident Rate of All Auto Brands, Study Finds

20 Nov 2024 | Synopsis

"The study was conducted on model year 2018–2022 vehicles, and focused on crashes between 2017 and 2022 that resulted in occupant fatalities. Tesla vehicles have a fatal crash rate of 5.6 per billion miles driven...The average fatal crash rate for all cars in the United States is 2.8 per billion vehicle miles driven.

"..the Tesla Model Y - the best-selling vehicle in the world has a fatal crash rate of 10.6, nearly four times the average."

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CATL Will Put Its Second-Generation Sodium-Ion Batteries Into Production In 2025

20 Nov 2024 | Synopsis

CATL is already manufacturing sodium-ion batteries and is using them in its new Freevoy battery pack...is engineered specifically for use in so-called extended range EVs... Freevoy is the world's first hybrid vehicle battery with a range of over 400 kilometers and 4C super-fast charging... second-generation sodium battery can be discharged normally in temperatures as low as -40° C.

"...second-generation sodium-ion batteries sodium-ion batteries will have an energy density greater than 200 Wh per kg. That’s still a long way from the 300 Wh per kg of the best lithium-ion batteries today..."

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Scientists Make Breakthrough With New Battery For Mars Missions: 'This Work Lays A Foundational Step'

20 Nov 2024 | Synopsis

"To work - and charge - on the Red Planet, the battery needs to be amicable to an atmosphere that's 95% carbon dioxide with some other gases. It can amazingly use the fumes as fuel. Temperature fluctuations are also a challenge, regularly moving from around 70 degrees Fahrenheit to minus-225...

"And in China, the experts think that successful testing puts their Mars-air battery on a path to developing energy systems that can be used on the far away world."

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Allego Provides EV Drivers A Seamless Charging Experience With KPN IoT

18 Nov 2024 | Synopsis

"...company manages one of Europe's largest high-performance charging networks, with over 35,000 charging points at more than 12,500 locations...Through the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP), Allego's charging stations are connected to their central management system, enabling immediate fault detection...All charging stations are managed centrally through the KPN IoT control centre, which ensures secure connections essential for operations."

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New Kubota KATR Farm Robot Concept Wins CES Innovation Award

18 Nov 2024 | Synopsis

"Built as a follow-up to last year's New Agri Concept electric autonomous farm tractor, the new Kubota KATR is a first of its kind, compact, four-wheeled robot...The KATR is designed to be powertrain agnostic – meaning it can be configured with either an electric or combustion engine...fewer and fewer people seem to be willing to do the work of growing the food that more and more people need to eat and live."

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This Part of Rivian Is Thriving: Leasing

18 Nov 2024 | Synopsis

"...the leasing program is not only thriving, but also giving birth to a pre-owned vehicle program -- both developments can help move the needle for investors...Leasing is important for a couple of reasons. One thing leasing does is bring down the price of vehicle ownership for more price-conscious consumers....second reason leasing is very important to automakers is that it offers a loophole for the automaker to pass the federal $7,500 EV tax credit..."

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