research and development

  • Lithium-ion battery pack of 2011 Nissan Leaf, showing cells assembled into modules

    An advance in battery technology could help push past one of the persistent criticisms of electric vehicles: the extended time needed to charge the battery. Researchers at the University of Illinois published a paper in Nature Nanotechnology on a change to the cathode of a battery that allows for rapid charging and discharging without a loss of capacity. They describe it in their abstract as follows: We demonstrate very large battery charge and discharge rates with minimal capacity loss by using cathodes made from a self-assembled three-dimensional bicontinuous nanoarchitecture consisting of...

  • BMW ActiveE Concept charging port
    Nanostructure Research: Electric Car Charging In 5 Minutes?

    No sooner do I discuss University of Illinois researchers who have created 3D antennas for mobile phones using nanotechnology than another group of researchers at the University of Illinois (this time at Urbana-Champaign) have developed 3D material for batteries that combines the qualities of...

  • 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid
    A Look At What's Cooking At Argonne National Laboratory

    A couple of weeks back, I received an invite to visit Argonne National Laboratory in suburban Chicago. The lab spends a fair amount of time on transportation research--up to 10 percent of what the lab does revolves around transportation--as it looks towards the future of fuels used to power the...

  • A123 lithium-ion cells
    Lithium-Ion Batteries Get Green Kudos, Better Than Gasoline

    In a week where many mainstream media outlets are claiming electric cars are prohibitively more expensive to own than gasoline counterparts, a team of Swiss researchers have released conclusive data showing that the environmental impact of the electric car is much less than most gas cars. As any EV...

  • Hemp-Bodied Car - Screenshot from Youtube Video
    Electric Pot Car From Canada Creates Big Bong In EV World

    As we're faced with an increasingly large world population and ever-dwindling resources the race is on to produce cars that not only produce zero tailpipe emissions, but ones that are green to manufacture too. But what is the ultimate material for cars? Steel is strong, but hardly light enough to...

  • 2011 Jaguar XJ
    Will Jaguar Have the First Hybrid Born From Jet Turbines?

    "Born From Jets" may be the slogan of recently-saved-from-death Swedish Saab, but one day it may prove more appropriate for British carmaker Jaguar. The company has been awarded funding from the U.K. government to develop a small jet turbine as a range extender for a future hybrid luxury car. Its...

  • Alan Taub, General Motors head of Research and Development

    Alan Taub, 54, is currently Executive Director in charge of Research & Development at General Motors. He joined GM R+D as executive director in 2001, and on October 1, he will replace Larry Burns as the company's Vice President of R+D. GreenCarReports.com interviewed Dr. Taub directly after his promotion was announced, one of a series of upper management changes made last month as GM started to emerge from bankruptcy with tens of billions of dollars of US government loans. Taub worked at Ford Motor Company for eight years, where he managed the materials science department, oversaw North...

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