research
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As demand for electric cars grows, supply of batteries must grow to meet it. That much is obvious. But just how much is battery demand expected to grow by over the coming years? According to an Electric Vehicle Batteries report by Navigant Research, existing capacity for lithium-ion battery production will grow tenfold by 2020. Fine, so far Last year, worldwide capacity for automotive lithium-ion batteries stood at 4,400 megawatt-hours. Supply has been comfortable--a Nissan and NEC joint venture in Japan, AESC, has already supplied cells for 115,000 electric Leafs running around on the...
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More Data Confirms: Electric-Car Drivers Really Love Their Cars
Studies show the U.S. electric-car fleet is growing, and maturing.
Stephen Edelstein -
Dual-Carbon Battery: Same Energy Density, Safer, Longer Life Than Lithium-Ion, Says Power Japan Plus
In the search for better electric-car batteries, lots of lab research has to happen before anything can be announced. Today, a company called Power Japan Plus came out of stealth mode to unveil a new battery chemistry, with both electrodes--anode and cathode--made of carbon. The new cell, known as...
John Voelcker -
Gasoline Substitute Made From Plant Waste Developed By UC-Davis
Plant-based diesel has been available for many years now but making a true gasoline-like hydrocarbon from plant oils has proven a lot more difficult. Chemists at the University of California, Davis think they've cracked it, though, using a new technique to make "biogasoline" from plant waste...
Antony Ingram -
Nissan Surveys Tesla Owners For Intelligence On Electric Cars
Nissan is very quietly gathering additional electric-car "intelligence" about satisfaction, details, and features from Tesla Model S owners.
George Parrott -
Ford To Partner With University Of Michigan On Electric-Car Battery Lab
To launch its Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car, General Motors chose to build and expand its very own battery lab. Crosstown rival Ford is taking a different route. According to the Detroit News, it will partner with the University of Michigan by helping to fund a laboratory where car...
John Voelcker -
Toyota will continue to concentrate on hybrids despite other car makers' interest in electric cars, the Toyota chairman said.
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GM Gets New Partner For Fuel-Cell Vehicle Research: U.S. Army
An expanded partnership with the U.S. Army gives GM more fuel cell development resources.
Stephen Edelstein -
Predicting Electric-Car Battery Life: GE, Ford, U of Michigan Team Up
Because the gasoline car has been in continual production and development for over 100 years, automakers can use past experience to estimate how long cars -- and their engines -- will last. But because the development of the modern electric car is still in its infancy, automakers are still...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Nanotech Solution To Hydrogen Fuel Puzzle From Brookhaven Lab?
A team of researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, has opened the door to a future of clean, cheap hydrogen fuel by ditching a popular platinum catalyst in favor of one based on two low cost alternatives, nickel and molybdenum. Until now, the manufacture of hydrogen gas has...
Talking Points Memo -
Study Says Hybrid Owners Don’t Always Buy Another Hybrid: Here’s Why
For many years, ever-rising gas prices have encouraged more and more car drivers to make the switch to cars with hybrid drivetrains. But with the first hybrids well over 10 years old, what happens when hybrid owners search for their next car? Do they buy another hybrid, or make the switch to...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
BMW To Develop Future Lithium-Ion Batteries With Toyota
Lithium-ion battery cells are expensive, challenging, and time-consuming to develop. And they can be hard to get right, as the current woes of A123 Systems show. Even the large car companies that develop their own cells--Toyota is the largest among a small number--want to spread their costs. Today...
John Voelcker -
Here at GreenCarReports, we often hear excuses from people who say they want to buy an electric car but feel unable to. Aside from increased sticker price, one of the more common excuses given is the worry that an electric car won’t meet their mileage needs due to range limitations per charge -- despite historical data suggesting that electric cars could easily handle around 80 percent of all daily driving in the U.S. Now a new study by two doctoral students at the school of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University has increased that figure, estimating that electric cars...
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Live Near It Or Sit In It: Traffic May Cause Brain Damage
There's no doubt that car manufacturers have worked incredibly hard over the past few decades to make their cars cleaner than ever. Modern cars produce a fraction of the pollutants of their predecessors - as little as a tenth of those in 1970 - and they're improving all the time. We've seen the...
Antony Ingram -
Want A Long Range Electric Car? Nissan Doesn't Think You Do
If you're holding out for an electric car that gets similar range to your fossil-fuelled car, then don't hold your breath for one from Nissan. That's the message implied by Nissan North America's director of product planning and strategy, Mark Perry. Speaking with Auto Observer, Perry says there is...
Antony Ingram -
New Chrysler Engine To Burn Gas And Diesel--At The Same Time
You probably drive a gasoline car. And surely you've heard of cars with diesel engines. But how about a car with an engine that burns both fuels, at the same time? That's what Chrysler is working on, it turns out, funded in part with research dollars from the U.S. Department of Energy. Author Mike...
John Voelcker -
Is Your City Ready For Electric Vehicles?
Ford has identified the 25 most electric vehicle (EV) ready cities in the U.S., based on the company’s latest research. The 25 cities are dotted all over the country from Hartford to Honolulu. A previous Pike research report highlighted 6 cities expected to be early EV adopters: New York, Los...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
Battery Advance To Give Electric-Car Charging In Gas Fill-Up Time?
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...
IEEE Spectrum -
We like it when a study confirms a common-held belief. And for hundreds of would-be electric car owners across the U.S. a recent study has done just that. Years into the Military Conflict in the Middle East, and just months after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill a team at Rice University have concluded that electric cars could do more to reduce America’s carbon footprint than complicated renewable energy policy. The study, which was conducted at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, found that mandating 30% of all U.S. vehicles be powered by electricity by 2050 would...
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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...
Tim Healey -
You'll Save Money With Higher-MPG Cars, But It'll Cost You
New Federal standards for higher average gas-mileage in vehicles sold from now to 2015 will save consumers money on fuel. But the cars themselves are likely to cost more, according to a study released yesterday by the National Research Council. Regular readers know we've been saying that it'll be a...
John Voelcker -
Surprise! Yes, Fuel Efficiency (Still) Matters to Car Buyers
What a shock! Who'd ever have thought it? Will wonders never cease? Yes, yet another survey shows that fuel efficiency matters to car and truck buyers. And that more than half say their next vehicle will get better gas mileage than their current ride. Fuel efficiency: It matters Capital One Auto...
John Voelcker -
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...
John Voelcker -
Program To Track Charging Habits Of Nissan LEAF Early Adopters
Nissan hasn't hesitated to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to electric vehicles.
Bengt Halvorson