battery pack
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For the past 50 years, the German auto industry has enjoyed quite the roll of growth and success in the U.S., built largely on its expertise with one specific technology: the internal combustion engine. But now the importance of that advantage is fading, with electric cars on the rise and the highest-value component within them the battery pack. Increasingly, companies with headquarters in South Korea, Japan, and China—not Germany—have taken the lead not just on cells and chemistry but in the design of modules and sometimes the entire pack architecture. Meanwhile Volkswagen, for...
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Volvo reuses bus batteries for solar storage
As solar installations ramp up and electric vehicles have been on the market for a few years, automakers are starting to look for ways to get more life out of old electric-car batteries, repurposing them for stationary storage. And if you're going to use vehicle old batteries for storage, you might...
Eric C. Evarts -
VW confirms it’s planning for solid-state batteries by 2025
Solid-state batteries sometimes sound a bit like the missing link that would punt electric vehicles soundly into mainstream acceptance. The list of potential virtues for solid-state tech, which would replace the polymer/gel electrolyte commonly used in lithium-ion cells with a solid one, is...
Bengt Halvorson -
Quantum computers could make specialized batteries for Volkswagen EVs
Quantum computers could analyze and help build highly specialized electric vehicle batteries in the future, Volkswagen announced this week. Using the highly complex computing tech, researchers simulated industrially relevant molecules in EV batteries that could help shape the next generation of...
Aaron Cole -
Some Chevrolet Bolt EVs get new battery pack for sudden loss of power: here's why
It's every electric car owner's nightmare: the car indicates that remaining range has suddenly plummeted to zero, the battery pack stops providing current, and the car won't run. For some 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV drivers, that scenario has happened in real life. The problem has resulted in a program...
John Voelcker -
Nissan Leaf refurbished batteries offered for older electric cars, in Japan
With more than 300,000 Nissan Leaf electric cars on the road, some more than six years old, battery degradation is becoming more and more of an issue. The different rates of capacity loss are a topic of much discussion among Leaf owners, but it now seems likely that Nissan's choice of passive air...
John Voelcker -
The Nissan Leaf, at least for the moment, remains the highest-volume electric car produced in history, with more than 300,000 sold. One of the measures that kept its cost down was the use of passive air cooling for its battery pack, rather than the pricier liquid cooling used by other makers to keep battery temperatures within limits. Nissan has already changed the cell chemistry in its batteries once, switching in 2015 to a so-called "lizard cell" said to be more resistant to degradation caused by very high temperatures. DON'T MISS: 2016 Nissan Leaf Offers 107-Mile Range With 30-kWh Battery...
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Nissan, Sumitomo open electric-car battery recycling plant in Japan
The town of Namie, in eastern Japan, was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami of 2011, and has struggled to recover from the devastation of that day. Almost seven years later, the first new plant in town is set to open, one contributing to clean energy and zero-emission vehicles to boot...
John Voelcker -
Silicon anodes to boost lithium-ion battery capacity within a few years
The main impediment to mass electric-car adoption is price, and the driving force behind that is the cost of lithium-ion battery cells. The performance of those cells improves at about 7 percent a year, give or take: Either the same cell costs 7 percent less after a year, or a carmaker gets 7...
John Voelcker -
Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car: what's inside the battery? Teardown video shows all
The battery packs of most modern electric cars are far different than those in your mobile phone or other portable devices. In most cases, they include hundreds or thousands of cells, arranged into modules, and usually surrounded by channels containing liquid coolant to keep the battery in its...
John Voelcker -
BMW partners with Solid Power to develop solid-state cells for electric cars
While lithium-ion cells have powered all but a handful of plug-in electric cars since 2008, carmakers have looked further down the road toward solid-state battery cells with an eye toward launching them sometime during the 2020s. On Monday, BMW Group and Solid Power announced that the two companies...
John Voelcker -
Hyundai believes electric-car battery prices will stop falling by 2020
The automotive business is one that turns raw materials into highly complex finished goods. When the prices of key commodities—especially raw materials—rise, everything downstream in that process becomes more expensive. That's Hyundai's concern over battery prices from 2020 onward, as...
Mark Stevenson -
For the 20 years since the introduction of the Prius, Toyota has enjoyed the first-mover advantage in hybrid cars, and leveraged those green credentials to boost public perception of its brand as a whole. But Toyota has yet to mass-market a battery-electric vehicle in the U.S., as Nissan has done with the Leaf. Toyota executives have consistently said hydrogen, not plugging in, is the best technology for zero-emission vehicles. DON'T MISS: Shift to electric cars will cost money, may lack excitement: Toyota CEO However unwillingly, Toyota is now modifying its strategy—and one of the...
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Lithium-ion battery packs now $209 per kwh, will fall to $100 by 2025: Bloomberg analysis
Battery-pack prices are the lowest they've ever been, and like a yoga-obsessed limbo contestant, they're primed to go even lower. A report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, based on a survey of "more than 50 companies," states the average cost of a electric-car battery pack is now $209 per...
Mark Stevenson -
New approach to electric-car battery cooling: immerse cells in coolant
Regardless of how your vehicle is powered—whether it be an internal-combustion engine or a battery pack powering an electric motor—most powertrains have a common enemy: heat. For Taipei-based XING Mobility, heat is a major concern for its high-performance Miss R model as its battery...
Mark Stevenson -
Ethical sourcing for electric-car minerals: Toyota, Honda, VW, Ford, others sign pledge
As automakers develop more efficient electric motors, EVs pulling electrons from dirtier, coal-powered grids are as clean or cleaner than even the most efficient fossil-fueled cars when it comes to equivalent tailpipe emissions. But electric vehicles still have a supply-chain problem. A partnership...
Mark Stevenson -
Chinese electric-car startup SF Motors bought Tesla founder's battery-tech firm
Although Elon Musk is the name now associated with Tesla, the current CEO was not a founding figure in the electric-car startup. That honor goes to two men, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Eberhard subsequently sparred with Musk in and outside of court. Following his time at Tesla, Eberhard...
Sean Szymkowski -
Fisker still aims at solid-state electric-car batteries, as patents attest
At first, Fisker had promised its upcoming EMotion electric sedan would launch with revolutionary solid-state batteries. The company then backtracked in June, saying the technology would not be ready. Instead, the EMotion will launch with conventional lithium-ion batteries. Fisker announced on...
Sean Szymkowski -
As it stands today, Asia dominates the production of electric-car battery cells globally, with Japanese and Korean companies representing the bulk of the industry outside of booming Chinese makers. Europe, however, lacks a single major player in the fabrication and assembly of lithium-ion battery cells for cars that plug in. Now European leaders aim to change that, through an alliance that would build battery cells for future vehicle and technology applications. DON'T MISS: Tesla starts cell production at Gigafactory, shows it off to investors Battery cells are essentially the building block...
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Toshiba claims 6-minute recharge for new electric-car battery cell
Electric cars pale in comparison to gasoline or diesel-powered cars when it comes to the time presently required to add energy for more driving distance. Although automakers have begun to curb "range anxiety" with longer-distance electric cars, battery charging times on lengthy road trips remain a...
Sean Szymkowski -
World's 3rd largest battery firm may ally with VW for electric cars in China
Many automakers have announced they will electrify entire vehicle portfolios in the years to come. With more electrified cars on the road, battery production will become increasingly more important. Adding to the positive outlook for lithium-ion cell makers is Volkswagen's potential partnership...
Sean Szymkowski -
Why better-battery startups fail in the US and how to fix it: report
Over the past decade, advances in battery technology have progressed steadily, but not quite as quickly as impatient electric-car advocates might like. With electric cars and plug-in hybrids fast becoming part of every carmaker's lineup, durable, less expensive, and higher-capacity batteries are...
Sean Szymkowski -
Mercedes to invest $1 billion to build electric SUVs, batteries in Alabama
Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, announced that it will invest up to $1 billion to build electric SUVs and batteries in and around its assembly plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The plans, first reported reported Thursday in The Wall Street Journal (paywalled), represent a major expansion...
John Voelcker -
Mercedes plant to make batteries, electric motors after 113 years of engines
The first vehicle in history considered to be an automobile was the Benz Motorwagen of 1885. It was also the first vehicle from an automaker that has been around for the duration of the industry: we know it today as Mercedes-Benz. In other words, the company has been building cars for 132 years...
Sean Szymkowski