Category AUTOMOBILES
Car Batteries Are Not Just For the Car
By MATTHEW L. WALD Coda Automotive is supposed to start selling its electric sedannext month. On Friday, its parent company announced that it was also moving into a related line: stationary batteries for electricity storage. Coda Holdings will make minor modifications to battery packs for its cars, which use Chinese-manufactured lithium iron phosphate cells, and sell them individually […]
Electric Cars and a Smarter Grid
Peter DaSilva for The New York TimesZapcar electric cars charging in Califorina. Analysts are sanguine about this kind of thing becoming more common — someday. Electric cars and a smart electric grid have a bright future, according to panelists at a roundtable discussion on the subject that I attended last Friday in Boston. “I would say […]
A Private Network for Recharging Cars
A prototype of the charging stations that would be sprinkled across the Houston area. A utility with operations around Texas is planning a network of 50 to 150 charging stations for electric cars in the Houston metropolitan area to eliminate “range anxiety,” and is talking with Nissan, Toyota and others about offering auto buyers […]
A Car Charging Infrastructure Takes Shape
Having shipped hundreds of electric vehicle charging stations, and with repeat orders now coming in from Europe, Coulomb Technologies, a privately-held Silicon Valley company, expects to be profitable by the 2010 introduction of the Chevy Volt, according to its chief executive, Richard Lowenthal. (Mr. Lowenthal appears in the video above, explaining the company’s ChargePoint Network.) “Our […]
For E.V.’s and Hybrids, a Free-Spinning Alternative to Rare Earths
By TUDOR VAN HAMPTON Most hybrid and electric vehicles rely on motors that contain rare earthmetals. The heavily magnetized elements are mined predominantly in China and exported around the world. Building a car like the Toyota Prius hybrid, for example, requires 20 to 25 pounds of rare earths, about twice as much as a standard automobile. A Prius contains more than […]
Ex-Chrysler Executive Plugs In for Second Ac
Ex-Chrysler Executive Plugs In for Second Act By JIM MOTAVALLI Once upon a time, when auto executives retired, they actually retired. These days, those who aren’t advising niche sports-car manufacturers are joining upwith electric-vehicle companies. UQM TechnologiesEric Ridenour, president and chief executive of UQM Technologies. That’s the path trod by Jim Taylor, who left General Motors to become the […]
Start-Ups Work to Reinvent the Combustion Engine
Jim Wilson/The New York Times IN this city where Toyota Priuses clog the roads and battery-powered Tesla Roadsters and Chevrolet Volts can be spotted at the organic farmers market, the engine factory in a gritty industrial neighborhood near San Francisco Bay is a throwback to the automotive past. Or a harbinger of the future. […]
Is the Move to Hybrids Hyped?
How popular will electric and hybrid cars be in 10 years? Depends on whom you ask. According to a new report by J.D. Power & Associates, the auto industry analysis firm, the sales potential of electric and hybrid vehicles is “over-hyped” and “more hope than reality.” Globally, electric and hybrid vehicles will make up little […]
For Oil Exec, an Electric Car Can Wait
There sure is a lot of excitement percolating around plug-in hybrid and electric cars these days. Chevrolet’s Volt and Nissan’s Leaf are the talk of the car world, city governments are installing battery chargers, and the Obama administration has promoted them. Even the TV commercials for the battery chargers are cool. Bloomberg News A […]
Producer of Nissan Leaf’s Home Charger Strikes Distribution Deal
By SEBASTIAN BLANCO With the goal of making home-charger installation as easy as rigging up track lighting, a new partnership was announced Tuesday between Milbank Manufacturing — an electrical-equipment metering and distribution company — and AeroVironment, the official home-charger producer for the purely electric Nissan Leaf electric vehicle. The alliance would enable any electrical contractor […]
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