News

PowerAmerica, a private-public partnership led by North Carolina State University, has released a call for projects to advance wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor technology. Funding is available for projects to accelerate commercialization of WBG power electronics applications in high voltage systems, efficient motors and other transportation- and renewable energy-related fields. Objectives […]

Some of the 300 million tires discarded each year in the US could be recycled and used in electrodes for supercapacitors, using a new technology developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Drexel University. The process is described in a paper published in ChemSusChem, titled “Waste Tire Derived Carbon-Polymer Composite […]

Williams Advanced Engineering, the supplier of the battery packs for the Formula E electric racing series, has announced that the maximum power output of the racers’ batteries will increase to 170 kW for season two of the Championship. The battery packs use cells from XALT Energy, and have maximum usable […]

In mid-July, Tesla Motors made a trio of Model S update announcements. The new options included a 70 kWh rear-wheel-drive base model, an upgrade for the high-end battery pack from 85 to 90 kWh (providing about a 6% increase in range), and Ludicrous mode, which offers a 10% improvement in […]

Lithium-ion chemistries are increasingly replacing lead-acid automotive batteries, especially in start-stop and energy recuperation systems, and they are even making inroads into starter battery applications. Electronics such as Freescale Semiconductor’s battery cell controllers are used to manage risks such as overcharge, overheating and internal short circuits. Now Freescale has introduced […]

Batteries get most of the press, but power electronics (gadgets like inverters, onboard chargers and DC/DC converters) are critical components of all sorts of electrified vehicles as well as high-tech energy solutions. As the electromobility/clean energy sector grows, leading companies in the power electronics field could be poised for major […]

Start-stop vehicles (SSVs, if you will) occupy the bottom rung of the electrification ladder, and they’re growing in importance as global OEMs search for ways to meet tightening emissions standards (anything other than selling EVs, it sometimes seems). Over 40 percent of new cars sold in Europe already incorporate start-stop […]

Battery tech startup Lionano has announced an agreement with Cornell University’s Center for Technology Licensing (CTL) to develop and produce a “drop-in” anode material for Li-ion batteries. The new material is a hollow-structured metal oxide that can substantially reduce the volumetric expansion of a conventional anode. According to Lionano, it […]

To produce EVs, you need batteries. To build batteries, you need lithium. That’s why Tesla has signed a long-term contract with a pair of mining companies to supply lithium hydroxide from a site in northern Mexico. Bacanora Minerals Ltd and Rare Earth Minerals PLC are partners in a joint venture […]

A new report from Lux Research makes the argument that LG Chem could supplant Panasonic as the leader of the growing electric vehicle (EV) battery market, and details the potential path to that happening. That report — “Watch the Throne: How LG Chem and Others Can Take Panasonic’s EV Battery […]

  SK Innovation, a unit of SK Group, is a small fish in a sea of Asian battery suppliers like Panasonic, Samsung and LG, but its automotive customer base is growing, and it is rapidly ramping up production. Since the Korean firm opened its battery plant in Seosan in 2012, […]