News

November 5, 2015

Enevate Says its Batteries Can Charge 5-10 Times Faster Than Conventional Li-ion

California-based Enevate Corporation has announced an “ultrafast charging” feature for its batteries, which has been demonstrated to provide a 90% charge in 15 minutes while increasing capacity compared to current Li-ion batteries. Enevate’s HD-Energy Technology uses silicon-dominant composite anodes, and the company claims an 25-50% increase in energy density over […]
November 3, 2015

Cambridge Scientists Claim Promising Lithium-Oxygen Battery Advancements

Cambridge scientists have developed a working demonstrator of a lithium-oxygen battery that is more than 90% efficient, and can be recharged more than 2,000 times. Lithium-oxygen, or lithium-air, has been touted as the ultimate battery technology, because its theoretical energy density is ten times that of lithium-ion solutions. In “Cycling […]
November 2, 2015

Under New Chinese Owners, A123 Finds Promising Niche in Micro-Hybrid Market

Most Charged readers will certainly remember A123, the company that was founded in 2001 on the basis of promising battery technology developed at MIT; received a $249-million grant from the DOE and $100 million in tax breaks from the state of Michigan; raised $380 million in a 2009 IPO; made […]
October 31, 2015

Samsung Opens Lithium-Ion Battery Factory In China

An inauguration ceremony for Samsung SDI’s newly completed electric vehicle battery production facility in the Gaoxin Industrial District in Xi’an, in Shaanxi Province, China, was recently held by the Korean company. Worth noting here is that Samsung SDI is now the first “top” battery manufacturer to develop an electric vehicle […]
October 28, 2015

LG Chem to Supply Battery Upgrade for Tesla Roadster

Tesla has confirmed that it has a contract with South Korean firm LG Chem to provide batteries for Roadster 3.0, a package of range-enhancing improvements for Tesla’s famous first vehicle. The company began taking orders for the $29,000 upgrade in September. Until this announcement, Tesla’s only known battery supplier was […]
October 26, 2015

Vacuum Maker Dyson Acquires Solid-state Battery Pioneer Sakti3

Dyson, the manufacturer of high-tech vacuum cleaners and restroom hand dryers, has acquired Michigan startup Sakti3 for $90 million in cash, as reported by Quartz. Founder and CEO Ann Marie Sastry will oversee development of her company’s solid-state battery technology as an executive for Dyson. UK-based Dyson, which invested $15 million […]
October 22, 2015

Tesla Shifts Focus to Model 3 as Engineers Prepare to Start Work at the Gigafactory

Tesla’s Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel gave a talk at the University of Nevada in Reno this week, as the company announced a new internship program and an investment of $1 million in the university’s battery research program. Saying that the transition to a truly sustainable world won’t be accomplished […]
October 16, 2015

Bosch: 50 kWh Battery, Just 190 Kilograms

The German company Bosch is apparently aiming to, over the coming years, create a 50 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery for use in electric vehicles that only weighs 190 kilograms, based on recent comments made by a company researcher. Considering the amount of money that the company is currently pumping into related […]
October 14, 2015

PowerAmerica Offers Funding for Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Projects

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 […]
October 8, 2015

Scrap Tires Transformed Into Supercapacitor Electrodes

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 […]
September 30, 2015

Formula E Battery Power Increasing to 170 kW for Season Two

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 […]
September 23, 2015

Tesla Tweaks its Battery Chemistry: a Closer Look at Silicon Anode Development

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 […]