Hyundai says it is working on three solar charging systems that may appear on Hyundai and Kia cars after 2019. The output of the systems will be modest, but every watt helps increase range and lower emissions.
Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, (ORNL) have now come up with an induction charging system capable of operating at a power of 120 kW, with up to a 6-inch gap between the primary and secondary coils, and at an efficiency of about 97%.
Europe’s automotive market is slowly getting charged. The drivers of electrification are EU regulatory agencies, which are imposing ever-stricter limits on carbon and nitrogen oxide pollution. Meanwhile, the German auto industry is pulling in the other direction, using its immense political power to try to delay and water down emissions regulations. The various European countries are caught in the middle — some are embracing the electric future, some are resisting it, and most are muddling through with no particular plan.
The most popular articles of the past week on CleanTechnica included another great total cost of ownership (TCO) comparison between the Tesla Model 3 and some very popular cars, consumer demand levers Tesla could pull if it needed to stimulate more demand, an exploration of Tesla’s focus and mission beyond being a carmaker, electric bike fatalities and injuries rising, and more.
There have been a handful of particularly loud Tesla bears or critics over the past several years. One of those people, Andrew Left of Citron Research, recently made a U-turn in his position on Tesla (citing 4 CleanTechnica charts of Tesla sales along the way).
Another one is Jim Chanos, who we’ll probably address again before long, and another is Mark Spiegel. Like Chanos, Spiegel gets put on major TV shows frequently for his “expertise” on Tesla. But if you look at Spiegel’s historical record on Tesla, it’s really bad — really, really bad.
A Tesla Motors Forum member somewhat recently posted some interesting EV-related heat maps. He used Google’s Fusion Tables and first created a heat map of Tesla Superchargers, with weighting based on number of stalls.
Decades of experience streamlining the customer flow at gas stations has resulted in stations that are effective at pulling customers in, extracting their money, filling up the gas tank, and getting them back on the road.
I wonder how many times you have heard about the chicken and egg dilemma in the context of EV rollout and charging infrastructure. Should charging infrastructure come first to encourage EV buyers or should EV drivers come first to force the development of the charging infrastructure? I bet you’ve heard that more than actually necessary since market-driven changes usually happen simultaneously and opportunity attracts business initiatives from both teams — chickens and eggs.
The Tesla Model X is 23% more efficient than the Jaguar I-PACE according to German YouTube channel NextMove. That makes the Model X the preferred electric car choice for long distance travel.
In Italy, there are scooters everywhere, in Amsterdam, people love their bikes, and Thailand has its tuk-tuks. Over in India, there are rickshaws by the thousands. These low cost people movers are now being converted to low cost electric vehicles by the thousands, with over 1.5 million battery-powered electric rickshaws already zipping silently around the country. This is the electric vehicle revolution you’ve probably never heard of.
