Category: Transport

Global car sales have never been higher these past years. However, in many countries in Europe, carmakers are experiencing overcapacity. When Ford shut down its auto plant in Genk, Belgium in October, 2012, a number of its workers tried to persuade Tesla to turn it into its new factory.

On the “Welkom Tesla” website, a former Ford engineer, LievenSmeyers, wrote an open letter to Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors. As reported in the Tesla Mondo, Smeyers outlined his reasons why Musk may want to purchase the former Ford factory.

He boasted that the Genk plant was once the “crown jewel” of the European operations of Ford Motors.  Smeyers mentioned that the factory has been running for 50 years, and approximately 14 million cars rolled out from its assembly lines.

He also mentioned that the plant employed as many as 4,300 people full time, and another 5,000 contractual workers were supplied by local job placement [...]

The Tesla Model S was always a vehicle ridiculed by many critics, particularly lovers of traditional diesel-pumping muscle cars. There never was much love an electric vehicle in the US or even in the UK but the Tesla Model S has stuck through the test of time and is now of the best vehicles in the market.

To put that statement to the test the vehicle was recently pitted against the diesel-running Mercedes-Benz S550. Both vehicles have similar specs except for the fact that one runs on electricity and the latter runs on fuel.

The Tesla Model S has an electric engine that cranks out 416 horsepower and 443 lbs-ft of torque. The Mercedes-Benz S550 uses a 4.6L V8 engine that gives out 455 horsepower and 516 lbs-ft of torque. Both cost just above $90,000 and are both heavy sedans.

It was with the performance tests that showed how the cars differ.

In the initial [...]

The utilities industry in the United States is happy and at the same time terrified of the Elon Musk battery. Just outside of Reno, Nevada bull dozers are getting rid of dirt of the battery factory of Tesla Motors Inc., and it is considered to be the biggest in the world.

The founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, deems the $5B factory an essential step toward enabling electric vehicles to be more affordable, and at the same time, ensuring that people do not have to completely rely on oil. This move also helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

At first glance it may seem that the push for more electric cars will enable an electric company boost its sales considering that utilities have been dealing with stagnant sales due to slow economic growth and energy conservation.

 

Then again, the Elon Musk battery gigafactory may soon become a threat to the business model of the utilities industry [...]

Tesla’s Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk certainly knows how to make life more fun for many. For one thing, this author has made some money as a shareholder of Tesla. Secondly, the founder always knows how to give writers like ourselves ideas and topics on what to write about.

In the previous year, Musk made a common about electric vehicles running on hydrogen fuel cells. He referred to them as a total BS saying they were nothing but marketing ploys created by the automakers themselves.

On the other hand, Toyota is moving forward at a steady pace with its very first hydrogen fuel cell which it named Mirai. You can buy it in Japan early this year but if you live in the US you would have to wait until summer.

So the question is, was Musk wrong? He said fuel cells were BS and that the automakers themselves do not believe in the technology. [...]

In the field of technology, batteries offer the greatest innovation opportunities. The company that can create a more powerful yet small battery is the one that’s set to make tons of money.

This explains why Seeo is getting a lot of interest from investors. This California based company specializes in developing rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and just recently it declared the closure of a $17M Series E round.

But perhaps what is even more interesting is the fact that it was Samsung who funded it. More specifically, it’s Samsung investment arm Samsung Ventures alongside GSR Ventures and Khosla Ventures.

Considering Samsung’s superior position in the consumer electronics industry, it is very obvious that the company has vested interest in seeing the development of better batteries. But take note that its investment is not really solely about the creation of a newer and better Galaxy smartphone.

Seeo says the company will use the funding to accelerate the [...]

China has a very ambitious plan to reduce air pollution however its aim to adopt 5 million electric cars has posed a problem –charging stations, or to be more precise, the lack of it.

Shanghai resident Eddy Wu purchased a hybrid car because it was subsidized by the Chinese government and also because it’s eco-friendly and did not require license plates. But still, he uses gasoline because there are no charging stations, hence the waste of its electric capabilities.

The apartment complex where he lives as well as the office where he works do not allow him to charge his car in the parking lots because he was told it could be a fire risk. To be able to use a charging station he has to drive 5 kilometres and pay cash.

While the shortage of electric cars charging station is discouraging people from buying these vehicles everywhere in the world, the problem is particularly [...]

Shoppers at Southgate Shopping Centre who drive electric cars have a wonderful surprise awaiting them. The shopping mall offers free charging to owners of electric cars while doing their shopping. This Edmonton shopping centre will probably experience a boom in its sales these coming months.

Charging stations of the shopping centre are located in its parkade. This is the first time an Edmonton shopping centre has offered this kind of service to its customers.

Unveiled last December 19, the two charging stations will allow the shoppers to keep their car’s battery fully charged while enjoying their shopping – and for free.

“I think the primary driver is that it’s the right thing to do, from both an environmental perspective as well as a customer-service perspective,” said Julia Dow, property manager of Southgate.

Just about twenty minutes after the announcement, and as soon as the centre’s representatives left the stations, a shopper pulled up his Tesla [...]

Most people assume that electric cars are absolutely clean.

They believe that these cars don’t contribute to greenhouse gas emissions because they don’t generate any carbon emissions.

But that is if a person only considers the electric car itself. The overall impact to the environment of electric cars should include the effects of their battery charging cycles. As long as plug-in cars are dependent on their fully recharged batteries to be able to run, they invariably pollute the environment as any gasoline or diesel powered car.

The production of electric car batteries, and the generation of electricity from electric car charging stations are also contributors to the pollution of the environment, even if the electric cars themselves does not emit any carbon dioxide in the air.

That is why more and more electric car manufacturers are developing battery technologies that will enable their cars to increase their distance range and thereby lessen their contribution to [...]

This is the best car news for those who love the environment: In just a matter of one year, cleaner electric cars are now possible.

Electric cars are not really absolutely clean because their environmental impact has to include the electricity generated to recharge their batteries.

But a recent study from the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that in many states, cleaner electric cars now have lower “wells-to-wheels” emissions per mile, compared to what they have about a one year ago.

There were two factors that made this possible.

The first factor is the sales-weighted mix of electric vehicles sold from December 2010 to June 2014 which has gotten a bit more efficient.

This is attributed to the improvement in the electric car range of the Nissan Leaf from 73 miles for the 2011 to 2012 models to 84 miles for the 2014 to 2015 models.

Equally worthy of credit is the May arrival of [...]

Today’s research and development will one day give the world an electric car battery that is cheaper, smaller and will enable drivers of electric vehicles to travel greater distances with one charge.

Such a battery is now being developed by a team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy. This team hopes that when this battery is completed, it can store 10 times more energy than the lithium-ion batteries used by most electric cars today.

Larry Curtiss, a materials scientist and his team of researchers at the USDOE is working on new battery architecture. This new battery uses lithium-oxygen bonds as it captures and releases energy. The battery also uses silver as the metal catalyst that makes the first process possible.

With this new architecture, the team hopes to develop a battery that can store up to 10 times more energy than current Li-Ion batteries. It should also increase the mileage range of one [...]