It’s hard to find an energy wonk out there who doesn’t love the idea of electric cars. Most white papers on ending our oil dependency envision a large future role for plug-in vehicles and hybrids in the future. The concept has legions of devoted fans. Back in 2006, the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Continue reading →
electric car
Is the gas-powered car on the road to extinction? FrumForum visited Better Place, a firm based in Tel Aviv that is dedicated to developing an infrastructure to support the use of electric cars, to meet with CEO and Founder Shai Agassi and to test-drive an electric car. For obvious reasons, Israel is particularly concerned with Continue reading →
It looks like a lot of Jacksonville folks are willing to turn over a new leaf – a Nissan Leaf electric car, that is. A steady stream of people showed up at The Avenues mall Friday for the first day of Nissan’s weekend “Drive Electric Tour” with what it calls an “affordable, mass-market, all-electric car.” Continue reading →
Electric cars are quiet, get great mileage, and don’t pollute the air. But if you ask officials in Yokohama, Japan’s second-largest city, an electric car has yet another attribute: it can feed the electricity network. Because electric vehicles run on batteries, officials believe they could store energy and channel it back into the home or Continue reading →
Almost every car manufacturer is planning to bring out an electric car in the near future. While the Nissan LEAF and Chevrolet Volt will be the first to enter the market, Mitsubishi and SMART’s EVs will join the ranks soon. But as the number of cars increase, so do the myths about them. Here are Continue reading →
Vancouverites are the first in line for Nissan’s new LEAF electric car in 2011 — a year before global distribution. BC Hydro is gearing up for their arrival, blanketing the city with smart meters and upgrading its electricity grid to support the charging needs of the LEAF. Whether this car is a success, however, depends Continue reading →
The most eagerly awaited car of the year is the Chevrolet Volt, the first next-generation extended-range electric car to hit the road. General Motors has a lot riding on the car, and it took a lot of workers to make it. Many of them were women in what has been traditionally the boy’s club that Continue reading →
As General Motors announced Texas availability of the nation’s first plug-in Chevrolet Volts, Oncor affirmed its commitment to make electric car ownership a smart transportation choice “From our installation of more than a million Smart Meters helping customers curb their electricity usage, to construction of 850 miles of new transmission lines delivering renewable wind power, Continue reading →
General Motors’ announcement this week that it plans to link up with Google to provide a set of location-based services to owners of the upcoming electric vehicle the Chevy Volt comes hot on the heels of Ford laying out plans to work with Microsoft to manage electric vehicle charging. Google and Microsoft have been competing on Continue reading →
The US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has licensed its Smart Charger Controller to the California-based electric car maker Zap. The new controller technology manages peak energy demand to reduce power costs for consumers and lessen the demands on the electric grid. The controller technology will lower the demand for less green energy Continue reading →
IBM will lead a research project in the United Kingdom intended to assess the infrastructure needed to bring electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to the mass market, the company announced late Thursday. via IBM plugs into $453M U.K. electric-car initiative – Triangle Business Journal:.
IBM will lead a research project in the United Kingdom intended to assess the infrastructure needed to bring electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to the mass market, the company announced late Thursday. via IBM plugs into $453M U.K. electric-car initiative – Triangle Business Journal:.
Researchers in California are developing a new scheme which would enable electric car owners to sell electricity back to power companies. They say that the scheme would greatly reduce the running costs of electric cars. Pallab Ghosh reports from California. via BBC News – New electric car scheme for California.
It’s understatement to say that battery and plug-in hybrid cars are not straining the electric grid today. Tesla has sold 700 cars, and there are a few thousand homemade conversions and stranded corporate leftovers (Solectria, U.S. Electricar, Taylor-Dunn, Toyota RAV4) scattered around the country. But with more than 30 companies poised to produce cars with Continue reading →
New information technologies make it possible to put in place a “smart grid” capable of two-way communication and many more functions to control supply and demand. A smart grid can help prevent black-outs, give consumers up-to-the-minute information on electricity usage and prepare the way for increased use of clean, renewable energy from sources such as Continue reading →
I have to chuckle over Ford’s announcement yesterday that its plug-in hybrids promise to allow vehicles to recharge during off-peak hours of cheap electricity. The Ford vehicles that will do this won’t be out until 2012. Ok, Ford, we’ll wait. By the way, why would we buy a new gas-powered vehicle now or even your Continue reading →
As the nation moves toward electric cars and trucks, Ford Motor Co. today unveiled new touch-screen technology that will allow consumers to program when, how long and at what rate they wish to recharge their vehicles. Ford, which showed the technology with several partners, including DTE Energy, Southern California Edison and Progress Energy of Raleigh, Continue reading →
GridPoint, Inc., an established leader in smart grid software, and Coulomb Technologies today unveiled the first ever smart grid enabled smart charging stations for electric vehicles. The integrated solution using Coulomb’s ChargePoint™ Networked Charging Stations for plug-in electric vehicles and GridPoint’s smart charging software application extends municipalities and utilities ability to manage vehicle-charging load. Utilities Continue reading →
Ameren’s Missouri and Illinois utilities applied this week for $185 million in stimulus money for infrastructure upgrades, smart grid projects and electric vehicles. AmerenUE applied for $140 million in stimulus funding, and Ameren Illinois Utilities applied for $45 million. AmerenUE’s application includes the following funding requests for a 50 percent federal match: $125 million in Continue reading →
Britain will create up to four “smart grid cities” after the energy regulator set aside £500m from customers’ utility bills to start rewiring the nation’s electricity system. Ofgem wants companies to choose several towns or cities where it will pay for households to have smart energy technologies installed to monitor how it works on a Continue reading →
