Emerging Technologies
Altair’s lithium titanate battery finishes 500th full depth cycle
Altair Nanotechnologies announced this week that the new lithium titanate battery it is developing for the U.S. Navy has completed its 500th full depth cycle and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, lost just one percent of its total capacity. The Navy (thanks to U.S. taxpayers) is paying Altair $2.5 million for these batteries. While not destined for [...]
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6Oct2008 | BlueFox | 0 comments | Continued
ABG speaks with PowerGenix about NiZn batteries
We recently got on the phone with Dan Squiller from PowerGenix, a company which hopes to “revolutionize the battery industry” with its new nickel-zinc batteries. The firm’s batteries will soon make an appearance in power tools and in lawn and garden machinery, with ebikes, scooters and consumer AA-sized units shipping shortly thereafter. Of course, the [...]
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6Oct2008 | BlueFox | 0 comments | Continued
The next material to be recycled: carbon fiber?
Carbon fiber holds a huge potential in the automotive industry. Compared to both steel and aluminum - currently the most often used metals in our cars and trucks - carbon fiber is both lighter and stronger. What’s more, the material can be woven in certain ways to promote strength in some areas and flexibility in [...]
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4Oct2008 | BlueFox | 0 comments | Continued
Clean Power Technologies still working on new steam-assisted cars
There have been a few companies which have been working on new applications of steam power for our automobiles, some of which are well known, such as BMW, and and others just now coming out of the woodwork. One such company is Clean Power Technologies based in the U.K. One common thread from these new [...]
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4Oct2008 | BlueFox | 0 comments | Continued
Hawaii’s Big Island gets new biomass power plant
With expected onslaught of new plug-in vehicles over the next few years, there will surely be some increased demand for electrical generating capacity. However, with coal being the dominant source of energy for power plants in the United States, the total life cycle benefits are questionable. There is of course the possibility of controlling emissions [...]
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2Oct2008 | BlueFox | 0 comments | Continued
Ener1 CEO paints rosy future for li-ion battery technology
Ener1 has been in the news quite a bit these last few weeks, and new CEO (and former and current Chairman) Charles Gassenheimer thought it prudent to write a letter to shareholders about the current status of the company and the future of li-ion batteries in the automotive market. Some of the highlights of things [...]
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19Sep2008 | BlueFox | 0 comments | Continued
New Ford EcoBoost 3.5L V6 engine smiles for the camera
When Ford announced the EcoBoost idea at this year’s Detroit Auto Show, the main message was that this was a reasonable technology that could be implemented soon, would save people money by improving fuel economy without decreasing performance and that the improved engines would be paired with lighter cars to emphasize the fuel savings. Oh, [...]
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14Sep2008 | BlueFox | 0 comments | Continued
BYD getting Israeli partner to compete with Renault and Better Place
f competition spurs companies to improve the quality of their offerings and the speed with which they innovate, then we may soon expect more from Shai Agassi’s Better Place and its partner in Israel, Renault. While BYD already announced they would be selling electric vehicles in Israel earlier this month, that pronunciation gains serious weight [...]
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11Sep2008 | BlueFox | 0 comments | Continued
Looks of a aerotank, heart of a hybrid: the Hinterland 1 concept car
The idea behind the Hinterland 1 concept car is efficiency. This is by no means new in the realm of automotive design, but rarely has a low coefficient of drag looked so, well, aggressive. Put a turret on top of this thing and it could be used to scare children to bed every night. My [...]
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11Sep2008 | BlueFox | 0 comments | Continued
Intel updates the potential of wireless electric charging
Photo by rintakumpu. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.
It’s been over a year since we wrote about WiTricity, the MIT-developed wireless charging system. While we’re still a long, long way from powering all-electric automobiles without heavy and expensive batteries, there is an update on the cordless power idea, this time from Intel. According to AFP, [...]
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11Sep2008 | BlueFox | 0 comments | Continued
