Batteries

Porsche's investment in Group 14 Technologies brings access to a silicon anode that can provide greater energy density in batteries.

The facility will allow engineers to study materials, design, and manufacturing processes for solid-state batteries that Nissan hopes to bring to market by 2028.

One day, electric cars may actually store their energy in carbon-fiber bodies and replace the need for heavy batteries. Research published in October from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden shows carbon fiber can operate as electrodes in a lithium-ion battery. A car could feature a...

Volkswagen says quantum computers may help the company develop batteries customized to future electric vehicles, the German automaker said June 8. The news last week came after VW announced a partnership with Google over quantum computing last November. The automaker said it planned to develop the...

In a future with autonomous cars, batteries must be more resilient to operate constantly and serve multiple masters. That's Akira Yoshino's belief. He's the man who invented the lithium-ion prototype battery in 1985. Yoshino told Bloomberg in a report published last Wednesday that future batteries...

Porsche previously asserted that half of its sales will come from electrified cars by 2025. Judging by the demand for Panamera hybrid models, the brand may have made a pretty solid prediction. Reuters reported on Saturday that battery suppliers are having trouble keeping up with demand for the...

Volkswagen will embark on a transformation of its business through electric cars and self-driving technology, and it is looking elsewhere to bolster its technological capabilities. On Monday, the German automaker announced a partnership with Google to work with quantum computers for future battery...

Battery cells are poised to become the most important component in future vehicles as the industry moves away from internal-combustion engines and toward battery-electric vehicles. With an increased demand for battery packs, battery cell production will be paramount, and the European Union plans to...

Two major movements occurred this week on the alternative-propulsion front. First, Croatian firm Rimac, responsible for the insane Concept_One supercar, announced Chinese battery manufacturer Camel Group has invested $36 million into its future operations. Second, Bosch announced it will join...

Tesla first toyed with the idea of battery swapping three years ago, only to walk away from the service less than one year later. Despite this, the electric-car maker may still have an eye on battery swapping, and a new patent filing is evidence of this. In May of this year, Tesla filed to patent a...

Remember Fisker's promise to introduce the industry's first automotive-grade graphene batteries? That's not happening. Now, Fisker's upcoming Emotion electric car will utilize fairly standard lithium-ion battery cells. The latest information, reported by Automotive News (subscription required)...

The 2013 Tesla Model S has received rave reviews, including the best score that Consumer Reports has given any car in six years. The stock of Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] is on a roll, the company is delivering hundreds of its Model S all-electric luxury sport sedan every week, and it just turned in...

When lithium-ion battery manufacturer A123 systems declared bankruptcy last October, the move left Fisker Automotive without a battery supplier for its Karma plug-in hybrid luxury sedan. Fisker downplayed the drama, insisting that it had sufficient inventory for the near future, and that the sale...

When it comes to building battery packs for electric cars, temperature extremes are the enemy of battery range. To deliver optimum results, electric car batteries need to be kept within a fairly narrow band of ideal operating temperatures. To get around this, thermal conditioning is used to...

Late last year BMW and Toyota signed a memorandum of understanding concerning a mid-to-long-term collaboration on next-generation environment-friendly technologies, which covered everything from the joint development of electric car technologies to the sharing of engines. Today, the two automakers...

With so many different technologies vying to be the "next big thing" with electric car batteries, the law of averages dictates that at least one of those genuinely will be the next big thing. The latest "next big thing" is graphene lithium-air batteries according to Talking Points Memo, and they're...

Remember e-Wolf? A few years back the German firm released a couple of preview images teasing a new electric supercar that’s still in development. Well, e-Wolf has been busy, releasing a number of other electric cars in the recent past, the latest of which is the new Alpha 1 SRF (Silent...

We’ve known about the 2012 Buick LaCrosse eAssist mild-hybrid luxury sedan since late 2010 but GM only released the all-important pricing details for the car this week, with its sticker coming in at $29,960 before an $860 destination charge. Interestingly, GM has made the advanced eAssist...

Volvo showed us its C30 Electric zero-emissions hatchback at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show back in January, which included a crashed example with the car's expensive battery pack fully intact, but now the automaker has confirmed that customer leases are about to start. Unfortunately, those leases are...

One of the biggest hurdles towards the mainstream acceptance of electric cars is the lengthy period of time, usually around six to eight hours, that it takes to top up their batteries. Compare this to filling up a gasoline or diesel powered car, where topping up a tank takes only a matter of...