United States- Researchers in Penn State University demonstrated that they can charge an electric vehicle in 10 minutes for a 200-300 mile range. The researchers explain that one of the critical barriers to extreme fast charging (XFC) is Li plating which occurs mostly during high charge rates and which causes deterioration of battery life. Operating at high heat has always been believed to be damaging for the Li-ion batteries. However, they discovered that increasing temperatures (60 degrees Celsuis) for short periods (about 10 minutes) during charging can actually achieve XFC and the battery can last up to 1,700 cycles. Read more
Volkswagen- China is the world's largest car market and has been encouraging customers, through legislation, to adopt EVs. Therefore, according to CNBC, Volkswagen is planning to become one of the largest manufactures of electric vehicles in China. The company has invested a huge amount in building new models based on their Modular electric drive matrix (MEB) vehicle architecture which it hopes will help them scale production and lower prices of EVs to nearly $22,262. The company has two (out of 6) of its manufacturing facilities in China; the Foshan factory and Anting. Over the next 8 years they plan to make 22 million EVs, 600,000 of them in their two Chinese factories. By 2025 they hope to offer 15 EV models to the Chinese market.
PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) have announced this week a 50-50 merger alliance and according to electrek, the EV industry may be a great beneficiary of this. In 2011, Carlos Tavares, the prospective CEO of the merged FCA-PSA alliance, when referring to using any form of combustion said that “If you’re calling your car electric, and it has one of these, you’re only muddling the message.” Tavares is pushing for access to EV battery supplies for European carmakers and for European governments to expand charging infrastructure; “The mission of the European Automotive Association that I’m currently leading…is to tell governments that we need density in charging networks. You will not buy an electric vehicle if you are not comfortable with the idea that you can change it quickly…".
U.K - Cambridge University Eco Racing student society have built an electric car that "drives using only as much power as it takes to boil a kettle" according to Rima Sabina Aouf from de zeen. They named the car Helia, making efficiency their primary goal. The car travels 80 kilometers-per-hour using only 2,500 watts. For comparison, Tesla Model 3 would need to use eight kettles to achieve the same output. Read more
Electric cars aren't all too costly; Matt Allan from inews lists the cheapest electric cars that are available for buying or ordering nowadays: The Renault Twizy which is so small and light it's considered a quadricycle and starts at $9,625. Uniti One, a very small car designed for urban use from a new Swedish company starts at $17,000 and has orders worth over $58 million. The new Renault Zoe supermini which came out this September starts at $33,222. The Seat Mii Electric, the cheapest of VW's electric vehicles, starts at $23,112. The MG ZS model is the first fully electric car from MG is priced at $28,465. Read more
