Tesla Switches on World’s Largest Battery in Australia

03. December 2017 · Write a comment · Categories: New Technology · Tags: , , ,

Tesla has installed the world’s largest battery storage system in South Australia.

The world’s biggest lithium-ion battery was plugged into an Australian state grid at Hornsdale Wind Farm, near the outback town of Jamestown, about 120 miles north of the state capital, Adelaide. The news was announced by officials two days ago.

Musk signed the contract at the end of September and promised to build the 100-megawatt battery within 100 days or the company would hand it over to Australian state government for free.

The battery began dispatching power into the state grid, providing 70 megawatts, announced South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill Thursday afternoon when temperatures topped 86 degrees. The world’s biggest lithium-ion battery came on the first day of the Australian summer — the season when power usage increases significantly due to air conditioning use. More »

Fisker Files Patents for New Solid-State Battery with 500-Mile Range and 1-Minute Charge Times

19. November 2017 · Write a comment · Categories: New Technology, Transportation · Tags: , ,

Fisker has filed patents for a radical ‘solid-state battery’ and technology that will slash charging times and improve range. Officials for the company claim the battery would be able to power a car for 500 miles and recharge in just a minute.
Fisker is a very small company that makes luxury electric cars. The technology will be on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Along with the battery module equipped with advanced thermal management, the company will also be launching its Fisker EMotion luxury electric sedan at the show.

According to the firm, its batteries deliver 2.5 times the energy density of typical lithium-ion batteries and is estimated to cost one-third of the 2020 projected price for those batteries, due to advances in materials and manufacturing.

Solid-state batteries would charge very quickly and should not have the fire issues with lithium-ion batteries. However, they are known to have a number of drawbacks, such as low power and low rate capability as a result of the layered electrode structure.

Dr. Fabio Albano, vice president of battery systems at Fisker Inc. commented that this breakthrough “marks the beginning of a new era in solid-state materials and manufacturing technologies”.

 

According to Autoblog.

Tesla Sends Hundreds of Powerwall Systems to Puerto Rico

01. October 2017 · Write a comment · Categories: New Technology · Tags: , ,

Tesla Inc. has just sent hundreds of Powerwall battery systems to Puerto Rico. Tesla employees have been sent to install the battery systems on the island.
The island still does not have electricity in the wake of Hurricane Maria, a category 4 Hurricane that tore through the Caribbean more than a week ago. Over 3 million citizens in the American Commonwealth will most likely not have electricity for up to six months.
The hurricane destroyed the electricity grid on the island, killed 16 people and injured much more. Electricity is being only provided to high-priority buildings such as hospitals. More »

Mercedes-Benz to Invest $1 Billion in Electric Car Production in the U.S.

24. September 2017 · Write a comment · Categories: New Technology, Transportation · Tags: , , , ,

Daimler is planning to invest $1 billion into electric car production in its Alabama plant, the company said Thursday in a statement.
Daimler will try to take on Tesla’s Model X by making Daimler the first European company to assemble electric SUV in the U.S. as it is starting to assemble electric sport utility vehicles in its facility in Alabama.
Daimler, the parent company of luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz, announced plans to invest $1 billion to start production of plug-in autos in the U.S.
The Stuttgart-based company will use the sum to expand the 20-year-old Vance facility, in Alabama, where Mercedes already makes SUVs. More »

Nissan’s New Electric Car Won’t Need a Brake Pedal

29. August 2017 · Write a comment · Categories: New Technology, Transportation, Travel · Tags: , , , ,

The new Nissan Leaf will operate with just one pedal.Less than a month ahead of the official reveal of the 2018 Nissan Leaf on September 6, Nissan announced that the highly anticipated 100% electric car will be launched with only one pedal, the e-Pedal, an innovative technology that will transform the way you drive a car.
More details have been released about the second generation of the electric car.
Nissan’s brand-new version of its electric car, the Leaf, will be fully unveiled on September 6 when the car will showcase its single pedal mode for accelerating and decelerating. The company claims that this innovative concept is being introduced for the first time in a novel way and the e-Pedal is “the world’s first one-pedal operation.” More »

Boeing Dreamliner Draws a Massive Plane Over the United States

06. August 2017 · Write a comment · Categories: New Technology, Transportation · Tags: , ,

Boeing 787 Dreamliner took a 4,000-mile flight for 17 hours to trace an outline of itself in the skies above the US.
The flight started from Boeing’s Seattle headquarters in Washington at 11 pm last Tuesday. Aviation fans were able to track its unusual route avidly while cruising continually at 41,000 feet when the flight track began to take shape using flightradar24. The outline hit 17 states and spans from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to the tip of Texas.
In a staggering stunt that has provoked admiration and amusement, the aircraft managed to draw a perfect outline of a massive Dreamliner in the skies over America. More »

The 2018 Ford Mustang GT Will Be the Most Powerful and Quickest Ever

28. July 2017 · Write a comment · Categories: New Technology, Transportation · Tags: , , ,

2018 Mustang GT hits 0-60 in under 4 seconds with an all-new 10-speed automatic transmission.
Ford announced Monday the power and torque figures for the 2018 Mustang lineup. The automaker promises impressive improvements for both models: the V8-powered GT and 4-cylinder-powered EcoBoost.
The 2018 Mustang GT will be the fastest Mustang to date, capable of 0-60 mph acceleration in less than four seconds which puts the GT ahead of the quickest sports cars, including the Porsche 911.
The new Mustang GT features an improved 5.0-liter V8 engine that generates 460 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque. That is an impressive upgrade over the 2017 model with its 435 horsepower and 400 pound-feet. More »

Planes That Will Fly New York to London in 40 Minutes

06. July 2017 · Write a comment · Categories: New Technology, Transportation, Travel · Tags: , , ,

‘Space planes’ will soon be used for commercial hypersonic travel.
Private companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are some of the private companies that in recent years have been developing space vehicles designed to launch multiple times.
The way commercial and military entities view orbital missions has been transformed due to the recent development of propulsion and spacecraft design that includes lower-cost, reusable boosters and capsules. The companies develop innovative engine designs, 3-D printing and use the same booster repeatedly. They aim to transform commercial aircrafts into so-called hypersonic space planes that are capable of carrying passengers. The new aircrafts are powered by engines that burn hydrogen fuel with oxygen from the atmosphere but without the moving parts essential of the common rockets. In addition, the planes would travel at least five times the speed of sound, which is about 3,500 miles an hour; in comparison, conventional jetliners typically fly at 500 mph. More »

Autonomous Cars with no Human Backup to the Road in 2018

08. June 2017 · Write a comment · Categories: New Technology, Transportation · Tags: , , , , ,

Autonomous vehicles with no human backup will be put to the test on roads next year.
Seeing a car with no human backup is moving closer to reality after two companies announced a partnership to test fully-autonomous cars on public roads in 2018.
Two companies, Delphi, a U.K.-based company with U.S. headquarters in Metro Detroit which is an automotive electronics and parts maker, and Transdev, a French transport company, are planning to use autonomous taxis and a shuttle van to carry passengers on roadways in France.

 

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Daimler‘s New Battery Factory for Electric Vehicles Unveiled

31. May 2017 · Write a comment · Categories: New Technology, Transportation · Tags: , , , ,

The largest battery factory in Europe is being built by Daimler.

Daimler, one of the few major automakers developing all-electric vehicles, begins construction on a $562 million lithium-ion battery factory in Germany, officials unveiled a few days ago. The German automaker is planning to spend $11 billion on 10 new electric models that would be brought to the market by 2022.

Mercedes-Benz manufacturer Daimler is currently producing its own battery packs through its ACCUmotive subsidiary. A few months ago, they announced an important multi-million investment in a new battery plant in Kamenz, Germany, which will assemble lithium-ion battery packs for Mercedes and Maybach vehicles, as well as energy storage batteries.

The new production facility will be environmentally conscious. Mercedes says that the factory will be carbon-dioxide neutral. The facilities will be supplied with energy from a combined heat and power plant and solar power – a photovoltaic plant in combination with stationary battery storage units. By the end of 2020, the factory will have a total of over 1,000 employees and thus today’s number will be more than doubled.

The new production facility will stretch across 262,000 feet. It is scheduled to go into operation in mid-2018- just in time for Mercedes’ first all-electric vehicle- the new ‘EQ’ SUV. In addition, the German automaker has several other electric vehicle programs, like its all-electric Urban eTruck. Daimler is also currently building 1,500 all-electric Mercedes-Benz vans for Germany’s largest independent logistic firm, Hermes.

Last week, Daimler subsidiary Mercedes-Benz Energy has entered into a partnership with Vivint Solar to Solar to sell residential storage batteries along with solar panels in California.

Major battery factories are currently under construction in other European countries: Poland, Hungary, and Sweden. However, some of these factories are actually being built by Asian giants planning to move into Europe. There are also eight battery factories under construction in China.

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