Industry News
Better Place China’s EV Centre
In mid-December, battery-swapping promoter Better Place announced it had, with the China Southern Power Grid, http://eng.csg.cn/ opened China’s first Switchable Electric Car Experience Center in the south China city of Guangzhou. The Center aims to introduce people to the concept of battery swapping, an alternative to battery recharging as a way to refuel a pure electric vehicle. http://tinyurl.com/7qxlnm5
I recently spoke with Dan Cohen, vice president of strategic initiatives at Better Place, www.betterplace.com about his company’s plans in China. As you might expect, he was optimistic about the possibilities for Better Place in China. To be sure, I have been hearing from various industry sources that battery swapping is gaining favor with the Chinese government. But I came away…
China Is Poised To Take The Lead In EV Race
Mr Ian Robertson, Board Member of BMW (Sales & Marketing), believes China could steal a march over other countries in electric cars.
“The Chinese Government is putting enormous money into R&D and academic institutions. Clearly, this could be a technological leapfrog they could benefit from. When the time comes, and it could be a relatively short period, Chinese regulations will advance this (electric car) agenda quicker than what could be perceived at the moment,” he told Business Line during the unveiling of the BMW i3 and i8 electric car concepts in Frankfurt recently.
“I think the issue of infrastructure is a bit of a red-herring. The ability to turn a power source into a delivery for electricity is not that difficult….
New Material For Fast-charging Li-ion Batteries
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) reported to have discovered a new material for Li-ion battery that would enable 50% charging in only six minutes. The new battery with titanium dioxide electrode also delivers a high capacity of 256 milliampere hour per gram and features a “sloping discharge voltage that is good for controlling state of charge as well.
Hansan Liu, Gilbert Brown and Parans Paranthaman of the Department of Energy Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division discovered that titanium dioxide, if utilized to replace the graphite anode in the Li ion battery can significantly reduce charging time because of the increases surface area of the material.
The researchers said that this could result in “extremely safe and long-lasting alternatives to commercial…
