Articles related to "cars"

Warmed-up lithium-based batteries could make electric vehicles cheaper

Discovered on 18 January 11:00 AM CST.

Lithium batteries that operate at a higher temperature could be cheaper and safer than other metal batteries for electric cars.
LFP batteries typically perform poorly compared with nickel-based ones, but Chao-Yang Wang and his colleagues at Pennsylvania State University have shown that their performance improves if they are warmed up first.
But Wang and his team have shown that if warmed-up LFP batteries are charged frequently but only partially – which can be done in just 10 minutes – it should be possible for cars with lithium batteries to travel great distances with relatively little inconvenience.
Although heating LFP batteries will require energy, operating them at a higher temperature brings performance advantages that should outweigh any additional costs, the researchers suggest.
What’s more, because LFP batteries can operate safely at a higher temperature, there is less need for the battery-cooling technology used alongside nickel-based ones.

Read full article on www.newscientist.com.

Discovered on 18 January 05:00 AM CST.

Enthusiasm for electric vehicles has long been held back by concerns about battery life, but what if drivers were able to charge their cars while driving?
Several automotive, utility and infrastructure companies are testing technology that promises to allow electric cars, buses and trucks to charge on the move.
The process, known as dynamic charging, involves under-road pads that wirelessly transmit electricity to receivers mounted underneath cars and, for some larger vehicles, overhead wires like those used by trams.
In France, Renault SA has teamed up with Electricite de France SA to test dynamic charging on the streets of Paris.
In Sweden, trucking giant Scania AB has developed a truck with utility E.ON SE that can be charged overhead and is ready for mass production, while a startup will soon test wirelessly charged buses in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

Read full article on www.wsj.com.

Discovered on 15 January 05:00 AM CST.

The two biggest drawbacks of electric cars—limited range and slow charging—will likely persist until battery makers can solve the dendrite problem.
That solution will be worth billions, and a range of startups often backed by auto makers are touting their early successes.
, which for a time last year was worth more than Ford Motor Co. In the human body, dendrites are extensions of nerves that transmit signals among cells.
In lithium-ion batteries, they are tiny, needlelike deposits of lithium resembling microscopic tree branches.
They can grow within the batteries, leading to short circuits or even fires.
Batteries that are in use in cars today require a slower charge, in part because of the risk of dendrite formation.
A too-fast charge can cause dendrites to build up.
Because QuantumScape’s batteries appear to have solved the dendrite problem, they can be charged faster.

Read full article on www.wsj.com.

Discovered on 14 January 04:00 PM CST.

BMW is suspending its two-year-old car subscription service, The Verge has learned.
Access by BMW was launched in 2018 in Nashville as a pilot project to test out whether customers would want to have access to a fleet of fancy cars but not necessarily own one.
A Nashville resident who was interested in applying for the subscription service was told that it was going to be defunct by the end of January.
For $2,000 a month, members could choose between models like the X5 SUV, 4 Series, and 5 Series sedans, including all plug-in hybrid versions.
For the higher-tier $3,700-a-month fee, they could get M4, M5, or M6 convertibles as well as X5M and X6M SUVs.
The top-tier $3,700-a-month plan is almost three times the cost of leasing an M5 sedan in the Nashville area (though a lease requires a down payment of $5,724 and doesn’t include insurance and maintenance).

Read full article on www.theverge.com.

Discovered on 14 January 07:00 AM CST.

At present, only a limited number of iPhones include the U1 chip that offers UWB support.
The U1 chip was also included on the Apple Watch Series 6, released last year.
Apple built support for digital car keys into iOS with version 13.6 last year, following its announcement at WWDC 2020.
MacRumors notes that BMW is currently the only car manufacturer to use the technology, though Business Korea reports that Hyundai has plans to adopt the feature later this year.
When it announced support for digital car keys in June last year, Apple said it was working on an industry-wide standard that would use its U1 chip.
In today’s announcement, BMW says it’s working with Apple and the Car Connectivity Consortium to build UWB support into version 3.0 of the Digital Key specification.

Read full article on www.theverge.com.