lithium

Blue-Will: Hyundai's plug-in hybrid concept

DETROIT--Green is all the rage at the Detroit auto show, but a different hue emerged in the Blue-Will plug-in hybrid concept car that Hyundai revealed Monday.

The car can run solely on its lithium polymer battery for a range of 20 to 40 miles, said Scott Margason, director of product planning for Hyundai Motor America, in an interview here at the North American International Auto Show. Like the Toyota Prius, perhaps the best-known hybrid car, the Blue-Will has an engine that's directly connected to the drive wheels and that runs in parallel with the electric motor.

Hyundai wouldn't … Read more

Tesla, Panasonic collaborate on EV batteries

It seems that when Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo said in December that his company would invest $1 billion in green technologies for the home, he may already have had a deal in the works for the garage.

Panasonic will be collaborating with Tesla Motors to develop next-generation nickel-based lithium ion battery cells for electric vehicles, both companies announced Thursday.

"Combining Tesla's rigorous cell testing and understanding of EV requirements with Panasonic's cutting-edge battery technology will result in custom cells optimized for use in EVs," JB Straubel, Tesla's chief technology officer, said in a statement.

The … Read more

New GM plant to assemble Chevy Volt batteries

General Motors' assembly plant for its Chevy Volt battery is set to begin production on Thursday.

The company claims it will be "the first lithium ion battery pack manufacturing plant in the U.S. operated by a major automaker."

To be more precise, the 160,000 square-foot plant will be run by GM's wholly-owned subsidiary GM Subsystem Manufacturing. And the GM Brownstown Assembly Plant is just that: an assembly plant.

The Chevy Volt battery packs assembled at the plant in Brownstown Township, Mich.--about 20 miles south of Detroit--will consist of batteries manufactured by South Korea's LG Chem … Read more

Dead battery? Just refill it

Imagine that you're driving your future electric car down the road, and it gives you a low battery warning. What do you do? Instead of spending a few hours at a recharging station, new battery technology being developed by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany would let you pull into a service station and refill the battery with an electrolytic liquid.

The Fraunhofer Institute is using a redox flow battery, a type of cell that uses two electrolytic fluids exchanging protons through a membrane. This process generates electricity. Although this type of battery isn't new, the Fraunhofer Institute improved … Read more

Hybrid Humvee coming up over the horizon

Lithium-ion battery manufacturer EnerDel has signed an 18-month, $1.29 million contract with the U.S. Army to design and test hybrid battery options for the Humvee.

Trying to power the iconic fuel-guzzling High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV aka Humvee) with a battery, may seem like trying to put out a fire with a garden hose. But a lithium-ion battery system can deliver a lot of power from a battery quickly, giving a truck like the Humvee the thrust it requires.

EnerDel, a subsidiary of Ener1, will collaborate with the U.S. Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development, and … Read more

Lithium ion battery industry to boom with wind, solar power

Lithium ion batteries used as energy storage for utilities will be a $1 billion industry by 2018, according to a report released Wednesday by Pike Research called "Energy Storage Technology Markets."

Much of the lithium ion battery development has been geared toward perfecting the batteries as power sources for electronics, and in recent years, cars. But the alternative energy industry is going to benefit from that research, too. Once that happens, there will be a surge in the sales of industrial-scale lithium ion batteries for power utilities, according to Pike research.

"Utilities will be the downstream beneficiaries … Read more

Suzuki builds a little Volt of its own

Suzuki is an automaker that we don't hear too much from in the U.S. However, when we do hear from it--such as with the two SX4s we've tested--we generally like what it has to say. So when we got word that a plug-in hybrid version of one of the smallest Suzukis, the Swift, would be on display at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show, our interest was piqued.

The Suzuki Swift plug-in hybrid can be classified as a series gas-electric hybrid or an extended-range electric vehicle, depending on who you ask. The front wheels are turned by … Read more

Battery maker A123 Systems charged from IPO

Lithium ion battery maker A123 Systems had a rousing debut on the public stock market on Thursday, giving some good news to legions of energy investors and entrepreneurs.

The Watertown, Mass.-based company, which was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, saw its share prices rise over 50 percent from its offering price to close at over $20.

Through the initial public offering, the company is expected to raise over $400 million, Reuters reported. It had initially hoped to net $250 million but adjusted its offering price to raise more.

A123 Systems' IPO has been closely watched in … Read more

Volvo developing its first all-electric car

Volvo Cars has announced that, in addition to developing a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, it has an all-electric version of the C30 hatchback in the works. The electric variant will be called the C30 BEV (battery electric vehicle) and will be the automaker's first all-electric vehicle.

The C30 BEV will replace the internal-combustion engine with an electric motor of indeterminate output. Meanwhile, the gasoline tank will be dropped in favor of a lithium ion battery pack. Volvo states that it is still working on the best placement of the 24 kWh battery pack, but has stated that the center … Read more