Free Republic

It’s 2028. It’s been one year since you bought your first electric vehicle, and the transition has gone far smoother than you expected. You’ve never come close to having your battery die on the road, and any time you’ve needed to power up, you’ve had your pick of convenient charging stations, thanks to the US’s now-robust charging network. EV charging At the beginning of the 20th century, electric vehicles (EVs) were actually more popular than ones powered by gas, but by the 1930s, their higher cost, slower speeds, and shorter ranges, combined with the inconvenience of charging compared to filling...

Electric cars are up to twice as expensive as petrol or diesel vehicles to run... Running an electric vehicle (EV) can cost more than 24p per mile, while a diesel vehicle is 12.5p .. 80p per kilowatt hour ... A typical electric car will travel 3.3 miles for every kWh of electricity used, meaning rapid and ultra-rapid chargers currently cost the equivalent of 24.1p per mile. ... This is about double the average diesel car, which will do 43 miles per gallon, resulting in a cost of 12.5p per mile at current prices. A typical petrol car costs 14.5p per...

Charging lithium-ion batteries at high currents just before they leave the factory is 30 times faster and increases battery lifespans by 50%, according to a study at the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center. A lithium-ion battery’s very first charge is more momentous than it sounds. It determines how well and how long the battery will work from then on – in particular, how many cycles of charging and discharging it can handle before deteriorating.In a study published today in Joule, researchers at the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center report that giving batteries this first charge at unusually high currents increased their average lifespan by...

Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign now claims she “does not support” Electric Vehicle (EV) mandates after years of supporting such mandates as a Senator and in her role in President Joe Biden’s administration. According to The Spectator‘s Amber Duke, Harris’s campaign sent an email to supporters on Tuesday claiming “Vice President Harris does not support an electric vehicle mandate.” The statement comes after years of Harris campaigning, championing, and supporting EV mandates that require automakers to produce and sell a certain percentage of EVs to American consumers.

1st Gear: Ford’s New EV Plan Means More Hybrids Last week, we reported that Ford was canceling its plans for a three-row electric crossover as part of an adjustment to its electric strategy because of cooling demand for EVs. Now we are getting a better look at just how much that strategy is changing and what it’ll end up costing The Blue Oval. Chiefly, Ford is expected to take on $1.9 billion in related charges and write-downs. The cancelation of this three-row EV comes after Ford said in the Spring that it would be delaying plans for the model by...

Innovations in manganese-based lithium-ion batteries could lead to more efficient and durable power sources for electric vehicles, offering high energy density and stable performance without voltage decay. =========================================================================== Researchers have developed a sustainable lithium-ion battery using manganese, which could revolutionize the electric vehicle industry. Published in ACS Central Science, the study highlights a breakthrough in using nanostructured LiMnO2 with monoclinic symmetry to improve battery performance and stability without the typical voltage decay. This innovation not only enhances fast-charging capabilities but also addresses the long-standing issue of manganese dissolution. Manganese-Based Li-ion Batteries Lithium-ion (or Li-ion) batteries are heavy hitters when it...

Normal Fire Department (NPD) crews battled a blaze at the Rivian plant parking lot Saturday night. NFD spokesperson Matt Swaney said fire crews were called to Rivian’s Normal plant just before 9:45 p.m. for a reported vehicle fire. He said there is an unspecified number of vehicles damaged by the incident. Witnesses outside the plant said they reportedly saw the fire as early as 9:50 p.m. The EV assembly plant was not affected by the fire, Swaney said.

In 2023, sales of electric vehicles (EVs) passed the 1.6 million mark.To visualize where EVs are the most popular, Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti maps the number of registered EVs per 100,000 people by state as of June 2024.The vehicle registration data is sourced from the U.S. Department of Energy, while population data is from the U.S. Census Bureau.Only all-electric vehicles are included on the map.California Leads EV AdoptionCalifornia has the highest number of electric vehicles, with 1.1 million. Florida follows with 231,000 EVs, and Texas ranks third with 210,000.When considering EVs per 100,000 people, California also leads with 3,026 cars...

(Kitco News) – Gold has had a breakout year as the yellow metal surged to new heights above $2,500 while its grey counterpart, silver, has struggled to keep pace, but that could soon change, according to one analyst, as silver demand is expected to increase thanks to one new technological development from Samsung. According to retired investment professional Kevin Bambrough, Samsung has developed a new solid-state (SS) battery. The inclusion of silver as a key component, combined with the increasing demand for electric vehicles, means that demand for the grey metal will soon increase. “The key drivers that will ramp...

The European Union may have just given Tesla’s future sales in the region a boost by setting tariffs on its China-made vehicles considerably below those imposed on rival electric carmakers. The high-profile decision comes two months after the EU hiked tariffs on all electric cars imported from China, citing “unfair” state subsidies that unduly benefited the country’s electric vehicle makers at the expense of European manufacturers. Tesla, which has a factory near Berlin but exports many of the cars it makes in China to Europe, had requested that the EU recalculate its rate, initially set at 20.8%. On Tuesday, the...

MSRP $70,000–$100,000

The decline in electric vehicle sales is “very worrying” from a climate perspective, an expert has said. The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show that 12,765 EVs were licensed in Ireland between January and July of this year, a decline of nearly 25% compared with the same period last year. The total number of EVs on Irish roads is now around 125,000. However, the target outlined in the Government’s Climate Action Plan is to have 845,000 electric vehicles by 2030. Professor of Transportation at Trinity College Brian Caulfield said that trend is “very worrying” as the country has...

South Pasadena unveiled the city's all-electric police fleet and charging infrastructure, becoming the nation's first law enforcement agency to completely replace its gasoline-powered vehicles with electric vehicles. The city's zero-emission police fleet of 20 new Teslas will rely on a bank of new electric vehicle chargers installed at South Pasadena City Hall. A news conference was held Monday at South Pasadena City Hall to display the fleet vehicles. "This transition reflects the city's vision of a sustainable future based on both sound fiscal management and environmental stewardship," South Pasadena Mayor Evelyn Zneimer said. "We will have a 21st Century police...

Amidst today’s wild roller-coaster ride on Wall Street, the news about Ford Motors jumps out. Here’s Barron’s headline: Ford Stock Had Its Worst Day Since 2008 Ford Motor reported earnings that were worse than what Wall Street had expected: Its commercial business couldn’t overcome higher warranty costs. And the stock took it on the chin Thursday. . . On Wednesday, Ford announced a second-quarter operating profit of $2.8 billion, down 26% from $3.8 billion reported in the second quarter of 2023. Wall Street was looking for $3.7 billion, according to FactSet. Barron’s goes on to note that Ford is experiencing...

UK-based conversion company Electrogenic has done a great service to the legendary DMC-12. Now, it drives the way it looks. The DeLorean DMC-12. A moment in automotive history that many people, myself included, have picked apart, studied, and, well, everythinged. It started as a nice idea to make a cool, powerful sports car for successful young people, and ended up a very public failure. The downfall of the company is far more complex than we have time and space for here, but it was a bit of a mess that left a fair few people out of pocket (including the...

Ford is unveiling its newest electric vehicle this week. Ahead of its official debut, Ford teased the new EV, claiming “the legend is back.” Ford confirmed the new EV will be revealed on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. The new EV will follow Ford’s electric Explorer as the automaker’s second model based on Volkswagen’s MEB platform. The first all-electric Explorer rolled off the assembly line at Ford’s new Cologne EV plant in Germany last month. It was the first of a 2020 deal with VW to use its platform as it looks to revamp sales in the region. Described as a...

From ESPN: “Randall Cobb, family ‘lucky to be alive’ after house fire.” Wide receiver Randall Cobb and his family escaped a fire at their Nashville, Tennessee, home this week, with his wife, Aiyda, posting, “we are lucky to be alive.” Aiyda Cobb posted to her Instagram story this week that a Tesla charger “caught fire in the garage late last night and quickly spread” through their home. “We got out of the house with nothing but the clothes on our back and no shoes on our feet,” she wrote. The Cobbs have three young sons. And those fires are hard...

Just before 2 a.m. on a chilly April night in Seattle, a Chevrolet Silverado pickup stopped at an electric vehicle charging station on the edge of a shopping center parking lot. Two men, one with a light strapped to his head, got out. A security camera recorded them pulling out bolt cutters. One man snipped several charging cables; the other loaded them into the truck. In under 2½ minutes, they were gone. The scene that night has become part of a troubling pattern across the country: Thieves have been targeting EV charging stations, intent on stealing the cables, which contain...

Just over 1,000 new electric cars were sold here in May, down over 39% on the same month last year. This is the fourth month in a row that new EV sales have dropped. New figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) show that just over 10,000 new EVs have been registered across the country so far this year, down almost 22% on the same period in 2023. Petrol cars continue to lead the new car market, with a share of over 33%, followed by diesel at 23%, hybrid (petrol electric) at around 20%, electric at just...

High purchase prices are a major barrier to the wider adoption of electric vehicles. A significant portion of this cost comes from expensive batteries. However, in recent years, automakers have been employing an advanced manufacturing technique known as gigacasting. This method helps offset the high cost of batteries, simplifies production, and reduces the weight of EVs. Nissan will follow Tesla, and several other carmakers like Toyota, Hyundai, and Ford, in adopting this technology. The brand aims to reduce the costs of EV parts by 10% and slash weight by 20%, Automotive News reported. Nissan's EVs using gigacasting are expected to...