An electric car battery pack based on silicon that that can deliver 160km of range after a five-minute rapid charge? A sodium-sulphur battery that has four times the capacity of lithium? Electricity generated from humidity captured in the air? Nope, there’s nothing fanciful about each of them. The silicon battery is here and now. Same with the sodium-sulphur … [Read more...] about Electricity from thin air? They’re working on it
Tech
Amazon satellites for speedy internet
Tech giant Amazon will next year launch an internet service based on low-orbit satellites, a network similar to the Starlink system that in one publicised case helped link a New Zealand community isolated by Cyclone Gabrielle to a global audience. Project Kuiper – named after Dutch-born astronomer Gerard Kuiper – is Amazon’s plan for a constellation of 3236 … [Read more...] about Amazon satellites for speedy internet
Electric G-Wagen takes you for spin – literally
The all-electric G-Wagen from Mercedes-Benz has redefined the term ‘doing donuts’. An electric motor on each of the four wheels allows the vehicle to do spectacular ‘tank turns’. See the video below. It’s called the G-Turn function, activated by a button on the dashboard. It tells the electric motors to spin the wheels forward on one side of the vehicle and … [Read more...] about Electric G-Wagen takes you for spin – literally
Hitting road in Hilux adventure camper
The latest off-road camper from Japanese specialist Direct Cars is based on a 4x4 ute that is likely to join the Toyota fleet in New Zealand this year – the beefier Toyota Hilux GR. The GR ute itself will no doubt slot comfortably into the country’s best-selling vehicle segment. On the other hand, the GR-based camper conversion is very much a factory-finished niche product, … [Read more...] about Hitting road in Hilux adventure camper
How Holden’s top brass killed hybrid Commodore
Woulda, coulda, shoulda … the celebrated Holden nameplate might have survived if the carmaker’s board of directors in Australia had listened to its most senior engineer 23 years ago. It was the year of the Sydney Olympic Games. Holden and the Australian Government’s CSIRO – Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation – had developed a hybrid ECOmmodore … [Read more...] about How Holden’s top brass killed hybrid Commodore