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Electric vehicles

EVs and environment: renewable electricity makes all the difference

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The CO2 carbon footprint of a battery-electric vehicle (BEV) running on power generated by fossil fuels only – coal, oil, gas – is roughly the same over its lifetime as a car with an internal combustion engine (ICE). But run a BEV on electricity from a mix of fossil fuels and renewables – coal and hydro, for instance – and it emits 14% to 22% lower CO2 emissions than an ICE … [Read more...] about EVs and environment: renewable electricity makes all the difference

Auckland gulf ferries biggest users of fossil fuels after Air NZ

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A computer-generated study in Germany (see video) imagines a time when commuters on the country’s Kiel Fjord waterway will be carried by zero-emissions ferries. The look into the future is a giant leap ahead of the current Auckland passenger ferry operation, for instance, where the vessels to Waiheke Island and elsewhere are the biggest users of fossil fuels in the country … [Read more...] about Auckland gulf ferries biggest users of fossil fuels after Air NZ

EVs are on the move, but where are their batteries going?

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The car, over the next 10 years or so, will become a consumer electronics product full of micro-processors. “It will have 80 to 100 software controllers – in the end it will work like a smartphone,” Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess has said. But the switch to battery-electric propulsion from the internal combustion engine will not be as great a change in terms of … [Read more...] about EVs are on the move, but where are their batteries going?

VW-owned outfit develops solid-state EV battery first

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US start-up QuantumScape (its largest shareholder is Volkswagen) has said it’s developed a solid-state battery based on a deceptively simple idea. Instead of a conventional liquid electrolyte – the stuff that ferries lithium ions between electrodes – it uses a solid eloctrolyte. Also, the battery’s negative terminal, called its anode, is made from pure lithium … [Read more...] about VW-owned outfit develops solid-state EV battery first