Important Innovations Collection

 VW Hopes To Surpass Tesla By 2025                                             Source:  VW EV 70 Brand New VW EV Models To Roll Out During 2020's Volkswagen leadership has a grand plan to be the #1 leader in the global electric vehicle market by 2025.  To achieve that goal and displace Tesla, VW says it must more than double its EV sales this year.  It also needs to employ 10,000 software developers which would make VW the second largest European software company behind SAP.  And, the company says it will build six new battery factories in Europe. Aggressive Agenda VW intends to roll out 70 new EV models this decade.  UBS forecasts  that VW could equal Tesla in sales by 2022 and surpass them by 300,000 vehicles by 2025.  Next generation batteries could prove to be the gamechanger for VW.  Batteries account for 30% ...

GM's Electric Vehicles Spending to Increase 35%                                        Source:  Cadillac Lyriq GM Also Increasing Battery Production GM is going full throttle on electric vehicles.  Challenging Tesla's EV leadership, GM just announced it is accelerating planned spending on future EV's to more than $27 billion.  That is 35% more than planned.  And to accommodate the increased production of EV's, it will simultaneously increase its battery production. The announcement was made by GM CEO Mary Barra. Electric Vehicle Push By Global Automakers Last week, Volkswagen announced that it is investing $86 billion in electric vehicle development and production.  Tesla continues to leave the competition behind as it dominates global EV sales.  For GM, CEO Barra plans to offer EV's across the entire product line from vehicles costing less tha...

Technology At the Cutting Edge Source:  Worx Robot, Mow My Lawn! Don't want to mow your lawn during summer heat waves?  Let your robot lawn mower do the job for you!  A growing number of people are doing just that.  According to Worx, the company that manufactures the highly rated Landroid robot mower, autonomous robot lawn mowers are growing in popularity. Loaded with Technology There are a growing number of robot lawn mowers on the market.  Among the top rated are Flymo, Worx's Landroid, Lawnmaster, Robomow, Honda's Miimo and Husqvarna Automower.    The robots use artificial intelligence and sensors to avoid hitting obstacles.  A special perimeter wire installed around the lawn keeps the mower on the owner's property.  The mowers are battery operated, quiet and run automatically, based on the schedule that the owner customizes in an app.  And the companies say they are safe with children and pets. Buy or Rent Still, the r...

Secret Battery Breakthrough Teased by Elon Musk Source:  Tesla Battery Production Low Cost, Long Lasting Tesla has a secret battery, that is low cost, long life and will power Tesla's Model 3 electric sedans in China later this year.  The battery is so revolutionary it's expected to bring down the cost of electric vehicles to that of gas powered cars.  It's a breakthrough piece of e-battery technology that essentially reconfigures the math of pricing EVs.  It's also said to allow EV batteries to have second and third lives. Elon Musk's Electric Agenda CEO Elon Musk has been teasing investors and his rivals about the battery, promising to hold a "Battery Day" to detail it in late May.  There are many parts to Musk's electric agenda. He wants low-cost batteries that go for a million miles.  He also is positioning Tesla as a global electric utility. It is already the global leader in electric vehicles. Big Power Position Two weeks ago, ...

Organic Proton Battery with Sustainable Storage Source:  Uppsala University From Sweden, New Battery that's Good for Environment Scientists at Sweden's Uppsala University have invented a proton battery that is composed of organic  materials and is based on protons rather than  ions.  The organic compounds are called quinones,  which are used by plants in photosynthesis and are  plentiful in nature.  This is a proof of concept, small button cell battery with outstanding performance. And, it's a first of its kind. Climate Smart Battery The Uppsala scientists call this a climate smart battery  with sustainable energy storage.  It reaches a full  capacity recharge in seconds (100), using a solar cell.   It can be charged and discharged more than 500 times  without any loss of capacity. The battery is free of any fire or explosion hazards.  And, unlike standard batteries, it is unaffected by ambient te...

AI Helping to Develop Super Fast Charging, Longer Lasting Batteries Source:  EV's on Charge Breakthrough Approach by Toyota, Stanford University & MIT Using AI, researchers at Stanford, MIT and Toyota have developed a vastly accelerated approach to fast-charging, long lasting batteries for electric vehicles.  The team is using a new AI machine learning method.  It slashed battery testing times by 98% and the researchers say that is a key to creating the EV Holy Grail of supercharging batteries.  The researchers say their AI approach may make a recharge take a couple of minutes like refueling your car at a gas station. AI Trial and Error at Warp Speeds The AI method is enabling the team to quickly identify what's working to create ultra-fast and long range batteries.  In fact, they've been able to cut the trial and error of experimenting with different battery development approaches from 2 years to 16 days.  Their goal is to cre...

Revolutionary New Electric, Self-Heating Battery Source:  Penn State Recharges in 10 Minutes with Up to 300 Mile Range The future of driving green and emissions free is electric.  Now a team of engineers at Penn State University has invented a new battery to make that future a lot closer and more doable.  Their new lithium-ion battery can be charged in ten minutes, self-heats and provides a driving range up to 300 miles.  They envision this being done at local service stations with electric charges for EV's. Revolutionary New Tech This new battery is revolutionary.  It can be recharged over and over again for up to 500,000 miles of travel.  That's a big deal.  Some lithium-ion batteries rapidly degrade based on ambient temperatures.  This battery overcomes current limitations.  The Penn State team has installed nickel foil on the batteries, eliminating lithium plating. The nickel warms quickly through resistance to 140F. Tha...

Pan European Effort to Push Back Asian Battery Dominance Source:  CATL of China Pilot Battery Cell Plant in France To Start France and Germany are joining forces to produce batteries for electric cars.  France will host a pilot plant. There are plans to build plants in both Germany and France.  This is part of a Pan European project to defeat Asian dominance of the battery cell industry for electric vehicles.  The European nations want to cut dependence on Asian batteries.  China's CATL plans to start battery cell operations in a plant in Germany in 2022. Germany and France also want to protect domestic jobs that are being lost to the shift away from combustion engines.  The details on what is the first, cross border, battery cell consortium in Europe are expected to be announced on Thursday, September 19th. Battery Production Capacity Constricting Electric Vehicle Market in Europe In Europe, mass production of electric cars is being ...

World First - From Biowaste to Electrode Source:  KIT Better, New Batteries This is a world first.  A sustainable green energy storage system made from eggshells.  An international research team based at the distinguished Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany just announced their breakthrough innovation.  It's a green energy storage option that could lead to the development of better batteries. Working with Eggshells The scientists created an electrode from pulverized eggshells.  They experimented with eggshells because they contain big amounts of calcium carbonite which can store lithium.  They used the electrode against a metallic lithium anode placed in a solution.  The battery they created maintains a capacity retention of 92% after one thousand plus charge and recharge cycles. Greener Future The team believes their discovery can be used as low cost, lithium-ion capacitors.  This is the first time that biowaste has b...