Hybrids and pure electric vehicles rely on high efficiency power conversion and management. The power electronics found in these vehicles require cooling because of limitations in the temperature rating of components such as capacitors, which are used to store electrical energy. This in turns adds weight to the vehicles and drags down their reliability and efficiency.

Life is good for supercapacitors manufacturers and developers. That includes those involved in the intermediate product, the supercabattery or Asynchronous Electrochemical Double Layer Capacitor (AEDLC) with its higher energy density achieved in a compromise of other operational parameters intermediate between supercapacitors and batteries, notably the supercabattery called a lithium-ion capacitor.

South Carolina's leading automotive research center and premier technology and aviation business park have partnered to study next-generation vehicle technology.

Researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) developed a new method to massively synthesize enhanced yet affordable materials for supercapacitors.

A significant proportion of electric cars and car-like MicroEVs including e-trikes and e-rickshaws will take the form of taxis as detailed in the new IDTechEx report, Industrial and Commercial Electric Vehicles 2013-2023.

South Carolina's leading automotive research center and premier technology and aviation business park have partnered to study next-generation vehicle technology.

Controlled Power Technologies (CPT) has completed more than two years of continuous testing to validate its SpeedStart belt-integrated starter-generator for 1.2 million stop-starts, which is considered the new industry standard that will be required for a new generation of micro-mild hybrid vehicles

Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists have designed a new type of nanostructured-carbon-based catalyst that could pave the way for reliable, economical next-generation batteries and alkaline fuel cells, providing for practical use of wind- and solar-powered electricity, as well as enhanced hybrid electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are a large, growing market with new sectors being added all the time such as the pure electric, multi-rotor volocopter that spawned a new regulatory category in German aviation this year. IDTechEx find that pure electric car sales in 2013 will be 70,000 vehicles rising to 2 million in 2023, versus 2 million hybrid vehicles this year rising to 7.6 million in 2023. Of course, the big unit numbers come at the small end - mos...

Black magic has a new meaning. It is the sub-optimal way most supercapacitors rely on soot from burnt coconut shells and some homespun trickery. The soot is deposited on something akin to cooking foil and that often has the 40 micron thickness of lithium-ion battery electrodes ten years ago, before they were optimised.

Leading technology analysts IDTechEx will run this free webinar which includes data from the new IDTechEx report Electric Motors for Electric Vehicles 2013-2023: Forecasts, Technologies, Players.

Black magic has a new meaning. It is the sub-optimal way most supercapacitors rely on soot from burnt coconut shells and some homespun trickery. The soot is deposited on something akin to cooking foil and that often has the 40 micron thickness of lithium-ion battery electrodes ten years ago, before they were optimised. Contrary to teaching based on yesterday's understanding, supercapacitors are competitors of lithium-ion batteries.

3D printing has come of age, surpassing $1B in revenues during 2012 and with growth expected to continue across all target markets to 2025. Across the board printer manufacturers are reporting a surge in sales, some cannot meet demand, as awareness of the technologies and what they offer grows.

All electric vehicles have at least one traction motor, so the market for electric vehicle traction motors is one of the largest markets for electric vehicle parts and a primary determinant of the performance and affordability of a given vehicle. Indeed, IDTechEx Research find in a new report, Electric Motors for Electric Vehicles 2013-2023: Forecasts, Technologies, Players, that in 2013 44.6 million electric motors will be needed for vehicles, r...

According to analyst company IDTechEx, OLED and LED lighting are expected to compete directly in many instances in order to gain market share in the next decade. As discussed in the newly launched report, OLED vs LED Lighting 2013-2023: Forecasts, Technologies, Players LED lighting has come a long way and offers a better performance than OLEDs, and that at a lower cost. OLED lighting will therefore only gain market success if it clearly defines...

The day is coming when electric vehicles (EVs) land, water and airborne are as much as 80% electronics and electrics if we include the power components. It is even true of hybrids as they shed piston engines and employ ever smaller range extenders, the fuel cell option being fully electric.

Despite numerous initiatives, electromobility has yet to achieve a major breakthrough in the area of passenger vehicles. Has the industry been focusing on the wrong market? When compared with private passenger cars, e-mobility is already very attractive for commercial vehicles, says Professor Martin Wietschel of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI in Karlsruhe.

One of the most promising new kinds of battery to power electric cars is called a lithium-air battery, which could store up to four times as much energy per pound as today's best lithium-ion batteries. But progress has been slow: The nature of the electrochemical reactions as these batteries are charged remains poorly understood.

Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Toyota have partnered with the US Department of Energy (DoE) under DoE's new initiative.

By Dr Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx Virtually all autonomous underwater vehicles are electric for practical reasons - the internal combustion engine ICE is not a realistic option. Not so on the surface, where the ICE is the favoured means of propulsion. However, even here, there is now a strong move to hybrid and pure-electric drivetrains for many powerful reasons, so it is timely to look at marine electric vehicles in general. This article s...