Statistically speaking, your electric vehicle is much less likely to catch fire than a gas-powered car, but when EVs do go up in smoke it’s a much tougher blaze for firefighters to tackle. The challenge of fighting an EV fire is much harder when the car that’s burning is inside, which led one team of … Read more
While solar power is growing at an extremely rapid clip, in absolute terms, the use of natural gas for electricity production has continued to outpace renewables. But that looks set to change in 2024, as the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) has run the numbers on the first half of the year and found that … Read more
Another weird feature of electricity pricing are demand charges. These are fees that EV charging site hosts pay, and are based on their highest usage, in 15-minute to one-hour intervals, during a pay period. These demand charges help utilities deal with the various costs of building and maintaining an electric grid. But they’re frustrating in … Read more
This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian. For more than 10 years, Andrew Sweetman and his colleagues have been studying the ocean floor and its ecosystems, particularly in the Pacific’s Clarion-Clipperton Zone, an area littered with polymetallic nodules. As big as potatoes, these rocks contain valuable metals—lithium, copper, cobalt, … Read more
Do you have a collection of old cell phones in a desk drawer somewhere because you don’t know what to do with them? A new US initiative aims to make it easier for people to recycle phones, computers, and other battery-powered electronics. This month, the US Department of Energy announced a $14 million program that … Read more
The controversial expansion of Tesla’s only European gigafactory was approved on Thursday, as the local council in the German municipality of Grünheide voted in favor of the carmaker’s plans to grow its facility near Berlin. The majority of 19 council representatives supported Tesla’s plans to expand its only European gigafactory. Eleven councilors voted in favor … Read more
The school bus is in many ways ideal for V2G. “There’s no uncertainty in terms of the use of the bus,” says Patricia Hidalgo-Gonzalez, director of the Renewable Energy and Advanced Mathematics Lab at UC San Diego, who studies the grid but wasn’t involved in the project. “Having that clarity on what the transportation needs … Read more
Today, the Biden administration announced a near-unprecedented 100 percent tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles, a move the White House said would protect the American industry from “unfairly priced Chinese imports.” Previously, tariffs on Chinese EVs sat at 25 percent. Electric vehicle batteries and battery components will also be subject to new tariffs—Chinese lithium-ion battery tariffs … Read more
Car enthusiasts mourn the commoditization of propulsion. Once petrolheads would have chosen a BMW for its sonorous straight-six or a Mercedes-AMG for its thunderous V8. Now many believe that distinctiveness is rapidly diminishing. Electric cars might provide mad, silent thrust, but a common complaint is they are mostly indistinguishable for the character of their drivetrains. … Read more
Protesters charged onto Tesla’s factory site near Berlin on Friday, as part of a five-day demonstration against the carmaker’s local expansion plans. Footage on social media showed crowds of black-clad protesters on Tesla premises and running towards one of the site’s buildings. “800 people have entered the premises of the gigafactory,” Lucia Mende, spokesperson for … Read more
