South Korean electronic component company Samsung Electro-Mechanics has expanded its range of automotive high-voltage multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) products to support larger sizes.
The trend towards using higher voltages in EV power electronic components, including onboard chargers, motor drive inverters, DC-DC converters, wireless power transfer systems, battery management systems, compressors and pumps is increasing demand for high-voltage MLCCs.
To address these requirements, Samsung Electro-Mechanics has started mass production of its CL43B222KJRRPJ#, CL43B224KHU6PJ#, CL43B474KEU6PJ# models. The company has improved the bending strength in the large 1812-inch (4.5×3.2 mm) format by using proprietary ceramics, micronizing materials and soft termination technologies. This extends the company’s product coverage from the existing 1210-inch size.
The X7R dielectric (-55° C to 125° C) MLCCs offer a rated voltage range of 250 V ~ 2,000 V and a capacitance range of 2.2 nF ~ 470 nF.
The tri-motor Lucid Air Sapphire provides a quick means of escape from trouble, but should no escape route be available, there’s now an armored version as well.
California-based U.S. Armor Group has made the electric luxury sedan bullet-resistant. The company will outfit an Air Sapphire with composite armor that it claims is 10 times stronger than ballistic steel, but five times lighter. Bullet-resistant material also replaces the factory glass, and is strong enough to stop a round from a .44 Magnum, the company claims. The armor package adds 385 pounds to the Sapphire’s curb weight.
Armored Lucid Air Sapphire by U.S. Armor Group
U.S. Armor Group can also add countermeasures like electric-shock door handles, pepper spray dispensers, concealed gun ports, and mechanisms for detecting and protecting from poison gas. Further armor upgrades are also available to stop round from high-powered rifles, as well as grenades and other explosive devices.
Cars can also be fitted with a secure communications system that also continuously monitors nearby fire department and police scanners for potential threats, and includes a one-touch call feature that directly connects to the U.S. Armor Group if any issues with the communication system arise.
Armored Lucid Air Sapphire by U.S. Armor Group
With the 1,234 hp and 1,430 lb-ft of torque, the Sapphire is the most powerful sedan in the world—electric or otherwise. Lucid quotes predictably impressive performance numbers, including 0-60 mph in 1.89 seconds and a 205-mph top speed. While it’s not as efficient as other Air models, the Sapphire also manages 427 miles of EPA range, surpassing the longest-range version of the Tesla Model S.
The armored version costs $475,000, which is a big step up from even the $249,000 price of a non-armored Lucid Air Sapphire from the factory. But the target customer likely has a deep well of stock dividends or a national gross domestic product to fund their purchases.
Source link by Green Car Reports
Author news@greencarreports.com (Stephen Edelstein)
#Armored #Lucid #Air #Sapphire #bulletproof #475K
Before you even charge your EV for the first time, the battery undergoes controlled charging cycles in the factory itself.
These initial charging cycles are slow and time-consuming as they occur at low currents.
A Toyota-funded study discovered that high currents during initial charging phases improve performance and lifespan.
The electric vehicle movement isn’t linear. Uneven sales, anxiety over driving range, limited charger availability and a presidential election where EVs are a political hot potato may have dampened some spirits. But what’s unfolding on the consumer side of things contrasts sharply with behind-the-scenes efforts, especially when it comes to battery research and development.
Last week, we covered a study where a Tesla-funded lab discovered that consistently using lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries at a higher state of charge negatively affected battery health and degradation, contradicting existing notions about LFP charging practices. Now we have another study this week, funded by the Toyota Research Institute under its Accelerated Materials Design and Discovery program, that uncovers more about EV batteries.
Published in scientific research paper Joule, the study said there’s a novel way to boost battery health and minimize degradation. Researchers from the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center (formerly Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) said that charging lithium-ion batteries for the very first time at unusually high speeds extends their lifespan by an average of 50% and up to a maximum of 70%.
The study said: “Formation is a critical step in battery manufacturing. During this process, lithium inventory is consumed to form the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), which in turn determines the battery lifetime… Surprisingly, high-formation charge current on the first cycle extends battery cycle life by an average of 50%.” All this may sound geeky and gibberish. But here’s what that means in simple terms.
Before you even plug in your EV for the first time to charge the battery, the pack undergoes a critical step in the manufacturing process called “formation,” which the paragraph above refers to. This usually happens at the end of the production process where the battery pack’s initial, carefully controlled, charging and discharging cycles take place.
InsideEVs
The initial charging cycles stabilize the battery pack and help activate the materials within the cells. This process impacts the battery’s performance, longevity and overall quality. It’s like intricately tuning a musical instrument before it can go on the stage and perform. The tuning and calibration is key because it influences the outcome.
During the research, battery scientists from SLAC-Stanford, Toyota Research Institute, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Washington ran 186 charging and discharging cycles across 62 formation protocols. When high current was pumped into the pack for the very first time, the cells actually lost some of their lithium content—as much as 30% compared to 9% with traditional first-charging methods.
But “this first-cycle lithium loss is not in vain,” SLAC-Stanford wrote in a blog post. “The lost lithium becomes part of the SEI that forms on the surface of the negative electrode during the first charge.” This layer basically protects the negative electrode where lithium loss can get accelerated over time. That has a positive effect overall on the pack’s lifespan.
The report said that’s the opposite of what manufacturers usually do, which is giving batteries their first charge with a low current. This makes the process time-consuming and is one of the primary bottlenecks in battery manufacturing. Without proper formation, a battery would not function as intended, making this an essential aspect of production. But now there’s apparently a way to save time and possibly even extend battery age.
With this new technique, as lithium loss occurs due to a high initial current, there would be “additional headspace in both electrodes.” This would ultimately “help improve battery performance and lifespan.”
Source link by Battery Tech – News and Trends | InsideEVs
Tesla will unveil its Robotaxi product at Warner Bros. studio in Burbank, CA, on October 10th, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Tesla has been using its Giga Texas facility for its unveilings in recent years, after many years of doing them in Calfornia, where the company was founded and where its design and engineering departments remain.
Many of these happened in or around Hawthorne, California, where the Tesla Design Studio is – so it makes sense that nonpublic concepts would be housed in the same area.
But Tesla will branch out to another company’s facility for it’s October 10th unveiling, choosing to stage it at a large movie set in nearby Burbank, on the north end of the LA area.
Tesla may have chosen the location due to its simulation of a suburban neighborhood. There are several houses and a simulation of a small-town downtown area. The idea could be to demonstrate to attendees what it might be like to get picked up by a robotaxi outside your home, and taken downtown for a night out.
Despite Tesla’s usual use of its own locations, this isn’t the first time Tesla has done an event at a Hollywood studio.
When it first unveiled its solar roof product in 2016, the event was at Universal Studios, just a few miles away from Warner Bros. Studios. That event was also in a fake movie neighborhood – on the set used to film Desperate Housewives.
The location for that presentation could have been a premonition, as at the event, Tesla promised four separate roof styles, only one of which ever materialized. Tesla was in the mood to do a little movie magic of their own, that day.
Solar roof went on to take a long time to get off the ground, and never became a particularly high-volume product for Tesla, eight years later. Hopefully for Tesla, the robotaxi won’t suffer the same fate.
Similarly, Tesla has been promising owners that they would be able to use their vehicles as revenue-earning robotaxis since before the Solar Roof was unveiled. That promise has also not yet materialized – and Tesla has repurposed the word “robotaxi” to refer to this specialized product, coming out October 10th, and hasn’t said much about whether owners of other vehicles will be able to use them as self-driving taxis, should the company ever solve self-driving (which will happen next year, according to CEO Elon Musk, who has made the same promise every year for about a decade now).
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Source link by Electrek
Author Jameson Dow
#Teslas #Oct #Robotaxi #event #Warner #Bros #studio
Calling itself the world’s first “AI-driven solar company,” Monalee is cutting the soft costs associated with solar by more than 50%, and they’re passing those savings – sometimes thousands of dollars – directly to the homeowner.
The solar industry has seen a number of high-profile closures and bankruptcies in recent months, but Monalee is a venture-backed, digital-first startup that’s just getting started … and that’s significant in an industry where most of the work is still done offline.
How does being “digital-first” shape the home solar experience for customers? It starts with they get a quote for solar – a process that takes just seconds with Monalee. A person just enters the address that they want to add solar to and they’ll receive an instant design and quote.
From there, Monalee’s technology takes over:
Monalee’s AI-powered machine learning software uses satellite imagery to figure out a roof’s plane, azimuth, and pitch
the software identifies roof obstacles like chimneys and roof vents and plans around them
a computer vision algorithm virtually places solar panels on the roof based on all the data it’s accumulated
the software runs a number of simulations on that data, using solar irradiance algorithms to determine how much sunlight is hitting each area of the roof, then optimizes solar panel placement accordingly
once it understands what equipment will deliver the best results (what panels, what controllers and accessories will be needed to support those panels, mounting hardware, conduit, cables, etc.), the software layers in other essential information, including financing options from top-tier partners like GoodLeap and Mosaic, and any available federal, state, and utility incentives into its calculations to deliver a quote that’s up to 85% accurate
That 85% number is incredibly important, by the way, because it means that there will be fewer change orders (modifications to the initial quote) later on, and every one of those adds cost to the final bill. Even small change orders can really mess with a project’s timeline and put more financial burden on the homeowner, so avoiding a “surprise” upgrade of an electrical panel or unexpected roof repair is mission-critical.
Getting that quote right the first time can cut the total project time in half!
What’s more, because Monalee can generate these accurate quotes without incurring some of the traditional “soft costs” of cold callers, marketers, sales staff, and estimators, they can pass those savings on to customers. Those savings can be significant, too. In fact, Monalee has saved more than 2,000 customers an average of $12,000 across 24 US states (so far).
Keep in mind, though — just because they’ve streamlined the process, it doesn’t mean they’re not experts. The team behind Monalee’s tech is also top-notch. It’s been featured by Time and NPR, and its employees bring years of solar experience from companies like Tesla, Blue Raven, and SolarCity to the table. And, they’re fully dedicated to getting homeowners excited about adding affordable home solar to their properties.
Anyone can get a solar quote for free, and without any obligation. That’s real pricing transparency that customers can trust and appreciate—especially customers in the technology space, who can appreciate just how innovative this AI-powered solar solution really is.
To date, Monalee has served more than 2,000 homeowners across 24 U.S. states, with more states being added monthly. On average, homeowners save upwards of $12,000 with Monalee without ever sacrificing the quality of equipment. In fact, Monalee installs include Tier One Mitrex solar panels, Tesla inverters, and the Tesla Powerwall 3. If you’re interested in seeing how much you can save, you can get a quote in 20 seconds here.
Going one step further, Monalee offers lifetime warranties for solar equipment. This means that, if at any point during a homeowner’s lifetime, a piece of equipment stops working, the repair or replacement is fully covered through Monalee (for comparison, most warranties through the manufacturer typically cap at 25 years for solar panels and 10 years for solar batteries).
About Monalee
Monalee is a climate tech company that is accelerating the adoption of home solar, storage, and EV charging. By leveraging powerful machine learning and removing salespeople and system designers from the process, they are able to secure the same solar panel systems for homeowners at half the price compared to the top traditional solar companies in the U.S., making them the fastest, most efficient way to go solar.
Engineers at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have identified cybersecurity vulnerabilities in DC fast charging EVSE.
In a laboratory, the SwRI team exploited vulnerabilities in the power line communication (PLC) layer that transmits smart-grid data between vehicles and charging equipment, gaining access to network keys and digital addresses on both the charger and the vehicle. The SwRI team developed an adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) device with specialized software and a modified combined charging system interface. The device let testers intercept traffic between EVs and electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) for data collection, analysis and attack. The team found unsecure key generation present on older chips when testing, which was confirmed through online research to be a known concern.
SwRI has also developed a zero-trust architecture that can address interruptions in a vehicle’s functionality or performance. It connects several embedded systems using a single cybersecurity protocol.
“Through our penetration testing, we found that the PLC layer was poorly secured and lacked encryption between the vehicle and the chargers,” said Lead Project Engineer Katherine Kozan.
Nissan Leaf owners are getting a new, higher-power, bidirectional charger option
Using the FE-20 bidirectional charger won’t void the Leaf’s warranty
Nissan didn’t say how much the FE-20 bidirectional charger costs
Nissan has approved an updated bidirectional charger for use with its Leaf EV, giving owners another option for using their cars as mobile energy sources.
Nissan Leaf models have had the hardware for bidirectional charging since 2013, the automaker noted while announcing approval of the new charger, the 20-kw Fermata Energy FE-20. But Nissan didn’t officially enable or endorse use of the feature in the U.S. until 2022, when it approved use of the Fermata FE-15 charger. Like that 15-kw charger, the FE-20 can be used without voiding a Leaf’s warranty.
2025 Nissan Leaf
The FE-20 boasts some improvements over the FE-15, including 33% more power, an updated design that lowers manufacturing costs, and a lower retail price, according to Nissan, although the automaker did not quote a specific price.
Nissan also promises a greater ability to move energy back and forth between the car and the grid than the FE-15 which, in a proof-of-concept test at the automaker’s Franklin, Tennessee, U.S. headquarters helped reduce electricity bills by $9,450 over four years. Fermata Energy’s own software management tool can help owners achieve these savings by drawing power from a car’s battery pack to help power buildings during high-demand, high-cost periods.
2025 Nissan Leaf
Other companies, such as Wallbox, market bidirectional chargers that could let homeowners use EVs as backup power sources, but that relies on approval from automakers like Nissan. As with the FE-15, the the FE-20 charger was approved for use with the Leaf after it was proven to meet Nissan’s own requirements and received UL 1741 certification.
Nissan hasn’t updated the Leaf in several years, meaning it’s now the only EV still using the CHAdeMO fast-charging standard. It also no longer qualifies for a federal EV tax credit, but it’s still cheaper than the Nissan Versa economy car, in some instances at least. Bidirectional charging provides another reason to consider the aged hatchback beyond a potentially low purchase price.
Source link by Green Car Reports
Author news@greencarreports.com (Stephen Edelstein)
#Nissan #Leaf #20kw #bidirectional #charger
Built by noted upfitters Rosenbauer on an all-electric International eMV medium-duty chassis, HazMat1 incorporates a mobile command post with an onboard electronic research library that’s fully equipped to support the Cambridge Fire Hazardous Materials Task Force at hazardous materials incidents throughout the region. It’s the first such vehicle in service in New England.
The trucks and engines used in fire departments are incredibly complicated and specialized vehicles. In addition to carrying thousands of pounds of vital emergency response equipment, they’re constantly running emergency calls in different markets in environments that, as often as not, require upfits that can vary from one individual fire department to the next. Add to that the need for stone axe levels of reliability and you begin to see why many departments are hesitant to become early adopters.
That’s where Navistar Zero Emissions Customer Onboarding Manager Joe Jenkins came in, to help train Cambridge Fire about EVs, describe how the benefits of electrification could help support the FD’s mission.
Even with Cambridge Fire’s buy-in, however, the fact remains that building a brand-new electric fire truck is pricey. Luckily, the planets aligned on this 2023 chassis and Joe was able to ultimately onboard the HazMat1 International eMV hazmat rescue truck you see here. “It was a unique situation because this truck was previously a Rosenbauer tradeshow vehicle,” he explains. “Multiple eMV’s were originally ordered by North Central International, and two ended up with Rosenbauer. The vehicle came to Cambridge Fire fully upfitted and ready to be deployed.”
The International eMV features a 33,000 lb. GVWR, a direct-drive electric motor packing 1,737 lb-ft of peak torque, and 135 miles of range from its 210 kWh li-ion battery pack. The eMV also features a robust aux system powered by a pair of AGM 12V batteries that charge through the main 609V high voltage system.
HazMat1 was placed in full service just this week, replacing the department’s existing, 25-year-old diesel hazmat rescue truck for a much-needed upgrade.
Electrek’s Take
One thing I’ve experienced in my interactions with municipal fleet managers over the years that’s not mentioned by Cambridge FD in its announcement is that fire trucks are often running in the station. Yes, the doors are open and ventilation is good — but that kind of exposure to harmful diesel emissions is never good, and these people who are risking their lives to help save the lives of others don’t just deserve better, they deserve the best we can give them.
Real-Time Location Accurate Within Centimeters Made Possible With Murata’s LF Antennas.
The need for accurate position information is growing and there are several communication systems and protocols to choose from for your application. UWB has recently become popular since it was adopted by Apple and supported in the iPhone. However, it is not without its challenges. BT and BLE have been around for a long time but it too has its pitfalls.
One technology has been around longer than all of them and it still proves to be the best solution for accurate positioning, stable fields immune to environmental conditions, low cost and low current. This, of course, is LF magnetic field communications, and Murata’s latest lineup of LF antennae can be the building block for many positioning applications.
Join this webinar, presented by TTI and Murata, to learn about applications, including wireless power transfer for EVs and autonomous vehicles, secure gate access, and asset tracking. The applications are limited only by your imagination.
Reserve your spot—it’s free!
Other sessions at our Fall Virtual Conference include:
Driving Innovation: Trends in EV Battery Pack Design and Donaldson’s Response to Market Evolution
Effective venting and ingress protection is critical to the performance and longevity of EV battery packs. Donaldson Dual-Stage battery vents are designed for optimal performance during normal operation and edge cases such as thermal runaway.
As EV battery packs have improved with new technology, so have battery vents. The latest advancements in battery venting technology have drastically improved to maintain pace with the changing EV market.
Join this webinar, presented by Donaldson, to learn how you can improve your battery pack design through with an optimized venting strategy.
Key takeaways:
Impact of new battery technology on battery vent design
Considerations for battery vent selection and placement
Tips for robust battery pack component validation
Reserve your spot—it’s free!
See the full session list for the Fall Virtual Conference on EV Engineering here.
Broadcast live on September 16-19, 2024, the conference content will span the EV engineering supply chain and ecosystem, including motor and power electronics design and manufacturing, cell development, battery systems, testing, powertrains, thermal management, circuit protection, wire and cable, EMI/EMC and more.
Source link by Charged EVs
Author Charged EVs
#Webinar #Realtime #location #accurate #centimeters #wireless #charging #automotive #applications
General Motors is folding BrightDrop, initially envisioned as a standalone business focused on electric vans for commercial fleets, into its Chevrolet division.
GM said the move will open up sales for BrightDrop vans to Chevy’s larger dealer network. BrightDrop has sold vans through its own dealerships, but now all Chevy dealers will have the opportunity to sell BrightDrop vehicles if they meet certain requirements for commercial EV sales, according to GM.
BrightDrop EV410
“With the addition of BrightDrop to the Chevrolet lineup, we are combining advanced EV technology with the dependability and widespread accessibility that only Chevrolet can offer,” Scott Bell, GM’s vice president of Chevy, said in a statement.
The vans will be rebadged as Chevrolet BrightDrops and will remain available in shorter 400 and longer 600 configurations. GM estimates up to 272 miles of range for both versions with the larger optional Max Range battery pack. Range with the standard pack is estimated at 164 miles for the Chevy BrightDrop 600 and 159 miles for the Chevy BrightDrop 400. DC fast charging can add 160 miles of range per hour of charging.
BrightDrop EV410
GM launched the BrightDrop brand in January 2021 and began production the following September. The first vans were delivered to FedEx in December 2021, making them some of the first Ultium EVs to reach to customers. Higher-volume production started in 2022, with a subsequent order going to the Ryder rental fleet.
GM plans to continue manufacturing BrightDrop vans at its CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada, which in the past produced vehicles for other GM brands as well as Suzuki.
Source link by Green Car Reports
Author news@greencarreports.com (Stephen Edelstein)
#folds #BrightDrop #Chevrolet
