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UL Intros BETR Evaluation for EV Battery Enclosure Materials
UL Solutions, a world leader in applied safety science, announced the Battery Enclosure Thermal Runaway (BETR) evaluation, the first material screening test method at UL Solutions to evaluate electric vehicle (EV) battery enclosure material. The offering based on UL 2596, Test Method for Thermal and Mechanical Performance of Battery Enclosure Materials, was published on Jan. 27, 2022, by the UL Standards and Engagement organization.
Battery performance has continually presented challenges in EV efficiency, as the heavier weight of EVs — caused by heavy battery systems — means more frequent charging and shorter drive times. However, battery enclosure systems play a critical role in mitigating the impact of thermal runaway, a risk associated with lithium-ion batteries. Thermal runaway occurs when the lithium-ion cell enters an uncontrollable self-heating state that can produce fire, smoke and extremely high temperatures while ejecting harmful particulates.///
Romeo Power, Inc. (“Romeo Power” or the “Company”) (NYSE: RMO), an energy technology leader delivering advanced electrification solutions for complex commercial vehicle applications, announced that the Company is delivering commercial batteries to a leading integrator of Industrial/Off-Highway equipment and vehicles.
ComED Promotes EVs with Rebates and More
ComEd announced that it has submitted its plan to support the adoption of beneficial electrification (BE) technologies, including customer adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) to the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), which regulates the state’s public utilities. ComEd is proposing to commit $100 million annually over the next three years to promote beneficial electrification, with programs designed to reduce upfront costs of EVs and charging equipment; enable broad, equitable deployment of charging infrastructure and other electrification technologies; educate customers; and prioritize investments equitably for communities in need.
This plan would significantly lower carbon emissions and provide invaluable health and human welfare benefits including air quality improvements derived from a reduction of harmful pollutants from vehicle tailpipes. The plan marks the latest milestone in the implementation of the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA). ComEd’s plan advances the objectives of CEJA, including the law’s goal of having 1 million EVs on the road in Illinois by 2030 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality for communities across the state.
Through a mix of incentives, new rate design options, and educational and technical support, ComEd’s plan would help promote the transition to clean transportation and other clean technologies. The proposed investments would prioritize low-income customers and customers residing in environmental justice and Restore, Reinvest, Renew (R3) communities, as defined by the State of Illinois.
Marking the introduction of an unprecedented electric vehicle rebate in Illinois, the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) on Tuesday released the EV Buyer’s Handbook, a free resource for consumers interested in the practical steps to purchasing an electric vehicle (EV).
Consumers can order a free copy of the guide here. The first of its kind in CUB’s 38-year history, this handbook helps buyers decide whether an electric vehicle is the right choice by answering key questions, offering an EV checklist and providing a list of helpful additional resources.
GE Appliances Deploys Electric Fleet
GE Appliances (GEA), a Haier company, is deploying a fleet of electric freight vehicles on routes between the company’s inbound warehouses and its manufacturing facilities in Kentucky, Georgia, and Tennessee. The move will increase efficiency, reliability and lower the cost of moving manufacturing materials and components in a critical segment of the company’s supply chain. It will also provide data for the company to assess the environmental benefits of electric vehicles (EV) to achieving its operation’s sustainability goals. This is the implementation phase of an agreement between GEA and Einride, a leader in providing electric and autonomous shipping solutions.
The EV trucks are being driven on routes between facilities operated by the Port of Savannah, and GEA’s inbound warehousing and logistics centers, manufacturing sites, and finished-goods warehouses. The trucks have a range of 200 miles per charge and will cover an estimated 125,000 miles annually – eliminating 210 tons of CO2 emissions within the first year.
The EV trucks are being used in the following priority locations:
- Georgia: Trucks are routed between the Port of Savannah’s Appalachian Regional Port, GEA’s nearby Southern Logistics Center in Crandall, and Roper Corporation, GEA’s cooking products manufacturing subsidiary in LaFayette.
- Kentucky: Trucks travel from the company’s Kentucky Logistics Center to GEA’s massive Appliance Park campus, carrying parts that make GE, GE Profile, and Café refrigerators.
- Tennessee: Starting next month, the focus will be moving finished Monogram refrigerators from the manufacturing facility to the warehouse to await shipping to customers.
Octopus Energy Intros OEV
-Renewable energy retailer Octopus Energy U.S. announced today the launch of Octopus Electric Vehicles (OEV), its new business line that will accelerate accessibility and adoption of EVs and smart charging. OEV’s inaugural product is EV Concierge, the first-ever integrated demand response EV leasing plan offered by an energy retailer. With EV Concierge, Octopus Energy will not only help customers lease an EV of their choice, but also seamlessly integrate smart charging and billing into their existing energy plan.
New and existing customers living in Texas are invited to apply for the beta leasing program at octoev.us. The Octopus Concierge team will provide qualifying customers white glove service, helping soon-to-be EV drivers through the entire search and vehicle leasing process, including selection and delivery of a new or used EV of their choice, installation of an EV home charger and education on best practices for EV ownership.
“Interest in electric vehicles is at an all time high. With Texas as the third-largest market for EVs, and a global leader in energy, we will be positioned to help customers realize vehicle and energy savings all on one bill,” said Chris George, Director of U.S. Octopus Electric Vehicles. “As fossil fuel continues to be impacted by inflation, it’s never made more sense to get an EV paired with smart charging to extract the lowest priced energy from the grid. EV Concierge will ensure that new EVs enter our state optimized to create a more reliable, clean and affordable energy system.”
Core to the EV Concierge program is Intelligent Octopus, which allows customers to access power when it is cheaper and greener, while helping to balance the overall stability of the grid. Intelligent Octopus is powered through Octopus Energy’s proprietary Kraken technology platform that uses advanced data and machine learning to automate a majority of the energy supply chain. Customers who lease an EV and use a smart thermostat with Intelligent Octopus will have the opportunity to take advantage of a new, discounted energy plan that is 20% to 30% lower than the average 12-month energy plan in Texas today. This reduced rate plan will launch this summer.
Initially launched in the UK in 2018, OEV has grown to offer an all-in-one service where Octopus leases the cars, installs home charge points, provides specialist EV energy tariffs, and offers access to over 250,000 public charge points across Europe via the Electric Juice Network. Its most popular product is EV Salary Sacrifice, which has allowed 1,500 UK businesses to switch their staff to electric vehicles with huge discounts of 30% and above.
The automotive supplier Mahle has developed the most durable electric motor available. The traction motor, which is unique on the market, can run indefinitely with high performance. A new cooling concept makes this technological leap possible. The new electric motor is surpassingly clean, light, and efficient and can be assembled without the use of rare earths by customer request. The new development is suitable for passenger cars and commercial vehicles as well as construction machines and tractors. With the SCT E-motor, Mahle thus becomes a full-range provider in the field of electric drives and covers all needs from e-scooters to heavy-duty commercial vehicles as well as off-road and industrial applications. The new item will be presented for the first time at IAA Transportation in September 2022 in Hanover.
“Building large electric motors that deliver short-term high performance is easy. What was still lacking on the market until now were durable yet compact drives to make electric vehicles unrestricted for everyday use,” said Martin Berger, Director of Corporate Research and Advanced Engineering at Mahle. “Our new SCT E-motor is the solution.”
On the drivetrain side, this clears the way for the replacement of the combustion engine in all vehicle classes. In 2021, Mahle presented a groundbreaking wear-free and scalable traction motor for passenger cars that runs very efficiently over a wide rpm range.
The SCT E-motor, on the other hand, is designed in such a way that it is particularly efficient within a certain rpm range. Despite its very compact and light design, its continuous output is more than 90 percent of its peak output. Unique on the market, this groundbreaking high ratio means a technological leap and allows the use of electric vehicles of all kinds even under demanding conditions. A classic example is driving an electric truck over mountain passes or the multiple sprints of a battery electric passenger car. These scenarios are only insufficiently covered by the electric motors available on the market up to now.
This resilience is achieved by the new Mahle electric motor through the use of an innovative integrated oil cooling, which not only makes it more robust but also allows the waste heat generated to be used in the vehicle’s complete system. At the same time, the extremely compact design results in an advantage in the costs of materials and weight—a lighter motor requires less material during manufacture and increases the possible net load in commercial vehicles.
In designing the product, Mahle opted for what is known as a permanently excited motor, since this type enables a very compact design and no energy has to be transferred to the rotor as “excitation current”. This makes the motor efficient and wear-free. Neodymium magnets, currently the strongest permanent magnets that can be produced, are used to generate the magnetic field in the motor. However, to achieve greater independence from raw material prices and geopolitical developments, the SCT E- motor can also be designed without magnets for greater independence. Thanks to the unique contactless transformer developed by Mahle, the magnet-free variant would also be wear-free and run efficiently, while only requiring slightly more assembly space.
ADS-TEC Whitepaper Shows How to Save TCO with Battery Buffered Charging
ADS-TEC Energy (NASDAQ: ADSE), a global leader in battery-buffered, ultra-fast charging technology, published a new white paper detailing how network charge operators can save up to 30% in total cost of ownership (TCO) with its ultra-fast, battery-buffered charging technology platform.
Electric vehicles (EVs) are playing an increasingly important role in the transition to a net-zero emissions world and are expected to comprise at least two-thirds of global vehicle sales by 2040. But even as EVs are becoming more widely available and affordable, the demand for fast, convenient charging is nowhere near to being met. The current grid structure and power-limitations will put the brakes on the EV revolution but there are solutions that turn the current grid challenges into grid assets.
The new ADS-TEC Energy research, conducted in conjunction with engineering services firm SAI Group, looks at how patented, battery-buffered charging technology enables charging operators to cost-effectively scale the charging infrastructure that underpins an all electric-vehicle world.
The paper can be found here.
Juice Juices Up with j+ pilot App
Juice Technology AG, manufacturer of charging stations and software, a leader in mobile charging stations for electric vehicles, is using the j+ pilot app to make charging with renewable energy possible. With the software integration from Juice Power AG, guaranteed sustainably produced electricity can be fed into the battery at the same time as the charging process.
Having clean electricity in the battery is the wish of many e-car drivers. Thanks to Juice Power, everyone now has the opportunity to charge their vehicle battery with a verifiably clean stream of water in the same second it is generated in the power plant. In contrast to ordinary green electricity, the user actually gets what he pays for: guaranteed regenerative energy.
Electricity comes from different producers over the same line, but has neither color nor taste. Therefore, it is not possible to distinguish how clean the consumed electricity actually is. The solution is a temporal coupling of generation and consumption. Christoph Erni, founder and CEO of Juice Technology AG explains: “Instead of physically laying a line from the power plant to the user, at Juice Power we do it simply with electronic control in real time.” The car communicates directly via the j+ pilot app via the backend the power generator, so that at the exact same time that the car draws power, the amount of power used is debited directly from the selected power plant. In contrast to pure certificates or proofs of origin for green electricity, Juice Power can guarantee natural electricity in real time.
Erni: “Energy suppliers then offer ‘pure hydropower’, but at the time of purchase they are supplying electricity from coal or nuclear power. This begs the question: How can this work? The explanation is shocking: in reality, certificates for natural electricity are often just window dressing. Ordinary green electricity is generated regardless of the time of consumption and is therefore purely green in terms of the balance sheet – often only in terms of the annual balance sheet. This industry-standard procedure fools the electricity user into thinking something is wrong and does not help the environment at all. Juice Power in the j+ pilot app clears up this misnomer.”
A Juice Power plan is also useful for owners of PV systems. If you generate the charging current at home with your own PV system, you can only use it with a time delay if you have your own energy storage device. If, on the other hand, the electricity is not fed into the battery during the day but into the grid, the production peaks are only amplified. And anyone who thinks that they can charge the vehicle battery with renewable energy at night using a natural electricity tariff must assume that fossil or nuclear power is actually being charged. However, to ensure that driving an electric car is always emission-free, the formation of pollutants must not simply be outsourced to gas or coal-fired power plants or nuclear reactors. In order to close this gap, the Juice Power Plan offers the security of being able to charge with guaranteed green electricity at any time,
Renewable energy can only be charged into the battery at the same time as it is fed in if generation and demand are coordinated. The j+ pilot app therefore precisely registers the charging time and the amount of electricity charged and compares the data with the power plants involved. With a quota for green electricity generated in real time, every j+pilot user can easily compensate for their own charging current via the app. With each charging process, the corresponding amount of electricity is debited from the personally purchased contingent and the user can track directly in the app from which clean power plant the electricity comes at any given moment. Juice Power guarantees the simultaneity of feed-in and consumption with the SQS-certified TrueTime label. From now on, all journeys will always be CO2-neutral.
Production takes place in classic hydroelectric power plants, which use the energy potential that is already available and can generate clean energy around the clock. Unlike photovoltaic systems or wind farms, for example, they produce more constantly. For this reason, Juice Power supports hydroelectric power plants across Europe with the aim of generating as much electricity from their own plants in the near future as Juice Power customers consume in real time.
The most important things at a glance:
- Natural electricity at a fixed price: via the j+ pilot app, Juice Power offers an upgrade to certified sustainable electricity from hydropower in quotas of 1,000 kWh (corresponds to a driving distance of around 5,000 km), 2,000 kWh (around 10,000 km) and 4,000 kWh (around 20,000 km). km) at 20, 40 and 80 euros. This ensures that e-car drivers can charge green electricity anytime and anywhere.
- TrueTime label: Unlike usual, the electricity is effectively ecological and not just on the balance sheet. The TrueTime label guarantees that the electricity is produced and fed into the grid at the same time as consumption in a classic hydroelectric power plant.
- j+ pilot: The electricity production can be monitored using the j+ pilot app. In this way it can be determined how much electricity is available at any given moment. The universal app for electromobility provides a complete evaluation of all important vehicle and charging data concentrated in one place and presented clearly. It provides an overview of all charging processes, including costs and electricity origin. For the analysis of the energy consumption, the stationary consumption is also determined, the so-called vampire drain. There is also a trip analysis and an automated electronic logbook.