Enlarge / Batteries roll through an automated assembly line. (credit: xPACIFICA/Getty Images) On Monday, the US Department of Energy announced that it was releasing over $3 billion in funds to stimulate the production of batteries within the country. The funding is divided into two chunks, one intended to spur the processing of battery materials and manufacturing […]
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Earth Day is April 22, and its usual message—take care of our planet—has been given added urgency by the challenges highlighted in the latest IPCC report. This year, Ars is taking a look at the technologies we normally cover, from cars to chipmaking, and finding out how we can boost their […]
Enlarge / The chassis and battery pack of a Volkswagen AG (VW) ID. 5 electric sports utility vehicle (eSUV) on the assembly line during a media tour of the automaker’s electric automobile factory in Zwickau, Germany. (credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images) The car industry’s multibillion-dollar bet on electric vehicles was built on a single premise: […]
Enlarge / The F-150 Lightning will be offered as a SuperCrew cab with a 5. 5-foot bed. (credit: Ford) When Ford announced the F-150 Lightning , the company’s first electric pickup truck, the automaker pledged that the Lightning’s $40, 000 base model would travel 230 miles on a full charge—and that the extended-range model would […]
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Recently, two computer scientists had an idea: if computers use energy to perform calculations, could stored data be a form of saved energy? Why not use computing as a way to store energy? What if information could be a battery, man? As it turns out, the idea isn’t as far-fetched as […]
(credit: Tesla / Aurich Lawson ) Tesla has been forced to turn down more than €1. 1 billion in European subsidies for its planned battery plant near Berlin after delays to the flagship project breached a key condition of the funding. The electric car maker had applied for the money through an EU program established […]
Enlarge / An eastbound manifest freight swoops through an S curve in Lombard Canyon, just east of Toston, Montana, on September 11, 2011. The tracks here snake along the Missouri River between Toston and Lombard. (credit: Mike Danneman / Getty Images ) With the rapid pace of development in electric vehicles, we will likely get […]
Enlarge / All that’s missing are some batteries. (credit: Jia Yu / Getty Images) The incredible plunge in the price of photovoltaic systems has made solar power an affordable option for much of the world. And, as long as solar is providing a small fraction of the power on a given grid, there’s little holding […]
Enlarge / Toyota’s first modern battery EV will be the bZ4x, due in 2022. (credit: Toyota) Toyota was an early pioneer in hybrid electric vehicles, and it has sold more than 18 million hybrids since the introduction of the first Prius in 1997. But it’s fair to say that the world’s largest automaker has been […]
A sign reads “Gambit Construction Entrance” at a construction site outside Angleton, Texas, on March 4, 2021. [credit: Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty Images ] Tesla is best known as an electric car company, but the firm also has a thriving business in battery storage—including utility-scale battery installations to support the electric grid. Bloomberg reports that […]