Battery

Dossier

Liebherr ETM Series

Developing these all-electric cement mixer trucks has meant blending the bespoke with the off-the-shelf. Rory Jackson reports. The conventional cement truck is a diesel-powered vehicle that spends much of each working day at a standstill. However, whether it is having concrete...

Grid

Electrolyte detection outs cell leaks

Cell leakage in lithium ion batteries is bad news, so battery makers want to find any that happen during manufacture or assembly so their quality control teams can prevent early failures and minimise warranty costs, while drivers need confidence, safety and low servicing costs. Sandra Seitz from vacuum analysis and test instrument specialists Inficon explained […]

Digest

vRbikes vR3

Rory Jackson looks at how this three-wheeler has been designed to carry as much cargo as possible in the smallest footprint possible. Given that an electric powertrain brings with it lower maintenance times and costs compared with ICE powertrains, so more and more EV developers are looking to ‘right-size’ their vehicles into smaller and more compact architectures, for ease of use and...

In Conversation

Henrik Fisker

Fisker Inc's founder tells Stewart Mitchell why the company's first car will be a mass-market, all-electric SUV. For the past few decades, automotive designer and entrepreneur Henrik Fisker has been working on high-performance luxury sportscars and unique coach-builds...

Show Report

Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo Europe 2018

Lawrence Butcher reports on some of the latest products that caught his eye at this major e-mobility show. May 2018 saw this annual expo take place in Hanover, Germany, where it also incorporated The Battery Show. Concurrently, the conference element of the show saw a...

Show Report

Battery Show North America 2019 Part 2

Rory Jackson follows up his first report from this show with further highlights of the products that were on display. There were so many new innovations at The Battery Show – its largest to date – that we didn’t have room in our previous issue (Winter 2019) to highlight all the ones we...

Deep Insight

Welding

Nick Flaherty explains the pros and cons of the various welding techniques for connecting cells to form battery packs. A battery pack in an EV consists of a large number of individual battery cells that are held together mechanically and connected electrically. Making those mechanical and electrical connections poses several challenges, including the joining of multiple thin...

Grid

Combat-ready lithium power

Epsilor has developed a 6T lithium iron phosphate battery for the military that provides an energy density of 2.76 kWh (writes Nick Flaherty). The ELP-24V2740Wh-6T LFP 24 V battery has a lifecycle of more than 3500 charging cycles and improved safety through a high thermal runaway onset temperature and a lower probability of igniting if crushed or...

In Operation

Lightning Systems LCF truck

Rory Jackson reports on how this electrified version of a mainstream truck is operated and maintained. Lightning Systems carries out full all-electric powertrain integrations on commercial road vehicles such as cargo trucks, buses and passenger shuttles. Founded in 2008 with a focus on hydraulic hybrid propulsion technology...

Dossier

BB Green ferry

Rory Jackson looks at the development of this battery-powered ferry, which is aimed at shuttling workers to and from work. As more and more people find work in the major urban centres of the world, traffic congestion continues to worsen. While road networks struggle to cope with an ever-growing number of commuters, levels of driver stress and greenhouse gas...