by Telpriore “Greg” Tucker

Electric bicycles (ebikes) are the new convenient form of transportation for a person that either needs to conserve their limited time to get somewhere and for someone that wants to travel a shorter distance to their destination via detours fitting for a bicycle not accessible to cars or trucks. The present models are suitable for younger ages of at least 13+, senior citizens, also working professional adults, and more practically for college students seeking a less expensive mode of transportation such as no daily gas, no monthly insurance, no yearly tags, and not even a driver’s license is required hence a more so manageable budget while in school until degree completion.

Republished with permission by electronic design  Media Reports Fuel Unfounded Fears About EV Batteries

New chemistries coupled with advanced design techniques have birthed battery technologies that provide high energy density while meeting stringent safety requirements exceeding US standards.

By Micheal Austin

If recent media reports are to be believed, battery-powered electric vehicles are death traps with the potential to burn their drivers to death in the event of a crash.  The reality is that batteries in electric vehicles are no more prone to catching fire than a conventional gas tank filled with unleaded fuel[1], and chemistries have been developed that are now completely “fire safe”. 

By Chris Whaling

At the component level, the electrical propulsion system of a hybrid electric car leverages off-the-shelf power electronics, including inverter or converter components, which were initially designed for high-volume applications, such as industrial power generation, wind or solar power converters.  This approach helps automotive suppliers to reduce costs.  However, the automotive power electronics context also comes with unique design and manufacturing benchmark challenges for suppliers.  These challenges are key cost drivers – for example, the costs of ever-smaller power electronics package volumes, wider operating temperature ranges, greater vibration- and under-the-hood environmental control capabilities, and increasingly robust meantime-to-failure testing are not small.  All of this means that while automotive hybrid electric power electronics start from a commodity industrial base, they must thrive in a world of highly specialized design and manufacturing parameters and these requirements drive costs up. 

By Nadim El SAYED & Lan LIN

Clean transportation represents a key economic and social factor to the development of modern and future societies. Developing clean technologies for vehicles is one of the prioritized actions of European economic recovery plan [1]. The introduction of Fully Electric Vehicles (FEVs) has been announced by several car manufacturers. However, range anxiety is one of the main challenges for mass introduction of FEV to the market. Users need to be assisted in real time in order to avoid FEV energy shortage in case of unexpected traffic situation and energy provision. Furthermore, different social infrastructure systems also need to be integrated into fast emerging smart city technologies to improve the societal efficiency including energy management and traffic management. The integration of FEVs with multiple relevant infrastructure systems would potentially bring high benefits in FEV introduction and in smart city development. 


About the Newsletter

Editors-in-Chief

Jin-Woo Ahn
Co-Editor-in-Chief

 

Sheldon Williamson
Co-Editor-in-Chief

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