Ford‘s 2011 Focus Electric will run on Compact Power Inc.’s lithium-ion battery, the company announced today. The batteries will initially be made in South Korea at CPI’s parent company, LG Chem, with plans to start manufacturing at a new $300 million site in Holland, Mich. in 2012.
The Focus Electric will be a full battery electric passenger car made at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant, which used to mainly produce large SUVs. The Focus Electric is expected to travel up to 100 miles with zero tailpipe emissions. Ford said it plans to have five electric car models on the roads by 2012. → Read More
Well look at this. The iPhone 4 takes an average of 23 percent longer to charge while charging via USB than it does while charging via a standard electrical outlet. → Read More
One of the biggest hurdles on the road to make electric vehicles attractive for the mass market is the long time it usually takes to charge batteries. But a Japanese company called JFE Engineering now claims it has found a solution for that problem. According to JFE, even so-called “quick battery chargers” often take 30 minutes to charge a car’s battery to 80% of its capacity. → Read More
Picture this: you’re placing batteries into a device. You put them in wrong. Then you swap them so they’re right. How long did that take? If you said “too freaking long” then Microsoft has a technology for you. → Read More
Better batteries may be on the way as lithium-ion battery producer Boston-Power ramps up its manufacturing and R&D with a $60M Series E round from Foundation Asset Management and Oak Investment Partners. Boston-Power produces Sonata, better known as Hewlett-Packard’s Long Life Battery, as well as Swing, which is used to power electric vehicles including the upcoming ZE Saab 9-3.
The company plans to double its workforce, adding sales and marketing staff in Massachusetts and growing its manufacturing centers in Taiwan. → Read More
One of the biggest problems that stands between electric vehicles and becoming mainstream is limited battery life. But there has been some progress in that area lately: the Japan Electric Vehicle Club [JP], a civic group based in Tokyo, announced today a Mira EV customized by the group traveled exactly 1,003.184 kilometers without a recharge. → Read More
We have to give concept designers points for trying, but I don’t think this resizable battery is going to fly. For one thing, the actual core is tiny, and batteries derive their power from packing as many volatile chemicals into their little bodies as possible. Imagine putting six of these, at D size, into a boom box — the thing would die in like 15 minutes. → Read More
Tokyo-based gadget maker Thanko is at it again. This time, the USB specialists are giving us the Wristband Battery [JP], which is what it sounds like and supposed to make life easier for fans of portable gadgets. → Read More
The last time I paid attention to rechargeable batteries was probably back in the early 1990s. We had this huge recharging tech that allowed you to recharge all sorts of batteries – none of which we owned – so we were limited to recharging the D cells we had and used in, as I recall, some kind of remote controlled boat.
Anyway, Energizer has brought the battery charger into the 21st century by adding an LCD display that shows current charge level and, get this, hours left until a full charge.
There’s not much to say here. You can charge AA and AAA batteries – not at the same time – and the $19.99 kit includes four AA batteries, which is nice. → Read More
One of the biggest obstacles that prevents electric cars and other vehicles from becoming mainstream is the insufficient battery life. In most cases, potential buyers of those green vehicles are scared off by the fact that there still aren’t enough charging stations out there or that the travel distance (on a single charge) is just too short.
But many companies are working on the battery problem, and one of them apparently is Sanyo. Today the company issued a press release in which it claims one of its lithium-ion battery “systems” helped an electric vehicle to drive exactly 555.6km (345 miles) from Tokyo to Osaka – on a single charge. The car in question is a special version of the Daihatsu Mira (whose non-electric original is widely considered to be “green”, too). → Read More
Short Version: A bit of a twist on traditional induction chargers, Case-mate’s “Hug Wireless Charging Pad and Case” attempts to offset its $100 price tag by adhering to the Wireless Power Consortium’s universal charging standard, which promises interoperability with other charging pads and devices that are developed using the same technology. → Read More
Panasonic held a press conference yesterday at which they revealed a new type of battery — well, really, it’s a traditional battery but using a new material. These new silicon alloy anode-equipped lithium ion batteries are supposed to provide a minor boost to battery capacity now, but with the potential to greatly increase it later. The following graph should illustrate that nicely. → Read More
There’s a fine line between giving regular batteries as a gift and giving rechargeable batteries as a gift. Giving someone regular batteries is a dumb gift. Might as well give them a sheet cake. Either way, the gift is a consumable and doesn’t last long. Rechargeable batteries, on the other hand, last quite a bit longer. → Read More
Short Version: Equal parts backup battery and iPhone dock, Dexim’s $55 P-Flip Foldable Power Dock serves as a nice daily desk accessory and then easily pulls double duty as a portable travelling companion. → Read More
Available starting today, the $30 Energizer Flat Panel 2X Charging System from Performance Designed Products is an inexpensive, quick, and cool way to juice up your Wii remotes. → Read More
Here’s an interesting idea: what if the part of the cell phone charger that you plug into the wall doubled as a rechargeable extended battery pack? That’s actually coming in November with the $50 PowerPak from Technocel. → Read More
Whoever manipulated the above image to make this humongous iPhone battery pack look relatively manageable ought to be given a raise. Conversely, whoever wrote “It is not bulky either as it just extends a little at the bottom” in the product description ought to immediately undergo a workplace evaluation. If it happens to be the same person who handled both the photo and the product description, then God help us all. → Read More
This thing’s slim, I tell you. Slim. At just one centimeter thick, the “Ultra Slim (Card Type) Emergency Charger for iPod / iPhone” over at USB Fever might find its way into a few pockets when it’s released on August 23rd. → Read More
Wow, this is impressive. An enterprising young man from a faraway land (the Czech Republic!) took an ordinary battery from an MSI Wind netbook and added a USB charging port to it. He can charge his iPhone twice over and the battery still works like normal in his MSI Wind. They should add USB charging ports to all batteries! → Read More
