Ocean View School District in Oxnard, California, has selected The Mobility House to provide smart charging for the district’s new electric bus fleet project. The district has deployed four electric buses and four BTCPower chargers. The Mobility House’s energy management system, ChargePilot, will enable the district to harmonize its bus schedules, travel routes, battery life… Read more »
Author: Charles Morris
Canada announces $2.75 billion in new funding to electrify transit systems
The Government of Canada has announced an investment of $2.75 billion (Canadian) over five years to enhance public transit systems and switch them to electrical power, including support for the purchase of zero-emission transit and school buses. Among the providers of zero-emission transit solutions expected to benefit from the new investment are Nova Bus in… Read more »
BMW i4, with 300 miles of range, to go on sale this year
BMW’s i3 was a highly innovative vehicle when it went on the market in 2013, but to the disappointment of EV enthusiasts, the Bavarian automaker’s interest in electrification soon faded—it was only 7 years later that the company released another EV, the iX3, which still is not on sale in the US. Finally, at the… Read more »
Moscow aims to electrify its entire bus fleet by 2032
Moscow is rapidly electrifying its municipal bus fleet. The Russian capital began replacing diesel buses with electric buses in 2018, and now operates some 600 e-buses on 42 routes. Over the next 4 years, the city plans to buy 2,675 more units, and authorities expect to have converted the entire fleet to electric drive by… Read more »
Porsche announces a new fast charging network, battery innovations
Infrastructure remains a potent factor in EV adoption—the first questions asked by the EV-curious almost always have to do with the availability of charging. Tesla understood this from the beginning, and its Supercharger network has proven to be one of the company’s biggest competitive advantages. Now Porsche has taken a page from the Book of… Read more »
Lightyear closes $48-million funding round, aims to deliver solar-powered EV this year
Solar-powered cars, like flying cars, have long been a sci-fi staple, but thanks to ever-more-efficient PV panels, they could soon enter the realm of reality. Aptera says its upcoming EV will be able to incrementally charge from solar panels, and Hyundai/Kia has announced plans to add panels to certain models. Now the Dutch startup Lightyear,… Read more »
Virtual Peaker adds utility integration to FLO’s charging stations
Virtual Peaker, a cloud-based energy management platform, has teamed up with smart charging provider FLO, a subsidiary of AddEnergie, to integrate utility demand response programs with FLO’s Home X5 residential Level 2 charging stations. Virtual Peaker can connect to any in-home smart device to allow utilities to run residential demand response programs. “Electrification is on… Read more »
Rivian rushes to ramp production as it prepares to launch 3 EV models
Bringing a new vehicle into production is an undertaking that has bankrupted many a would-be automaker. EV trend-setter Tesla started out with just one low-volume model, and narrowly survived the experience. Electric truck startup Rivian Automotive plans to launch three new vehicles in the space of a few months. Rivian-watchers say the company is counting… Read more »
Fleet solution provider Highland Electric Transportation raises $253 million in new funding
Highland Electric Transportation, a provider of turnkey fleet solutions to school districts and fleet managers, has raised $253 million in a financing round led by Vision Ridge Partners. Highland provides its fleet customers with a full-service solution—it owns and maintains the vehicles under an all-inclusive transportation-as-a-service model. The Massachusetts-based company owns and operates EVs manufactured… Read more »
Battery tech firm E-magy raises €5 million in new funding round
Dutch battery tech scale-up E-magy has raised €5 million in a new funding round led by venture capital fund SHIFT Invest. The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy also committed an innovation credit to accelerate the development of E-magy’s technology. E-magy designs and manufactures nano-porous silicon material for lithium-ion batteries. The firm works… Read more »
