Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: transportation – Page 54

The main cost of an electric vehicle (EV) is its battery. The high cost of energy-dense batteries has meant EVs have long been more expensive than their fossil fuel equivalents.

But this could change faster than we thought. The world’s largest maker of batteries for electric cars, China’s CATL, claims it will slash the cost of its batteries by up to 50% this year, as a price war kicks off with the second largest maker in China, BYD subsidiary FinDreams.

What’s behind this? After the electric vehicle industry experienced a huge surge in 2022, it has hit headwinds. It ramped up faster than demand, triggering efforts to cut costs.

Read more | >

As electric vehicle (EV) sales skyrocket, more than doubling in 2021 compared to 2020, and automotive companies announce massive investments in batteries and EVs, the transition from gas to electricity-powered vehicles is looking all the more inevitable.

Still, misinformation abounds during this exciting technological change. Here are seven of the biggest myths about EVs.

1. Electric cars will always be more expensive. Up front electric vehicle prices have steadily fallen since the turn of the century, to the point where they are closing in on parity with gas vehicles.

Read more | >

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has arrived in Beijing on an unannounced trip, where he is expected to discuss the rollout of Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang in Beijing, during which Mr Li told Mr Musk that Tesla’s development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation.

“Honoured to meet with Premier Li Qiang. We have known each other now for many years, since early Shanghai days,” Mr Musk posted on social media platform X, as he appeared in a picture with the premier.

Read more | >

Daimler’s new, all-electric truck brand made its Canadian debut this week with the official market launch of its battery electric class 4 and 5 medium duty work trucks.

After making its North American debut at the 2023 ACT Expo in Anaheim, California, Daimler Truck’s RIZON brand has continued on a steady march towards production with initial preorders set to open this June. But it won’t just be Americans who can order a new RIZON electric box truck – Canadians will be able to add them to their fleets at the same time.

“Canada is very advanced regarding green energy and infrastructure and is a natural next step for RIZON’s second market,” explains Andreas Deuschle, the Global Head of RIZON. “We are very happy to bring our zero-emission solution to Canadian customers. They are proven OEM trucks with the latest technology from Daimler Truck.”

Read more | >

NIMS has succeeded in simulating the magnetization reversal of Nd-Fe-B magnets using large-scale finite element models constructed based on tomographic data obtained by electron microscopy.

Such simulations have shed light on microstructural features that hinder the coercivity, which quantifies a magnet’s resistance to demagnetization in opposing magnetic fields. New tomography-based models are expected to guide toward the development of sustainable permanent magnets with ultimate performance.

Green power generation, electric transportation, and other high-tech industries rely heavily on high-performance permanent magnets, among which the Nd-Fe-B magnets are the strongest and most in demand. The coercivity of industrial Nd-Fe-B magnets is far below its physical limit up to now. To resolve this issue, micromagnetic simulations on realistic models of the magnets can be employed.

Read more | >

A Slovakian aviation firm has completed the world’s first passenger flight with a flying car.

Klein Vision achieved this milestone with its AirCar, which carried French electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre as a passenger. The test was held on an airport runway in Slovakia.

In a video put out by the firm, the winged sportscar is seen zooming down the runway on four wheels before all of a sudden becoming airborne and ascending into the sky. A few minutes in, it lands back safely with Jaree and a pilot aboard.

Read more | >

Imagine you’re in a car, pedal to the metal, racing down the highway, but no matter how hard you push, you can’t surpass the speed of the car next to you, which is effortlessly cruising at the same pace. Now, replace the car with light, and you have a real cosmic conundrum: why can’t anything go faster than light?

Back in 1905, Albert Einstein turned the world of physics upside down with his theory of relativity. This wasn’t just about E=mc² or the bending of space-time; it was about something that touches everything we do: the speed of light, which is roughly 299,792 kilometers per second. According to relativity, no matter how fast you’re moving towards or away from a light source, you will always measure the speed of light at the same constant velocity.

This leads us to a mind-boggling realization. As objects speed up, their mass increases. At the speed of light, their mass would become infinite. So, to move an object at the speed of light would require infinite energy, which, quite frankly, is impossible with our current understanding of physics.

Read more | >