Over the past decade, advances battery technology have progressed steadily, but not quite as quickly as impatient electric-car advocates might like. With electric cars and plug-in hybrids fast becoming part of every carmaker's lineup, durable, less expensive, and higher-capacity batteries are more important than ever. Yet despite growing... Why better-battery startups fail in the US and how to fix it: report
Over the past decade, advances battery technology have progressed steadily, but not quite as quickly as impatient electric-car advocates might like. With electric cars and plug-in hybrids fast becoming part of every carmaker's lineup, durable, less expensive, and higher-capacity batteries are more important than ever. Yet despite growing... 
The latest reports on Tesla Model S durability and reliability should likely be considered a win for the Silicon Valley automaker. High-mileage cars aren't unusual, but we're only now starting to see the first truly high-mileage examples of electric cars. With less maintenance required compared to cars powered by internal-combustion engines, it's... ![Mercedes-Benz EQ electric car concept [photo: Axel Harries]](http://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/mercedes-benz-eq-electric-car-concept-photo-axel-harries_100597897_t.gif)
The first vehicle in history considered to be an automobile was the Benz Motorwagen of 1885. It was also the first vehicle from an automaker that has been around for the duration of the industry: we know it today as Mercedes-Benz. In other words, the company has been building cars for 132 years. DON'T MISS: Mercedes to launch 10 electric cars by... 
Renault hasn't tackled the home-energy storage market to the degree its alliance partner Nissan has, but it has found another use for "second-life" batteries. The French brand has worked with UK-based Connected Energy to install two electric-car DC fast-charging stations powered by second-life batteries. Once the energy capacity of lithium-ion... 
Alkaline batteries have been a staple energy source for decades, but their potential has been capped by their chemical properties. Notably, alkaline batteries cannot be recharged, which means their application is often limited to single usess in small devices such as flashlights and remote controls. An alkaline battery finding its way to an... 
The report that Toyota is planning an electric car with a solid-state battery for 2022 has led some fans and advocates to suggest huge new leaps in electric cars are imminent. The 2011 Nissan Leaf had an EPA-rated range of 75 miles combined; the comparable figure for a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV is 238 miles. That's remarkable progress, and clearly... 
Fisker's promise to bring advanced, solid-state graphene cells to the battery pack of its upcoming Emotion electric car is officially dead. Automotive-grade graphene batteries have yet to be perfected, but Fisker was poised to become the first company to utilize the technology. The batteries provide greater range and shorter charging times, but... 
Toyota has long been the laggard on battery-electric cars, claiming they're only suitable for shorter trips and promoting hydrogen fuel cells as the best zero-emission vehicle technology. Pushed by China and its increasingly tough emission rules, the company reluctantly committed to building all-electric cars by 2020. Now a report suggests that... 
VW Group remains one of the world's three largest carmakers, along with Toyota and General Motors, but the German automaker foresees challenges ahead. Specifically, VVolkswagen believes the industry will face a shortage of lithium-ion batteries if new investment is not made soon for additional cell fabrication factories, often referred to using... ![2015 Nissan Leaf plugged in to recharge [photo: John C. Briggs]](http://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/2015-nissan-leaf-plugged-in-to-recharge-photo-john-c-briggs_100547119_t.gif)
Studies have shown that electric vehicles have a number of strikes against them in the minds on consumers who don't know much about them. Range anxiety, the lack of electric vehicle charging infrastructure—or even awareness that it exists—and high purchase prices all play a part in the challenges faced by electric cars. However, a new... 
With more plug-in electric vehicles on the road today than ever, automakers are working to solve an impending issue: what to do with used lithium-ion batteries. Once the batteries are no longer suitable to power vehicles, automakers must recycle or repurpose them. Now, through a partnership with The Mobility House, the Renault Nissan Alliance is... 
With the second-generation Nissan Leaf electric car due to break cover sometime in the next few months, one open question concerns the source of its battery cells. To date, Automotive Electric Supply Corporation—a joint venture between Nissan and Japanese electronics giant NEC—has supplied lithium-ion cells for every Nissan Leaf built... 
Ten years ago, lithium-ion cell maker A123 Systems was a hot startup and a much-publicized company. This author, in fact, profiled the company for IEEE Spectrum in the technology magazine's September 2007 issue. The six years that followed proved enormously painful for the Massachusetts company, however. DON'T MISS: A123 Systems To Recall... 
Electric-car owners and advocates have a tenuous relationship with the franchised independent car dealers who are the only legal way to buy a new vehicle in the U.S. Tesla excepted, if you want to buy a new car, you have to go to a dealership over which the carmaker has only limited control. Horror stories abound. DON'T MISS: How can automakers... 
As Tesla regularly points out, the lithium-ion battery cells used in electric cars can also serve in home energy-storage units. Now, a Daimler company will go up against Tesla in that field under the branding of its most famous luxury-car make. Mercedes-Benz Energy announced yesterday that it is working with Vivint Solar to develop home... 
Electric vehicles aren't always associated with speed and performance, but researchers at North Carolina State University may have discovered a breakthrough to change those qualities inside their batteries. Of all things, water may hold the key to faster electric-car battery technology. Researchers compared two materials, a crystalline tungsten... 
Seattle-based startup Zunum Aero has received funding from Boeing HorizonX and JetBlue Technology Ventures toward making its dream of electrified air travel a reality. Sometimes billed as the Tesla of the airplane industry, Zunum is developing a relatively small regional aircraft with about 700 miles of range. A 1,000-mile range will be attainable...