Oil interests lobby against carbon tax before it even gets proposed

Smokestacks pollution air qualityThose who make big money off oil interests are wasting no time nipping a new carbon tax in the bud. Before such a proposal ever reaches Congress, a coalition of conservative and energy interests—including the American Energy Alliance, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute—sent a letter to House Republican leaders on Tuesday decrying...

Henrik Fisker is latest to claim solid-state battery breakthrough (Updated)

Fisker EMotionIn the race to build solid state batteries for electric cars, almost nobody is counting on Henrik Fisker and his latest electric-car venture, the EMotion, which debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Fisker, however, now says the car will launch in 2020 with his long-promised solid-state batteries. "We're actually ahead...

BMW iX3 to be built in China, exported worldwide

BMW iX3 Concept front 3/4BMW has announced it will build its next electric car, the iX3 SUV, in China just as a trade war heats up between the U.S. and China involving cars-and in particular, electric cars. On Monday, BMW announced that it will expand its Chinese partnership with Brilliance, known as BMW Brilliance Automotive or BBA, to build 520,000 BMWs a year...

Tesla inks deal to build second factory in Shanghai

2014 Tesla Model S in ChinaA day after it announced price hikes for the Model S and Model X in China, in response to new tariffs on imported electric cars in the country, Tesla has finalized a deal to build a new factory in Shanghai, according to a Bloomberg News report. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was in Shanghai Tuesday to appear in a joint announcement with the city government...

Iron triflouride could make better electric-car batteries

Adding oxygen and cobalt to the cathode prevents lithium from breaking chemical bondsResearchers at the University of Maryland, in conjunction with Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a new battery cathode material that they say could triple the energy density of lithium-ion batteries. The new material is an engineered variety of iron trifluoride, a well-known material that has had problems with rechargeability and low...