Report: Battery swapping might still boom, for taxis or ride-hailing

Nissan Leaf taxisDespite numerous challenges, EV battery swapping may still have a future, albeit with taxis and ride-hailing services rather than private passenger cars, according to a pair of recent reports from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. China already has 550 battery-swapping stations, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the 112,000 charging stations...

Mass-market VW EVs will have bidirectional charging starting in 2022

Volkswagen bi-directional charging pilot programVolkswagen electric cars based on the automaker's MEB platform may get bidirectional charging starting in 2022, according to a report from German business publication Handelsblatt. Several automakers have discussed bidirectional charging—which allows cars to discharge power from their battery packs—for several years, usually in the...

Nissan Ariya electric crossover is being tuned for each global market

Nissan Ariya prototype testingThe Nissan Ariya is expected to start deliveries later this year, but in the meantime Nissan has released a short video highlighting chassis tuning for the 300-mile electric crossover. It features Ariya prototypes being tested at the automaker's Hokkaido proving ground in Japan. While the United States market isn't mentioned in this Europe-centric...

California considers electric-car V2G charging tech for grid stability

GM and EVgo expand major-metro fast chargingThe idea of using coordinated electric-car charging to stabilize the grid has been discussed for years, but is still in early stages of development. California regulators now hope to bring so-called "vehicle-to-grid" (V2G) technology into focus. V2G requires cars that can discharge power back into the grid, something that isn't widely available...