Apple Inc. reportedly has a team of more than 100 engineers working on a top-secret project in Silicon Valley called Titan. Their goal is to rethink and reinvent the automobile.
ALAMEDA, CA—Wrightspeed, a manufacturer of electric hybrid power trains for trucks, has relocated to a new assembly plant here. The factory is expected to employ more than 300 people by 2018.
BRISBANE, Australia—Researchers from Queensland University of Technology have developed supercapacitors that can be embedded into an electric vehicle’s body panels, roof, doors, hood and floor to quicken charging of batteries.
SPARKS, NV—Electric vehicle manufacturer Cenntro Automotive has started production of an electric light commercial utility vehicle at its assembly plant here.
JACKSON, MI—More than 2,000 bats could have a new home at Consumers Energy hydro power plants thanks to collaboration between the utility, General Motors and a Boy Scout from Clarkston, MI. Using scrap Chevrolet Volt battery covers donated by GM, 16-year-old Matthew Netherland and some helpers built 30 bat boxes in a few months.
MILWAUKEE—Harley-Davidson has introduced its first electric motorcycle, the LiveWire, this month. The company is taking several dozen riders on a 30-city tour to test drive the bikes and provide feedback.
Within the next decade, a large portion of the U.S. Army’s huge fleet of vehicles could run on battery power. In fact, the Pentagon plans to acquire more than 92,000 electric vehicles by 2020.
Despite recent inroads by aluminum, copper will remain the dominant material used in automotive wiring harness applications over the next few decades. That’s because harness weight can easily be reduced by using finer wires wherever electrically feasible.
