Aviation aims to slash some of its substantial carbon emissions by electrifying aircraft, but the industry’s stringent weight restrictions make this difficult. Building electric motors that match the power-to-weight ratios of jet engines has proven especially challenging, so most efforts have been restricted to smaller aircraft. A new compact lightweight design for a megawatt-scale motor… Continue reading MIT Unveils a Megawatt Motor for Electric Aircraft
Author: IEEE_Spectrum
Hydrogen Fuel Cells Find Their Groove
Grooves in the kind of hydrogen fuel cells most likely to power vehicles may boost the performance of the devices by up to 50 percent, a new study finds. A fuel cell converts the chemical energy stored in fuels such as hydrogen into electricity. It works by reacting the fuel with oxygen or another oxidizing… Continue reading Hydrogen Fuel Cells Find Their Groove
EV Startups, Running Out of Juice
Imagine an automotive marketplace where one company can build an electric car for US$10,000 less than Ford, the company that merely invented the assembly line and mass production. That company is of course Tesla, as Ford CEO Jim Farley humbly acknowledged in his recent, public pas de deux with Elon Musk. Now Tesla is looking… Continue reading EV Startups, Running Out of Juice
Rimac Nevera EV Sets 23 World Speed Records
A few decades ago, any car with 400 horsepower—say, a 1992 Dodge Viper—came across as 1992-era Arnold Schwarzenegger strong. The McLaren F1’s 620 hp seemed like something from another universe, as did its US $1 million price tag. Today, attainable internal combustion engine cars like the Corvette Z06 or BMW M5 routinely top 600 hp,… Continue reading Rimac Nevera EV Sets 23 World Speed Records
New Anodes Help Lithium-ion Batteries Charge Faster
This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. Researchers have created a new lithium-ion battery design that allows for better flow of electrons through its anode, dramatically improving the battery’s capacity and halving the amount of time it takes to charge. The advancement is described in a… Continue reading New Anodes Help Lithium-ion Batteries Charge Faster
Big Players, Bigger Bets on eVTOLs and Air Taxis
The aviation business is nothing new for Ohio. The state is a major supplier for Airbus and Boeing and is home to around 150 airports. Back in 2003, the House even passed a resolution acknowledging the role of Dayton in America’s aviation history—noting that the Wright brothers were from the city. But now, Ohio is… Continue reading Big Players, Bigger Bets on eVTOLs and Air Taxis
A Former Pilot On Why Autonomous Vehicles Are So Risky
In October 2021, Missy Cummings left her engineering professorship at Duke University to join the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) in a temporary position as a senior safety advisor. It wasn’t long before Elon Musk tweeted an attack: “Objectively, her track record is extremely biased against Tesla.” He was referring to Cummings’s criticism of… Continue reading A Former Pilot On Why Autonomous Vehicles Are So Risky
Advancing Grids With Highway Levitation
Superconductors have long promised advanced power grids and transportation networks. However, threats of high costs have long held back these dreams. Now a new study argues one way to make such projects a reality is to combine them into a unified system, one that could both help cars and trucks zip around faster than a… Continue reading Advancing Grids With Highway Levitation
Emulation: The Future of EV Design
Design and test engineers use emulation technology to streamline design verification cycles and reduce the cost of testing for electric vehicles. Automotive manufacturers and suppliers leverage this technology to improve EV batteries, powertrains, and interoperability between EVs and charging stations. Complete the form below to download the white paper and learn more about this powerful… Continue reading Emulation: The Future of EV Design
The Age of Silicon Is Here…for Batteries
Since lithium-ion batteries’ commercial debut three decades ago, this portable and high-density (and Nobel Prize–winning) energy storage technology has revolutionized the fields of consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and large-scale energy storage. And yet even for the technology’s vast advancements—a staggering thirtyfold drop in price between 1991 and 2018, for instance—the biggest improvements have taken place… Continue reading The Age of Silicon Is Here…for Batteries