By Dr Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx Virtually all autonomous underwater vehicles are electric for practical reasons - the internal combustion engine ICE is not a realistic option. Not so on the surface, where the ICE is the favoured means of propulsion. However, even here, there is now a strong move to hybrid and pure-electric drivetrains for many powerful reasons, so it is timely to look at marine electric vehicles in general. This article s...

Researchers at Tyndall National Institute at UCC in Cork, Ireland are leading an international project in advanced nanoelectronics which is aimed at maintaining Europe's position as a world leader in innovative automotive power electronic systems for both conventional and electric cars.

Buyers considering an electric car must bear in mind that using battery-powered heating and air conditioning can decrease the car's range by a third or more. A New York Times reviewer recently ran into this problem on a test drive, ending up stranded with a dead battery.

OLED lighting developments are taking place worldwide, with a lot of the research focused on phosphorescent OLED materials, which have a theoretical luminous efficacy four times higher than fluorescent materials. Last month, Konica Minolta unveiled its new flexible OLED lighting panels at the Lighting Fair 2013 exhibition in Tokyo. The company has developed its own blue phosphorescent materials, enabling it to commercialize the world's first OLED...

Next week, Printed Electronics Europe will open in Berlin, Germany on April 17-18. About 1,400 people are pre-registered - with final numbers expected to be considerably more. The conference and tradeshow covers the broad range of emerging materials and devices, including OLEDs, touch surfaces, TFTs, stretchable and textile electronics, the Internet of Things, energy generation and much more - with presentations, exhibitors and attendees covering...

As more and more companies are gearing up and demonstrating flexible display prototypes (LG, Nokia and earlier this year at CES 2013, Samsung's Youm display are just a few of the latest examples), the need for protection of these new devices that are freed from the constraints of conventional rigid form factors is highlighted once more.

By Dr Harry Zervos, Senior Technology Analyst, IDTechEx As more and more companies are gearing up and demonstrating flexible display prototypes (LG, Nokia and earlier this year at CES 2013, Samsung’s Youm display are just a few of the latest examples), the need for protection of these new devices that are freed from the constraints of conventional rigid form factors is highlighted once more.

by Raghu Das, CEO, IDTechEx LCD panel makers in Taiwan, Japan and Korea have been suffering. Despite the growing demand for LCDs the high number of panel makers and new competition from China has resulted in tough price competition for panel makers, to the point that many panel makers are no longer profitable. In 2012, Samsung Electronics moved their LCD business units into a separate entity. One report suggests that the Taiwanese have investe...

Cabot Corp has announced the launch of LITX™ G700, the company's first graphene-based additive for high energy density lithium-ion battery applications. Utilizing graphene material developed on the basis of a new technology platform, this new additive helps lithium-ion battery manufacturers achieve superior cell performance.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and California Lithium Battery, Inc. (CalBattery) have announced that they have signed a licensing agreement for an Argonne-developed, silicon-graphene composite anode material for high-energy lithium batteries.

Panasonic Corporation has developed a 12V Energy Recovery System for idle-stop vehicles that uses nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries for automobiles. This system allows the energy generated during braking to be stored in the batteries and use the stored energy to power the vehicle's electrical components, thus ensuring power availability even when the engine is not being used. In addition, as the system is designed to supply power to the driv...

An enhanced battery technology that can potentially reduce the time it takes to charge cell phones, electric vehicles and other battery-powered devices from hours to minutes is the subject of a commercial license agreement between Battelle and Vorbeck Materials Corp. of Jessup, Md. Battelle operates the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash.

Nissan has outlined its strategy for tripling the current electric vehicle quick-charging infrastructure in the United States with the addition of at least 500 quick-charging stations in the next 18 months, including the greater Washington D.C. area's first fast-charge network.

Supercapacitors have drawn much attention in recent years due to their high power density, reversibility, and long cycle life. They are being used in automotive applications as stop-start idle elimination system in cars. This can reduce up to 15% of fuel costs in urban driving and reduce related CO2 emissions. For example, Lamborghini just announced that they will use Maxwell Technologies supercapacitors for this purpose in all Lamborghini Aventa...

The first public charging station for electric vehicles in Bari and in all of southern Italy was inaugurated last week. This is the first public charging station in a distribution network that will be comprised of 50 Enel charging points for electric vehicles, located in key areas throughout the city, chosen in conjunction with the Bari municipal government based on careful analysis of the area and its traffic flows.

KleenSpeed Technologies and Leo Motors announce a global sales agreement to jointly represent and sell their products and services. The Sales Agent Agreement was signed on January 15, 2013 by Timothy Collins CEO & President of KleenSpeed Technologies, Inc. and John Lee CEO & Chairman of Leo Motors at the Leo Motors HQ near Seoul Korea. KleenSpeed will focus on the Americas and Leo Motors will cover Asian markets.

As the military continues to move away from dependence on fossil fuels, the Defense Department plans to spend $20 million on a fleet of electric vehicles unique in their ability to export their own power and offset their cost.

Pure electric cars are a disaster. On-road pure electric cars continue to sell at a level barely above one quarter of the sales of pure electric golf cars or a tenth of pure electric forklifts. Those golf cars are profitable but in a saturated market and, because that business is going nowhere, Ingersoll Rand is thinking of selling subsidiary Club Car, according to the Wall Street Journal. Club Car is the world's largest golf car manufacturer. It...

The IDTechEx report, Electric Buses and Taxis 2012-2022 concentrates primarily on buses defined as enclosed vehicles with a driver that have been designed for stage carriage or transit work and carrying at least 10 passengers. The market for these electric buses and taxis at ex-factory prices will rise 8.7 times from $6.24 billion in 2011 to $54 billion in 2021. Of course, the largest part of that will be buses and detailed figures to 2022 are gi...

The annual printed electronics award winners were announced at the IDTechEx Printed Electronics event this week in Santa Clara, California - the World's largest event on the topic. The awards recognize outstanding progress in the development and commercialization of printed electronics, an industry that produces a huge amount of technical innovation which will be used in many products, and is now being widely adopted.