Electric vehicles

Electric Vehicles Made These Engineers Expendable

February 24, 2025
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

When veteran Wall Street Journal reporter Mike Colias began writing about the automotive industry in 2010, the internal-combustion engine still served as the beating heart of legacy carmakers. Since then, the hard pivot to electric vehicles has sidelined engine design and upended a century of internal order at these companies.…

February 5, 2025
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Electric vehicles (EVs) and green energy sources rely heavily on batteries to store electricity. Currently, more than 75 percent of the world’s energy storage depends on batteries that contain lithium, an expensive mineral that’s subject to volatile pricing. Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries themselves can be volatile, too, because they use a…

January 29, 2025
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

The rhythms of real-world driving enable EV batteries to live far beyond the predictions of laboratory tests, according to a new study from Stanford University. The report, published in December in Nature Energy, suggests that EV batteries could last 38 percent longer than previous lab-based estimates. That means drivers could…

23 Jan 25

Quiz: What Happened to Previous Top Tech Predictions?

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Metallurgy & Material Science

Each January for more than a decade, the editors of IEEE Spectrum have delivered an issue that tries to predict the future. Specifically, we bring you a selection of important technology projects that we think will reach a significant milestone in the coming year. Sometimes we get it right. Sometimes…

January 14, 2025
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

In-hub wheel motors are among the most tantalizing and yet elusive of electric-vehicle technologies. And now, after decades of failures and near-misses, a donut-shaped electric hub motor was among the sweetest offerings at the recent CES show in Las Vegas.The motors come from Donut Lab, a spin-off of Finland’s Verge…

January 6, 2025
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Automakers got one thing right: Electrified cars are the future. What they got wrong was assuming that all of those vehicles would run on battery power alone, with gasoline-electric hybrid technology bound for the technological scrap heap. Now the automaking giants are scrambling to course correct. They’re delaying their EV…

December 16, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

For city denizens who’d love to buy an electric vehicle—but live in buildings with no driveway or garage—the lack of practical charging options remains a daunting barrier. For charging companies, pricey urban real estate and prohibitive installation costs can make DC chargers a non-starter. Voltpost is among companies who see…

December 10, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

While the world is waiting—and waiting—for the giant leap to solid-state batteries, a nimble step to silicon anode cells is well underway. That transitional stage includes a key ingredient made in the U.S., not China. Sionic Energy today announced a robust battery that replaces graphite entirely, with a 100 percent…

December 4, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

A new ultra-wideband wireless system that collects data from batteries could help boost the range of electric vehicles and simplify their development and assembly.Electric vehicles collect a lot of data from their batteries, such as information about their voltage and temperature, in order “to ensure the proper operation of the…

August 14, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

For years, proponents of deep sea mining have eyed small metallic lumps that line much of the ocean floor. These polymetallic nodules are rich in manganese, nickel, and cobalt, all used in lithium-ion batteries. But new research shows the nodules might already be a kind of battery—one that might be…

Electric Vehicles Made These Engineers Expendable

A Pinch of Salt Boosts Aluminum Batteries

EV Batteries Last Way Longer Than Expected

Quiz: What Happened to Previous Top Tech Predictions?

Donut Lab’s New Motor Brings Power to the Wheel Hub

As EV Sales Stall, Plug-In Hybrids Get a Reboot

Enthusiasm Grows for Curbside EV Charging

Sionic Energy Unveils 100-Percent Silicon Anode Battery

Ultra-Wideband Wireless Simplifies EV Batteries

“Dark Oxygen” Muddies the Waters for Deep Sea Mining

Google won two major awards at MWC Barcelona 2025.

Expanding AI Overviews and introducing AI Mode

This MRI Can Run on Batteries

The Tiny Star Explosions Powering Moore’s Law