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Category: transportation – Page 275

Taiga Motors makes its first production electric snowmobiles

Taiga Motors announced that it has manufactured its first production electric snowmobiles and deliveries are expected to start early next year following regulatory approval.

Like the auto industry, the powersports world is being electrified, and Quebec-based Taiga Motors is one of the companies leading the way for electric snowmobiles and jet skis. Earlier this year, Taiga made waves when it went public and raised $100 million to bring its electric vehicles to production.

Most of the money is going to be used for a big new factory in Shawinigan, but in the meantime, the company is starting low-volume production at a smaller facility in Montreal.

Australian discovered graphene material could be key to low-cost next-gen batteries

Australian researchers have struck a deal to commercialise a new next-generation graphene material they say could unlock cheaper and better performing lithium-ion batteries.

Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), based at the University of Wollongong, say they have discovered a new form of graphene, called ‘Edge Functionalised Graphene’ (EFG), which is both highly conductive and processable for use in a range of electronics.

This includes lithium-ion batteries, with the innovative graphene material promising to improve the efficiency and lower the cost of battery technology used in energy storage devices and electric vehicles.

A New Off-Road Electric Truck Concept Boasts Bat Wing-Shaped Solar Panels

A multipurpose electric truck with a 400-mile range.

Wolfgang, a creative agency based in Los Angeles, California has recently unveiled the Thundertruck, an electric off-roader concept with dashing, futuristic features including bat wing-shaped solar panels.

The company says that the multipurpose EV offers superior on and off-road performance and an entirely new level of versatility and functionality without zero emissions.

The team behind Thundertuck figured that since there aren’t charging stations out in the desert, a solar roof to power the vehicle would come in handy. Since the sun is an endless power source, the bat wing-shaped collapsible solar awnings provide the vehicle with the necessary battery energy while also doubling as an auxiliary shade for when you’re camping or fishing.

The 800-horsepower Thundertruck EV boasts a 180 kWh battery, a 400-mile range, and an 800 lb-ft of torque. What’s more, it can go from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds. The truck comes in two models, 4×4 and 6×6. The company website states that “Our state-of-the-art TT Range Extender easily converts the Thundertruck into a 6WD monster that quietly delivers unparalleled power and performance.”

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Study finds electric vehicles provide lower carbon emissions through additional channels

With new major spending packages investing billions of dollars in electric vehicles in the U.S., some analysts have raised concerns over how green the electric vehicle industry actually is, focusing particularly on indirect emissions caused within the supply chains of the vehicle components and the fuels used to power electricity that charges the vehicles.

But a recent study from the Yale School of the Environment published in Nature Communications found that the total indirect emissions from pale in comparison to the indirect emissions from fossil fuel-powered vehicles. This is in addition to the direct emissions from combusting —either at the tailpipe for conventional vehicles or at the power plant smokestack for electricity generation—showing electric vehicles have a clear advantage emissions-wise over conventional vehicles.

“The surprising element was how much lower the emissions of electric vehicles were,” says postdoctoral associate Stephanie Weber. “The supply chain for combustion vehicles is just so dirty that electric vehicles can’t surpass them, even when you factor in indirect emissions.”

Moving toward the first flying humanoid robot

Researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) have recently been exploring a fascinating idea, that of creating humanoid robots that can fly. To efficiently control the movements of flying robots, objects or vehicles, however, researchers require systems that can reliably estimate the intensity of the thrust produced by propellers, which allow them to move through the air.

As thrust forces are difficult to measure directly, they are usually estimated based on data collected by onboard sensors. The team at IIT recently introduced a new framework that can estimate thrust intensities of flying multibody systems that are not equipped with thrust-measuring sensors. This framework, presented in a paper published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, could ultimately help them to realize their envisioned flying robot.

“Our early ideas of making a flying humanoid robot came up around 2016,” Daniele Pucci, head of the Artificial and Mechanical Intelligence lab that carried out the study, told TechXplore. “The main purpose was to conceive robots that could operate in disaster-like scenarios, where there are survivors to rescue inside partially destroyed buildings, and these buildings are difficult to reach because of potential floods and fire around them.”

Elon Musk Introduced The First Tesla Home

This summer Tesla finally decided to jump into the housing market, to provide products for the upcoming homes being built by a home builder called E-home. With the technological advances that Tesla has shown. It will be interesting to see what products Tesla will provide for these homes.

This could be an innovation that might shake at the housing markets and an agreement was made between Tesla and the real estate developer. Tesla would supply Powerwalls electric, Vehicle chargers, and Solar panels to all set E-home Inc, which is a subsidiary of international incorporated.

When interviewed, the corporation stated that the Tesla products will be installed in 20 new single-family homes, which will be at the north park community in porter Texas. Also, E-home is having to build 100 single-family homes by the end of 2021 within Texas.

A Mining Company Is Using Hydrogen Power in Its Trucks, Cutting CO2 Emissions

And it’s a hybrid mix of hydrogen and electric power.

Global mining company Anglo American is experimenting with hydrogen to power the giant mining trucks.

Mining trucks consume 35.3 gallons (134 liters) of diesel per hour with their enormous weight of around 220 metric tonnes and therefore emitting vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

In order to reduce the mining industry’s carbon footprint, Anglo American is focused on mining trucks.

The company is collaborating with several partners, such as Engie, NPROXX, First Mode, Williams Advanced Engineering, Ballard, ABB, Nel, and Plug Power, to develop a hybrid mining vehicle, fueled with hydrogen and electricity.

The truck will be hybrid, with a hydrogen fuel cell providing roughly half of the power and the other half by a battery pack.

The truck can also harvest regenerative energy created when driving downhill and braking, which is stored in the battery and extends the range of the vehicle.

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Inflatable Planes Could Search for Alien Life in the Clouds of Venus

But could it actually work?

Lighter-than-air spacecraft might one day help explore the clouds of Venus and investigate signs of ancient life on the planet.

Proposed in 2014 by Northrop Grumman, the Venus Atmospheric Maneuverability Platform (VAMP) project would deploy crewed inflatable aircraft from space to skim Venus’ upper atmosphere.

Now, a press release from West Virginia University reveals that engineers are developing software to allow spacecraft similar to these to navigate Venus’ atmosphere autonomously.

Could we send humans to Venus? The statement, brought to our attention by Universe Today says the main goal of the new project is to “propose a software solution that will allow hybrid aerobots to explore the atmosphere of Venus.” The researchers claim that their software would optimize flight paths while accounting for strong winds and sunlight intensity, allowing it to plan the crafts flights for the longest periods possible.

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