Archive / March, 2016

• Pi Innovo and GaN Systems collaborate to offer electronics design services

  21 March 2016

  

  A collaboration between Pi Innovo’s electronics design and development expertise and the superior performance of GaN Systems’ gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors, offers automakers a pathway to the efficient and effective electrification of auxiliary systems for multi-voltage conventional, hybrid-electric, and pure electric vehicles. 
  
  Multi award winning GaN Systems’ compound semiconductor devices are cost competitive with silicon devices, while offering vastly superior performance. Based on GaN Systems’ breakthrough technology, these gallium nitride devices use low cost GaN-on-silicon base wafers. The company manufactures a range of gallium nitride high power transistors for ...
  
  

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• Aftermarket game-changer

  14 March 2016

  Unprecedented longevity and the rapid model year changeovers of today’s cars are challenging the traditional aftermarket business of the large automakers. In response, as Anthony Smith reports, a recently published white paper by Ricardo Strategic Consulting outlines how new strategies can be developed to protect customer satisfaction, brand loyalty and profits.
  
  There can be no doubt that the vehicles of today are lasting much longer than they used to. In 2014, for example, new vehicle registrations in the US outpaced scrappage by a staggering 42 percent. As a result of this ongoing trend, the average age of all operational light vehicles ...
  
  

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• Champions of our air

  11 March 2016

  Street-level air quality in European towns and cities is running significantly above EU limit values in any densely populated areas. Most problematic is the rise of harmful NO2 at street level – largely an unintended consequence of the past 15 years of regulations focusing closely on CO2 and diesel particulate emissions. Air quality experts from Ricardo Energy & Environment explain to Tony Lewin how the excess NOx arises and how new models in the pipeline promise to make tomorrow’s diesels clean on all counts

  
  There can be little doubt that Europe has a problem with nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions. This is ...
  

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• How will an expanded EV fleet affect the electricity distribution network?

  11 March 2016

  My Electric Avenue was a ground-breaking project that set-out to evaluate the likely effect on local electricity distribution networks of a future in which a high proportion of drivers opt for plug-in vehicles. Anthony Smith reports.

  
  There can be little doubt that the market for electric vehicles is beginning to gain significant momentum: early adopters are turning into repeat customers, and the concept of relying upon personal transportation powered largely or entirely by electricity rather than gasoline or diesel is becoming increasingly mainstream.

  In the UK, for example, approximately 48,000 plug-in vehicles were registered in 2015 compared with just 3500 two years earlier. Plug-in vehicles currently represent 1.7 percent of ...

  
  

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• New project launched to cut site energy costs and carbon footprint through optimised energy storage

  09 March 2016

  • Project combines and optimises local energy storage, renewable microgeneration, and site energy usage - including electric vehicle (EV) fast charging
  • Scalable energy storage solution uses second life Renault EV batteries
  • Avoids distribution network upgrades required to meet growing demands such as EV fast charging
  • Enables site-based optimisation of energy usage and exploitation of off-peak energy tariffs

  
  A PROJECT to manage and optimise complex energy requirements for industrial and commercial sites is now underway.

  

  The Battery Optimisation and Storage System project (BOSS) creates additional on-site energy storage capacity with repurposed batteries from Renault electric vehicles ...

  
  

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