Five of Japan’s heavyweights in the auto and power industries — Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi Motors, Fuji Heavy Industries and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the country’s largest utility — have joined forces to try and speed the adoption of a standard quick-charging system for electric vehicles. […] Read more »
If you think of an electric vehicle startup hoping to go public in the near future, Tesla Motors is probably what comes to mind. But another green car venture, Smith Electric Vehicles, also has its eye on an initial public offering that it hopes will help […] Read more »
Regardless of all the possible benefits of having a battery manufacturing industry in the U.S. for plug-in vehicles, building out that fledgling industry won’t come cheap. This morning an announcement from LG Chem — the Korean electronics behemoth whose U.S. subsidiary Compact Power will supply lithium-ion […] Read more »
Panasonic started to sell its new line of 3D TVs through a partnership with Best Buy today, offering a bundle of a of 50-inch plasma TV, a 3D-capable Blu-ray player and a pair of glasses for around $2900. Consumers will also soon be able to buy […] Read more »
We are crawling the Internet all the time; monitoring the latest trends and technologies, seeking, discovering. If you’re like me, during your web travels you often come across treasures you want to share. But sharing what you find can be time consuming and hinder your productivity. Read more »
For A123Systems, the Massachusetts-based lithium-ion battery maker, 2009 marked the best year yet in its 8-year history in terms of revenue, an IPO and government funding: The company scored a coveted $249 million government grant and its $371 million initial public offering in September was the […] Read more »
Seawater: It offered the Ancient Mariner not a drop to drink, but plenty of scientists and entrepreneurs have ideas for how to use the salty stuff for green technologies. Some aim to desalinate it with high-tech membranes to produce fresh drinking water, while others envision it […] Read more »
Hybrid and electric vehicles can only ride so far on the appeal of their fuel economy gains and environmental credentials. For a majority of car buyers, factors such as style, performance and services for information, entertainment and safety will hold more weight in the decision to […] Read more »
Jamie Wilkinson, aka Jamie Dubs, is the go-to guy if you want to learn anything about Internet memes. He’s the brain behind Know Your Meme, and until recently used to be Rocketboom’s Internet Research Scientist, complete with lab coat and white board. Wilkinson looked into the […] Read more »
Panasonic EVP Bob Perry made it clear at this week’s TV of Tomorrow Show that there’s not much love lost in America for cable TV. He joked that even Wall Street bankers might be more popular than cable execs, and warned that cable companies won’t survive […] Read more »
“Like gangbusters.” That’s how Joe Fisher, chief executive for Azusa, Calif.-based startup CFX Battery envisions the company growing in 2010. Of course the lithium-ion battery cell developer will need funds to do that, and Wednesday announced that it has raised $14.2 million in a second round […] Read more »
Yesterday, the New York Times published an article examining what it refers to as the upcoming “war” between computer chip manufacturers. It’s an interesting read if you’re desperately into that sort of thing, but what’s most compelling is the assertion that Apple probably invested at least a […] Read more »
Two and a half years ago, the first edition of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” hit the shelves. David Meerman Scott’s guide to using other online tools for marketing was a game changer. Last month, the second edition of the book came out. Read more »
One word describes the task of reliably forecasting how much a used electric vehicle will be worth at the end of its lease (called residual value): impossible. That’s the latest finding from CAP Motor Research, one of the UK’s biggest providers of vehicle valuation data for […] Read more »
In early 2007, the Council of Public Relations Firms (CPRF) and APCO Worldwide partnered to learn more about interactions and relationships between public relations (PR) professionals and bloggers. Findings showed that PR professionals who understood blogger “culture” were having more success in communicating in this online […] Read more »
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get a taste of Android on your Windows Mobile handset? Oh snap, you can! Check it out in a video demo and decide for yourself if a custom Android ROM is in your future. Read more »
Death and taxes may have been for Benjamin Franklin the only certainties in life, but research firm Frost & Sullivan adds a third this week: a boom in the car sharing market over the next several years. “It is a trend that WILL happen,” the firm […] Read more »
Think, the Norwegian electric car maker that aims to start selling its Think City model in the U.S. next year, has been doing its homework: slicing and dicing the massive U.S. auto market into an index of cities where its mid-range two-seater is most likely to […] Read more »
Well, I am sold. There is now a real reason to buy the iPad. As if all of the other functions weren’t enough (e-reader, iPod, photo viewer, browser, and more), I can now work on documents with complete ease. The iPad appears to be a real […] Read more »
Things just got a little cozier between Norwegian electric car company Think and one of its U.S. investors, Ener1. EnerDel, the battery-making subsidiary of Ener1, already had a major contract with Think to supply batteries for the company’s electric City model, as well as “supplier of […] Read more »
Microsoft‘s Xbox 360 game console already has a huge install base, a wide variety of content and engaged users. And now, according to an article in the New York Times, Microsoft is in talks with Disney to bring some live video content from ESPN to the […] Read more »
One very impressive thing about the international reaction to Haiti’s recent devastating earthquake is the many, many ways you can contribute to relief efforts. The Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations acted quickly, setting up donations via the web, through partnerships with product makers, and through […] Read more »
We’ve all been in the situation. Your mother calls you with a computer problem and you know it’s going to take at least an hour to walk her through the steps over the phone. Then she yells at you when you sigh out of frustration. If […] Read more »
Fisker Automotive has traveled a winding road on the way to picking a battery supplier. At long last, here it is: Battery maker A123Systems will supply the battery systems for Fisker’s upcoming plug-in hybrid luxury vehicle, the Fisker Karma, under an agreement announced by the companies today. […] Read more »
When we first put out our list of 13 startups working on lithium-ion batteries for vehicles, the market was waiting for billions of stimulus dollars for advanced batteries to be doled out, and hoping to gear up for its biggest ever plug-in vehicle push in 2010. […] Read more »
