electric vehicle
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Linear Labs’ next-gen electric motor attracts $4.5 million in funding
Linear Labs, a startup developing an electric motor for cars, scooters, robots, wind turbines and even HVAC systems, has raised $4.5 million in a seed round led by Science Inc. and Kindred Ventures.
Investors Chris and Crystal Sacca, Ryan Graves of Saltwater Ventures, Dynamic Signal CEO Russ Fradin, Masergy executive chairman and former-CEO Chris MacFarland, as well as Ustream co-founder Gyula Feher also participated in the round.
The four-year-old company was founded by Brad and Fred Hunstable, who say they have invented a lighter, more flexible electric motor. The pair came up with the motor they’ve dubbed the Hunstable Electric Turbine (HET) while working to design a device that could pump clean water and provide power for small communities in underdeveloped regions of the world.
Linear Labs currently has 50 filed patents, 21 of which are issued, with 29 patents pending.
The founders come with a background in entrepreneurship and electrical engineering. Brad Hunstable is former CEO and founder of Ustream, the live-video-streaming service that sold to IBM in 2016 for $150 million. Fred Hunstable, who comes with a background in electrical engineering and nuclear power, led Ebasco and Walker Engineering’s efforts in designing, upgrading and completing electrical infrastructure, environmental and enterprise projects as well as safety and commercial-grade evaluation programs.
The HET uses multiple rotors that can adapt to varying conditions, according to the company. It also produces twice as much torque density and three times the power density than permanent magnet motors. Linear Labs says its motor produces two times the output per given motor size, and minimum 10 percent more range.
The HET design makes it ideally suited for mobility applications such as electric vehicles because it produces high levels of torque without the need for a gearbox. This helps cut production cuts, the company contends.
“The holy grail in electric motors has always been high torque and no gearbox, and the HET achieves both in a smaller, lighter and more efficient package that is more powerful than traditional motors,” Linear Labs CTO Fred Hunstable said in a statement.
The upshot could be electric vehicles with better range and more powerful electric scooters.
The commercialization of the electric motor will result in substantial leaps in terms of energy savings, reliability enhancement, and low-cost manufacturing, according to Babak Fahimi, founding director of the Renewable Energy and Vehicular Technology (REVT) Laboratory at the University of Texas at Dallas.
The company plans to use the seed funding to market its invention to customers. It’s also hiring talent and recently added new people to its leadership team, including John Curry as their president and Jon Hurry as vice president. Curry comes from KLA-Tencor and NanoPhotonics. Hurry has held positions at Tesla and Faraday Future.
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China’s BYD further drives into Chile with 100 electric buses
Over the past few years, Chinese automaker giant BYD has been on a partnership spree with cities across China to electrify their public transportation systems, and now it’s extending its footprint across the globe. On Thursday, BYD announced that it has shipped 100 electric buses to Santiago, the capital city of Chile.
The step marks the Chinese firm’s further inroads into the Latin American country where a green car revolution is underway to battle smog. BYD’s first batch of vehicles arrived in Santiago last November, and the Warren Buffett-backed carmaker remains the only electric public bus provider in the country.
Chile is on the map of China’s grand Belt and Road Initiative, aiming to turbocharge the world’s less-developed regions with infrastructure development and investments. “With the help of ‘One Belt One Road,’ BYD has successfully entered Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Uruguay and other Latin American countries. As the region accelerates its electric revolution, BYD may be able to win more opportunities,” said BYD in a statement.
President of Chile Mr. Sebastián Piñera rides the BYD electric bus. / Credit: BYD
The 100 buses embarked on a 45-day sea voyage from BYD’s factory in eastern China to land on the roads of Santiago. They sport the Chilean national colors of red and white on the exterior and provide USB charging ports inside to serve a generation who live on their electronic devices.
The fleet arrived through a partnership between BYD and Enel, a European utility juggernaut that claims to make up 40 percent of Chile’s energy sales in 2017. Enel has purchased the fleet from BYD and leased them to local transportation operator Metbus while the Chilean government set the rules and standards for the buses, a BYD spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Local passengers graded BYD’s electric vehicles at 6.3 out of 7, well above the 4.6 average of the Santiago public transportation system, according to a survey jointly produced by Chile’s Ministry of Energy, as well as Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications. Respondents cited qualities such as low noise level, air conditioning and USB charging that the buses deliver.
Santiago currently has 7,000 public buses running on the road, among which 400 get replaced every year. A lot of the new ones will be diesel-free as the Chilean government said it aims to increase the total number of electric vehicles by tenfold by 2022.
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Tesla, GM and Nissan are all part of a new coalition aiming to extend the EV tax credit
Tesla, GM and Nissan are among a group of 15 companies that launched a new coalition aimed at reforming the electric vehicle tax credit.
The group, called EV Drive Coalition, brings together a mix of automakers, industry giant ABB, climate change and energy lobbying organizations and EV infrastructure companies, including ChargePoint.
The coalition, which officially launched Tuesday, wants to pass legislation that would tweak the federal electric vehicle tax credit to “ensure that it works better for more consumers for a longer time frame and spurs increased growth of the U.S. EV market.”
The federal electric vehicle tax credit gives consumers a $7,500 credit when they buy an all-electric vehicle. The incentive has been credited with spurring adoption of EVs. However, once an automaker has sold 200,000 electric vehicles, the credit begins to wind down.
Tesla is already in this position and GM is closing in. Earlier this year, the electric automaker delivered its 200,000th electric vehicle. The achievement activated a countdown for the $7,500 federal tax credit offered to consumers who buy new electric vehicles. Under these rules, Tesla customers must take delivery of their new Model S, Model X or Model 3 by December 31 to get the full credit.
Tesla vehicles delivered between January 1 and June 30, 2019, will get a reduced $3,750 federal tax credit. After that, the credit drops to $1,875 before ending altogether. As of October, GM has sold nearly 197,000 electric vehicles.
The EV Drive Coalition wants to lift the current cap on the number of consumers who can take advantage of the credit through each manufacturer.
“Arbitrary constraints with the federal credit limit consumer options and make it harder for consumers to purchase the cars they want,” Joel Levin, executive director of Plug In America said in a statement. “Lifting the cap would create a more level playing field for all manufacturers, giving consumers the freedom to decide which car they want in a free and fair market. Increased competition spurs more American innovation and technology.”
The coalition says it supports the eventual phase-out of the credit once the EV industry has had additional time to mature and grow.
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NIO launches its ES8 all-electric SUV in China
Electric vehicle startup NIO has launched its first production car, the ES8 – a fully electric SUV with 220 miles of range, fast charging that will top off the battery entirely in one hour of charging, battery pack swapping capabilities for thee-minute refuelling and more. The car starts at about $68,000 before incentives and subsidies, and will be a strong competitor with the Model X… Read More
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BMW teams up with Solid Power to develop solid-state batteries for cars
Automaker BMW is chasing that solid-state battery tech carrot, same as most everyone else in the industry. Today, it’s announcing a new partnership with battery technology company Solid Power to develop and commercialize the latter’s solid-sate battery technology for use in electric vehicles. Solid State already produces batteries made up of inorganic materials developed by the… Read More
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Toyota will electrify entire vehicle lineup by 2025
Toyota is finally revealing the details of its plan to catch up with some of its rivals on electrification; the automaker has focused primarily on hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles before now, despite having led the market with the Prius – but it’s going to focus more on pure EVs going forward, with a plan to offer over 10 purely battery-powered vehicles from 2020 on, and a… Read More
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GM to introduce two new all-electric cars by 2019 in path to zero emissions
GM today announced a strategy to eventually deliver a zero emission product line across all its segments, though it didn’t put a specific timeline on when it would achieve that goal. The process is complex, said Mark Reuss, EVP Global Product Development, and GM doesn’t see there being “one year where we flip a switch and it’s all electric.” Still, GM is committing… Read More
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Shared EV access is expanding in Portland
Portland, Oregon, has started a pilot program to bring car sharing and alternative fuels to low-income neighborhoods where residents might not consider either type of transportation accessible. Here’s how Chevrolet built a practical electric vehicle with the 2017 Bolt EV
Chevrolet said it was going to bring an affordable, long-range electric vehicle to market – and it did, with the 2017 Bolt EV. I visited Palo Alto to find out more about the Bolt EV, and the tech behind it, speaking to the car’s lead engineers and designers.
The Bolt itself was present, too, of course, an impressive car currently shipping to customers that offers an equally… Read More
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Kreisel’s fully electric Mercedes G-Class is the Terminator’s off-road vehicle of choice
Electric vehicles tend to be designed with a certain customer in mind, and typically this imagined buyer is probably bookish, possibly vegan and mostly concerned with getting around in maximum efficiency. Tesla shook up this stereotype a bit with its speedy sports cars, but the new Kreisel customized Mercedes G 350 d with a fully electric drive train adds another dimension to the image of… Read More
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