One of the 16kWh drive battery packs used in the i-MiEV (lithium-ion battery) overheated in the battery inspection room at the EV assembly factory at the Mizushima Plant. Mitsubishi Motors report their findings.

"A battery can deliver far more power than anybody ever thought. In recent decades, electronics have gotten small. The thinking parts of computers have gotten small. And the battery has lagged far behind. This is a microtechnology that could change all of that. Now the power source is as high-performance as the rest of it."

The Oceanvolt SD propulsion system has been chosen by SAIL Magazine as the winner of the 2013 Pittman Innovation Award in the systems category.

Buyers considering an electric car must bear in mind that using battery-powered heating and air conditioning can decrease the car's range by a third or more. A heating and cooling system being developed by researchers at MIT almost eliminates the drain on the battery.

Together with the Norwegian shipyard Fjellstrand, Siemens has developed the world's first electrically powered car ferry. The 80-meter vessel can carry 120 cars and 360 passengers.

IDTechEx, the leading Research and Events company covering emerging technologies, has launched new subscription offerings across its range of topics.

Scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, together with colleagues from the Toyota Research Laboratories in Japan have discovered that a widely-used type of lithium-ion battery has a memory effect.

A £2.8 million development project between Intelligent Energy, Dyson Technology, Ricardo and TRW Conekt, increased power density of Intelligent Energy's fuel cell engines by more than 30%.

Queen's University researchers have discovered a simple, cost-effective method for making new molecular materials similar to graphene, but with additional properties.

Most electric vehicle sectors are profitable and growing. Toyota has nearly half of the $63 billion global market for electric vehicles land, water and air, according to an IDTechEx analysis in the new report, Hybrid and Pure Electric Vehicles for Land, Water and Air 2013-2023: Forecasts, Technologies, Players.

Toyo-keizai Online, Yomiuri-online and Livedoor Online News in Japan have recently reported in Japanese on further problems with the large lithium-ion batteries produced by GS Yuasa, the Japanese company involved in the grounding of the Boeing Dreamliner worldwide due to fires in its lithium-ion batteries but also supplying lithium-ion batteries to the International Space Station.

Skeleton Technologies, manufacturer of industry-disrupting ultracapacitors, which have four times higher power densities and up to two times higher energy densities than the closest competitors, closes a €2.2 million Round A financing lead by Up Invest, an Estonian private equity investor.

Grafoid Inc. to sign a two-year R&D agreement with the University of Waterloo to investigate and develop a graphene-based composite for electrochemical energy storage for the automotive and/or portable electronics sectors.

A team of Virginia Tech researchers has discovered a way to extract large quantities of hydrogen from any plant, a breakthrough that has the potential to bring a low-cost, environmentally friendly fuel source to the world.

Maxwell Technologies, which has been the leader in supercapacitors worldwide, has been overstating its results by improperly recording certain sales through distributors.

Next week Energy Harvesting & Storage and WSN & RTLS Europe will open at the ICC Berlin, Germany on April 17-18 (www.IDTechEx.com/EH). The events are co-located with Printed Electronics Europe, Graphene LIVE! and Supercapacitors Europe - with over 1,400 people already pre-registered.

Announcement of a high level workshop in Berlin, including major automotive manufacturer and SMEs demonstrating leading edge electric vehicle technology - registration is FREE

Liquid Robotics has announced the introduction of the Wave Glider® SV3, the world's first hybrid wave and solar propelled unmanned ocean robot.

Focus Graphite Inc on behalf of Grafoid Inc has announced Grafoid's joint venture development agreement with Coquitlam, British Columbia-based CapTherm Systems Inc to develop and commercialize next generation, multiphase thermal management systems for electric vehicle (EV) battery and light emitting diode (LED) technologies.