Fibre reinforced polymers (FRPs) are predominantly made of synthetic fibres, such as glass or carbon, and a petrochemically sourced thermosetting resin or thermoplastic matrix. However, natural fibres and resins are on the rise because of their beneficial properties, competitive cost, legislative drivers, and consumer preferences.

Autonomous mobile robots are causing a paradigm shift in the way we envisage commercial and industrial vehicles.

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Thursday 18 January titled Electric vehicle charging goes off grid.

Trucking is a big business. In this article we will demonstrate how and why trucking driving is going autonomous.

Raghu Das introduced the technologies covered and an introduction to the IDTechEx Show! USA 2017

The improving business cases for off grid are a contrast to much grid supply, where high voltage grid extension at a swingeing $1-6 million per mile is not involved, nor even low voltage extension at $15k-50k. It attracts where grids are being neglected or are based on bad choices increasing prices.

While plenty of options for plug-in vehicles now flood the market at seemingly low prices, drivers soon realize most electric options only get them thirty to eighty miles on a single charge.

Li-ion Batteries are the talk of town in the tech industry, but clarity on the subject is scarce, and very often the word "Battery" is used interchangeably to indicate those relying on the reversible shuttling of lithium ion (Li-ion batteries, or LIB), and many other different energy storage technologies that have little in common with each other.

It is hard to avoid the topic of the automotive sector within the composite industry, but of late there has been a shift in the rhetoric from when the large uptake will happen to whether it will happen at all.

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Tuesday 28 November titled Range Extenders for Electric Vehicles.

The "IDTechEx Show!" November 15-16 in Santa Clara, California brings the electric vehicle picture alive showing the Terrafugia flying car, a presentation by the most admired manufacturer of single propeller electric aircraft Bye Aerospace and a California State University talk on biomimetic aircraft.

The idea of drone delivery sharply divides commentator opinion: some dismiss it as a mere publicity stunt whilst others consider it a game changer that will bring near instant product fulfilment to e-commerce, stripping traditional shops of their last major differentiator.

Exploring the commercialization of flexible electronics, one of the key focus points of this year's Printed Electronics USA event on November 15-16 in Santa Clara, CA.

In this article, we provide an overview explaining the major technology changes and market trends that underpin this growing interest. We will also consider how the future will look like, discussing the rapid rise and fall of multiple technologies.

IDTechEx analysts have long warned that the leading lithium-ion battery manufacturers have been taking risks in their headlong redesigns to obtain higher energy and power density, lower cost per kWh and ironically better safety, for example from less-flammable and non-flammable electrolytes.

IDTechEx is hosting a free webinar on Tuesday 17th October 2017 titled Lithium-ion Batteries - from Raw Materials, to Gigafactories, and beyond.

Trucking is a big business. In the US, trucking industry revenues are in excess of $726bn. No wonder then that autonomous trucking is a hot topic.

The world's first conference on energy independent electric vehicles took place at the Technical University of Delft 27-28 September. It was well timed because many major new versions are about to hit the market addressing major global challenges.

New robotics is already quietly transforming many aspects of agriculture, and the agrochemicals business is no exception. Here, intelligent and autonomous robots can enable ultraprecision agriculture, potentially changing the nature of the agrochemicals business.

New Zealand leads the world in zero emission renewable grid electricity now at 85%. With a nice balance between geothermal, hydroelectric, unusually continuous wind power and some solar, the country has less intermittency of green power than most.