Electric vehicles

The new IDTechEx report, "Heavy-Duty Autonomous Vehicles 2023-2043: Trucks, Buses & Roboshuttles", has found significant activity in the autonomous heavy-duty and commercial vehicle space.

The current iteration of Li-ion batteries, which are based on graphite anodes, liquid electrolytes, and cathode materials such as NMC and LFP, are generally considered to be reaching their performance limits. However, from cell materials to battery designs, there are still several routes that can lead to further improvements in performance and cost.

With increasing scrutiny of the environmental impact of current building practices, the electrification of mobile construction machinery offers construction companies a relatively near-term opportunity to demonstrate their environmental credentials.

While 2022 continues to add to the challenges electric vehicle (EV) makers face, markets are still growing. Indeed, electric car sales for the first half of 2022 reached ~3.5 million, according to IDTechEx research.

The automotive industry and many robotics start-ups have been promising that autonomous cars are just a couple of years away for many years now. It feels like this "just a couple of years" has been perpetually kicked down the road, with only incremental gains each time. However, Cruise, the robotaxi arm of General Motors, has recently been given approval to start charging passengers in San Francisco. So, is this an enormous leap forward for robotaxis, or just another incremental gain?

Thursday 11 August 2022 - The 2021 sales of zero-emission trucks and the addressable market; What zero-emission trucks need to deliver for commercial rollout; Key enabling technologies: batteries/motors/charging; The role of battery and fuel cell trucks; IDTechEx's outlook for zero-emission truck deployment

2022 continues to present great challenges for electric vehicle makers, but despite these challenges electric vehicle markets have continued to grow. However, in an era of shortages, disruption is inevitable. IDTechEx believes improvements to drive cycle efficiency and vehicle design, minimizing battery capacity and other material requirements per vehicle, must come to the forefront.

To date, the commercialization of graphene has been more of a "material push" rather than a "market pull"; a solution looking for a problem. In this first phase, there were numerous technical and commercial barriers to overcome, which in materials science does not happen overnight. IDTechEx believes that this is changing, with graphene entering the next stage, the growth phase, of its commercial journey.

Razer, one of the leading global companies providing gaming hardware, announced the acquisition of 100% of the shares of Go Touch VR SAS, also known as Interhaptics, a French startup founded in 2017 and specialized in haptics tools and software. What does this tell us about trends in haptics?

Thursday 28 July 2022 - this free-to-attend webinar will include Autonomy and ADAS in the automotive market; Sensor suites; Thermal management challenges in ADAS; Thermal interface materials for ADAS; Radar radome materials; and Die attach for ADAS.