Recharging

In the Belgian North Sea, maintenance vessels are now able to tether to an automatic cable at a wind farm to get their batteries topped up. The innovative system is the first of its kind and a major step in helping reduce emissions from shipping.

LA-based fleet e-mobility firm Xos has introduced a mobile charging station called the Xos Hub that means fleet operators can move to electric transport options without having to wait for the installation of permanent support infrastructure.

Startup Ample has come out of R&D stealth mode to help move EV adoption along with the launch of an automated battery swap solution for electric vehicles, which makes use of modular battery packs that can be retrofitted into existing EVs.

Porsche has now made it easier for drivers to take its Taycan electric supercar for a spin at special track days, by developing its own monster battery pack on wheels that can charge up to 10 cars at once.

Swapping batteries in ebikes is pretty common, but things get more complicated for electric cars. EV maker Nio has had swappable batteries at the heart of its design language for a while now, and has recently celebrated its 500,000th battery swap.

Today's soldiers need to carry pounds of electronic equipment, and that much again in batteries to power it all. Now a chance discovery might help lighten the load. The US Army Research Laboratory has created an aluminum-based powder that produces a high amount of energy when placed in water.

Showing his penchant for dropping bombshells on Twitter, Tesla Motors founder and CEO Elon Musk revealed that the company is working on a robotic arm for recharging its Model S electric cars.

While buses are a natural target for quick charging solutions, Spanish company Opbrid wants to see the reach of its Ultra-High Power charging stations extended to other types of commercial vehicles such as airport vehicles and delivery trucks.

Today at Microsoft’s Think Next symposium in Tel Aviv, Israeli startup StoreDot has demonstrated the prototype of a nanodot-based smartphone battery it claims can fully charge in just under 30 seconds.

With the Voltmaker, providing your smartphone with enough juice to make a quick phone call is just a flick of the wrist away.

Tesla has shown off a 90 second battery swap solution at its Hawthorne Studios in Los Angeles

After just one year of commercial operation, a motion has been filed in Israel asking for the dissolution of battery-swapping company Better Place.