And the usual crucial question - which is frustratungly usually left unmentioned and unaddressed in press releases and articles: are we also talking about series hybrid technology ? As in - propellers/rotor blades etc are always electric-powered and the battery/supercap etc powerpack is charged when needed by an ICE generator or perhaps even by a micro-turbine or two? (After all, Canadian rocker Neil Young's weighty 2009 Lincvolt series hybrid plugin-able conversion used/uses a Capstone microturbine - not an ICE - to charge the battery-pack if/when the need arises: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LincVolt ) Paul G(Editor: EVUK...since 1999)

And then there's solid state sodium ion - to read their press releases put out almost two years ago(and posted by GCCongress) you'd think that UK startups Ion Ventures and LiNa(links below) would be close to producing and testing their solid state sodium ion batteries in various devices by now - perhaps even an ebike or escooter. And in the non-solid-state arena Faradion now owned by Reliance(India) seem confident that they've cracked all the problems that this article claims sodium ion batteries still suffer from. Energy density increases will be accelerated once we have established a burgeoning competitive global market in both stationary and motive sodium ion energy storage applications. See: https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/10/20211014-lina.html https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/03/20210311-lina.html Paul G

Oh dear Green Car Congress - natural gas news? We're all in favour of diverse reporting re all things related to green innovation ...but "natural" gas reports/press releases lower the ethical, green bar well below acceptable levels on this long-running website which after all still bears the name "Green. Car Congress". No doubt the "natural" gas lobby will be pleased to be featured on a green website like this... Paul G(Editor: EVUK...since 1999)

As with all "breakthrough-tech" articles and press releases of this kind all references to price are deafeningly conspicuous by their absence. These motors are almost certainly going to have to be (primarily) produced in China if they're to be genuinely game-changing. Tragic that low-income, low-wage European countries don't seem to be able or willing to do what Chinese entrepreneurs are able to do so effortlessly, efficiently, effectively and inexpensively day-in, day-out year after year. Paul G(Editor: EVUK...since 1999)

"All-electric below 20km/h" - disappointingly low. Why not below 40mph or at least 30mph - thus producing no local emissions in most suburban/urban driving ? It would be good to see some use by Lynk of the terms "extended range" or "series hybrid" powertrain. Could drivers not be allowed to change the all-electric top speed from that far-too-low 20km/h to,say, 50km/h ? If not, why not ? Empower the driver/owner/would-be buyer - give them/us the choice and flexibility please! Paul G

It all sounds mightily impressive - wonderful green PR and virtue-signalling - but as so often with VW it's still only "ZukunftsMusik"("Future Music"). What are VW doing in the "now" - in the present tense - when it comes to battery recycling and sustainable sourcing and reuse of materials for new batteries for EVs ? Paul G

So are these Skeleton's much-vaunted "curved graphene" supercaps which are reported to increase energy storage by 72%(link below) ? Of course curious observers will also be wondering when supercaps will finally begin being used in consumer EVs - including wire-like or cable-like supercaps that can reportedly be easily threaded into unused space in a vehicle's chassis. At some point they'll also hopefully be viable for use in eVTOL s - for obvious reasons. See: "Skeleton’s New Graphene Supercapacitors Offer 72% Increase in Energy Density" at: https://passive-components.eu/skeletons-new-graphene-supercapacitors-offer-72-increase-in-energy-density/ Paul G

Odd isn't it how our mainstream EV commentators and press release-repeaters continue to under-report or avoid covering alternatives to lithium batteries - despite endless EV price-hikes which we're constantly told are due to supply pressures on and shortages of lithium, cobalt and nickel. Even if sodium ion and solid-state sodium batteries are initially used primarily in stationary storage applications where space+weight are less critical, sodium batteries will significantly reduce supply-chain problems caused by the world's tunnel-visioned, myopic focus on lithium ion and solid state lithium batteries.

Oh dear - like most of our media - JD Power blanks out China from its EV "Benchmark" analyses and conclusions. That's right - China - the world's biggest and most(or only) genuinely and radically price-disruptive EV market. Which of course precisely explains why almost all so-called "Western" EV commentators, analysts and putative "experts" conspicuously choose to ignore or blank out the world's most disruptive EV market: global EV price-disruption is still the polar opposite of what the West's carmakers(including Tesla) and Wall Street want to see or will ever want to see happen. Paul G

Carmakers claim that (quote) "they are feeling more pressure to compete for consumer sales than to ensure EVs are able to fulfil their core purpose of reducing the environmental impact of road transport." The problem is that most non-Chinese carmakers clearly only want to focus on competing to appeal to an affluent or wealthy, pampered, "light-green" demographic who basically want ever more lush, ultra-high-spec, long-range "Lounges-cum-iPhones-on-Wheels". Car manufacturers are likewise wilfully ignoring survey after survey that repeatedly confirm the fact that most people want a wide choice of far less expensive, simpler electric cars - even at the expense of long range - as has long been available to Chinese consumers - EVs like the Hozon NETA V, BYD Dolphin, Geely Maple 30x, Changan E-Star, Leap Motors T03, GM-Wuling Hongguang mini EV, Chery QQ Ice Cream. All of the above cost (well) below $16,000, none have a range above circa 200 miles(EPA equivalent) - but they can all be fast-charged to 80% in approximately 30-60 minutes. You only have to read the overwhelmingly positive viewer comments below Youtube reviews of EVs like these to understand that Western consumers are understandably increasingly frustrated that these low-cost, keep-it-simple (ergo greener) EVs are still not being exported and sold globally and that "Western" or non-Chinese carmakers are still only really interested in satisfying the demands of a pampered, "light green", affluent or wealthy demographic for whom less is definitely not more and "keeping it simple" is anathema. Paul G (Editor: EVUK...since 1999)

They would be/would have been perfect for Thunberg-led School Climate Strikes of course. The ironic lesson now is that kids get to and from school using green, emission-free collective transport whilst most,er, grown-up teachers and parents still use exhaust-belching combustion cars carrying just one person - the driver - most of the time. So who are the real teachers, (reluctant) students, slow learners ? Paul G

What - yet another article that fails to mention the rise and rise of price-busting LFP / LiFePO batteries - which also crucially contain no cobalt and no nickel!? Note that Tesla's LFP-powered Model 3 still has an impressive EPA range of 272 miles. BYD's and other LFP cells are helping drive down EV prices in China but strangely elsewhere average EV prices continue to rise($56,000 is average price in US !). The BYD Dolphin is just one of many great low-cost LFP-powered EVs sadly or scandalously still only available in China($14,000-$15,500). - watch video test-drive: https://youtu.be/63wCfqSQp8c Video title: "Has BYD Beaten Tesla to a Truly Affordable EV?" The answer of course is "Yes" - because it's abundantly clear that no carmakers or EV-related vested interests outside China including Tesla want a genuine price-busting EV Revolution - even if the LFP batteries largely driving that revolution contain no cobalt and no nickel. Paul G(Editor: EVUK...since 1999)

Most people will not know of Wrightspeed's record-breaking pre-Tesla Roadster EV pedigree. Especially the X1 - which used the same ACP TZero powertrain as Tesla later adopted and adapted. See videos - "X1 Beats Ferrari and Porsche" - 16 years ago: https://youtu.be/8qDZOBQs60w https://youtu.be/yKni0txaBpQ And this from Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrightspeed_X1) : "0–97 km/h (0–60 mph) 2.9 seconds" "The Wrightspeed X1 is a one-off Ariel Atom heavily modified to use an all-electric powertrain. The Atom was chosen for its light weight and efficient design. The electric motor and inverter are sourced from AC Propulsion, makers of the TZero concept car, while the batteries are low weight, high energy density lithium ion provided from A123 Systems". (Note: although Ian Wright is often described as a Tesla "co-founder", it was in reality just Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning who initially got together to found Tesla Motors - every other "co-founder" including Musk got on board later). Paul G(Editor: EVUK...since 1999)

As I've pointed out several times already - this hopefully in the longer term won't be just about an EV's batteries: researchers at Rice University for instance have also seemed optimistic in the fairly recent past about eventually being able to replace copper windings in motors with more efficient so-called "carbon nanotube yarns". See: "Carbon Nanotube Yarns Could Replace Copper Windings in Electric Motors" at: https://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/carbon-nanotube-yarns-set-to-replace-copper-windings-in-electric-motors Extract: "A staggering fact is that motors and motor driven systems account for between 43 percent and 46 percent of all global electricity consumption demonstrating that carbon nanotubes braided into wires could outperform copper. Needless to say, if electric motors could be made to run more efficiently, energy consumption would fall. With research out of Rice University back in 2011 in conducting electricity, it looked like there would soon be a new way to create those improved efficiencies. " "Building on that research, a team at the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) in Finland has replaced the copper windings used to conduct electricity in electric motors with a woven material made from threads of carbon nanotubes and achieved remarkable new efficiencies in the motors: "If we keep the electrical machine design parameters unchanged and only replace copper with future carbon nanotube wires, it is possible to reduce the Joule losses in the windings to half of the present-day machine losses" said Professor Juha Pyrhönen, who has led the design of the prototype at LUT, in a press release." Cambridge University researchers have also investigated similar and potentially highly disruptive/transformative carbon nanotube alternatives to copper windings - but there doesn't yet appear to be a massive tsunami of urgent media or Wall St. enthusiasm for the idea. Intriguingly, the website www.Mining,com does quite frequently focus on (greener) alternatives to mining raw materials: https://www.mining.com/researchers-make-carbon-wire-that-could-replace-copper-54552/ Paul G(EVUK)

A stunningly impressive and very long list of highly ambitious, disruptive, green and even cost-slashing research projects - but when will we finally see "other-worldly" propulsion technologies beyond rotating blades or rotating wheels of some kind - and I'm not referring to rocket-power. We hear so much talk now about frequent and highly credible military sightings of so-called "UAP's" - silent craft capable of incredible speed and manoeuvreability in the air and underwater. So are the likes of ARPA-e and Skunkworks exploring or perhaps even testing ultra-exotic forms of propulsion ? Paul G

Solid state sodium has to pose a similar major disruptive "threat". Sadly even John B. Goodenough seems to have been persuaded to vanish from the spotlight after telling us (yawn..) that next-gen sodium won't be replacing or competing with lithium for at least a decade. Paul G

Yes exactly - why not a range-extended EV drive aka series hybrid with ICE generator powered by 95%-plus ethanol or biodiesel? PS. Not many people are aware that the initial versions of the GM Volt were found to contain inactive software designed to enable some degree of flex-fuel operation. Paul G

- Add this to the fact that researchers at Rice University for instance have also seemed optimistic in the fairly recent past about eventually being able to replace copper windings in motors with more efficient so-called "carbon nanotube yarns". See: "Carbon Nanotube Yarns Could Replace Copper Windings in Electric Motors" at: https://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/carbon-nanotube-yarns-set-to-replace-copper-windings-in-electric-motors Extract: "A staggering fact is that motors and motor driven systems account for between 43 percent and 46 percent of all global electricity consumption demonstrating that carbon nanotubes braided into wires could outperform copper. Needless to say, if electric motors could be made to run more efficiently, energy consumption would fall. With research out of Rice University back in 2011 in conducting electricity, it looked like there would soon be a new way to create those improved efficiencies. " "Building on that research, a team at the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) in Finland has replaced the copper windings used to conduct electricity in electric motors with a woven material made from threads of carbon nanotubes and achieved remarkable new efficiencies in the motors: "If we keep the electrical machine design parameters unchanged and only replace copper with future carbon nanotube wires, it is possible to reduce the Joule losses in the windings to half of the present-day machine losses" said Professor Juha Pyrhönen, who has led the design of the prototype at LUT, in a press release." Cambridge University researchers have also investigated similar and potentially highly disruptive/transformative carbon nanotube alternatives to copper windings - but there doesn't yet appear to be a massive tsunami of urgent media or Wall St. enthusiasm for the idea. Intriguingly, the website www.Mining,com does quite frequently focus on (greener) alternatives to mining raw materials: https://www.mining.com/researchers-make-carbon-wire-that-could-replace-copper-54552/ Paul G(EVUK)

So there'll soon be no credible excuses for not having electric race cars competing in the same race series as combustion vehicles - merging Formula One and Formula E for instance. Simply combine this Yamaha motor - or BMW's recently reported rare-earth-free EV motor - with the latest ultra-energy-dense batteries - and incorporate rapid(sub-2 minute) pit-stop battery-swapping - Nio-style. Maybe add some SOA turbo-boosting supercaps to ensure EVs win almost every race ! Paul G

If CRYO-EM can be and is used universally to more rapidly find solutions and to thus significantly accelerate the notorious and "laborious" lab-to-realworld tech-delivery timeline, it will - theoretically at least - mean one less excuse for our perennial automotive foot-draggers to delay next-gen disruptive/transformative technologies. Paul G

One additional perverse consequence of soaring electricity prices here in Spain(300% in 5 years) and elsewhere - apart from greatly reducing the appeal of EVs - is that many people are now burning wood and coal in fireplaces to heat their homes. The particulate-filled stench in the streets at night is often inescapable. The ostensible deep, universal "Covidian" concern for human (pulmonary etc) health, well-being and welfare seems to evaporate in other (non-Covid) clean air and respiratory/cardiovascular health contexts. For example, smoking outside bars, pubs, restaurants etc is just as rife now here in oh-so "Covid-concerned" Spain as it was pre-Covid so that drinking or eating al fresco - ie. minus the stench of tobacco fumes - is rarely possible. Paul G

An excellent but bizarrely under-reported achievement. And another urgently needed go-greener research endeavour - given that we're now being regularly fed reports about China "controlling" 95% of fhe world's graphite processing and production capacity. It's also quite surprising but reassuring to see such battery breakthrough news coming out of Japan for a change instead of S. Korea , China or Fremont. So will newborn Japanese EV converts Toyota be rushing to accelerate its transition from the lab to mass production? Japan's EV manufacturers and political leaders certainly won't enjoy being dependent on China for graphite as well as a mountain of other resources, materials, minerals, metals and of course consumer products. Paul G

Most people understandably now have little patience with perpetual laboratory research "breakthrough" announcements: please guys, professors etc - don't tell us about your promising lab research findings until a real competitively-priced next-gen product is about to start rolling out of factories or Gigafactories. That's how they discreetly do things in China - whereas in the West we get years - even decades - of promising research hype, non-stop investment blarney and jam-tomorrow breakthrough teasing etc That aside - would this lithium restoration-reactivation process also be viable in all-the-rage LiFePO and solid state batteries? Paul G

It doesn't matter what the research conclusions are - it's clear that no politicians, journalists or "approved" experts will ever have the courage or integrity to recommend or demand that the wearing of masks on public transport should no longer be obligatory. This viscious viral circle or spiral, vaccines engendering ever more adaptive-aggressive variants or new viruses - is comparable to bacterial infections and the worrying reality of ever-increasing antibiotic resistance. Thoughout the centuries and millennia humanity survived countless plagues (Bubonic, Black Death, Spanish Flu etc) - despite poor sanitation and no pharmaceutical industry - primarily thanks to eventual natural herd immunity - a collective and effective pharma-free immune response. Sadly, Covid has been very bad news for green advocates and users of public transport versus advocates and manufacturers of no-mask-needed private cars - whether of the locally and globally polluting combustion kind or their exhaust-free EV alternatives. The message is sadly, perversely and ironically the same: if you want the freedom to breathe again without a mask - and protection from the weather - get a car and give up on public transport. Paul G

Far from perfect solutions of course - especially the bury-the-problem "sequestration"(a useful euphemism) of CO2 / carbon. But almost anything is better that the status quo in the aviation sector. And as my own extended version of the old adage has it: "Perfect is the Enemy of Good Enough for Now". (John B Goodenough would no doubt concur..) Paul G