Paul Evans

The next generation of Super Broadband DSL is just around the corner. Swedish Telecommunications giant Ericsson has demonstrated 500-Mbits/s transmission rates over copper cabling by using new crosstalk cancellation or "vectorized" VDSL2 based modems. The data rate is over 20 times faster than the fastest ADSL2 services currently on offer in most countries. With products using the technology likely to be available by the end of the year, this will open up the possibility of broadband services such as video-on-demand over IPTV networks. Read More

It has been a big week for news on advances in energy storage technology. We recently reported on new research that makes a Lithium Ion battery perform more like a supercapacitor, now we can report on research on a supercapacitor that performs more like a battery. Researchers at the University of Maryland and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed a supercapacitor with 10 billion nanoscale capacitors per square centimeter, giving it 250 times greater surface area than that of a conventional capacitor of comparable size. The Nano Supercapacitor is being developed primarily as part of a hybrid battery-capacitor system for electric cars. Read More

Take one DIY Self balancing electric vehicle project, replace the wheels with 6 pars of short legs based on Theo Jansen kinetic sculptures and the result looks like something out of “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”. A dynamically stabilized, ride-on robot that crawls. Read More

Researchers have developed a new advanced Lithium Ion battery that will allow mobile phone and laptop computers to be fully charged in seconds. Electric car batteries may be charged in as little as five minutes, removing one of the main barriers to wider uptake of EVs. Solar and wind power generation could also benefit as better batteries could be used to store surplus energy. Read More

Wind Turbines in the north west of Spain set a new record for power generation on March 5th as gales blew across the country, with more than 40% of the country's energy needs being generated by wind turbines. The new record stands at a peak of 11,180 megawatts (11.18 GW) of electricity supply beating the previous record of 10,032 megawatts. The percentage of demand supplied depends on time of day as demand rises and falls throughout the day. Read More

While World Rally Championship cars travel at incredible speed on ice covered roads using studded tires, something with a little more surface area is needed for an Arctic Off-Road vehicle. Taking cues off four track snowmobiles Norwegian designer Anders Gloslie designed the FROST as a concept proposal for TH!NK, an electric car company based in Norway. The layout of the FROST is a 2-seat sports car platform based on a tubular space frame chassis with double wishbone suspension front and rear teamed with push-rod actuated in-board coil over shock and spring units. The suspension features hydraulic wheel extenders to increase the track when required and the proposed electric drivetrain features All Wheel Drive (AWD), all-wheel-steering and radical tracks instead of conventional wheels that should offer superior traction when driving on snow, ice and slush. Read More

With around four billion mobile phones in use world wide at the end of 2008 they now outnumber credit cards in circulation by a factor of 2:1, so the proliferation of payment systems based on the ubiquitous mobile phone seems almost a certainly. We've previously reported on Near Field Communication (NFC), a new generation of mobile phones able to make contactless payments and now UK mobile phone operator Orange is partnering with businesses to offer a complete range of contactless services. Read More

SEAT displayed its first electric vehicle prototype in January of this year to Spain’s Minister of Industry who recently promised one million EVs on Spanish roads by 2012. SEAT has now announced the 74.3mpg TDI powered Leon Ecomotive at the Geneva Auto Show 2009. Read More

The European version of the world’s cheapest car, the Nano was introduced at the Geneva Auto Show this week. The Nano Europa is an upgraded version of the $2,500 "People's Car" soon to go into production in India. The Europa model sticks to the same narrow, upright, four-door format, but has a longer wheelbase, more safety features and is better finished than the Indian-market version so will be considerably more expensive than the Indian model due to go on sale in April 2009. Read More