The News & Observer: China's Electric Vehicle Industry Shaken by Scandal
China's electric vehicle industry, a flagship for Beijing's technology ambitions, has been rocked by scandal after five companies were caught collecting millions of dollars in subsidies for buses they never made.
The affair of the phantom buses has prompted questions about whether the ruling Communist Party's financial support to an industry it is spending heavily to promote might be disrupted.
The Finance Ministry announced that five manufacturers were fined for fraudulently collecting a total of more than 1 billion yuan ($120 million) in subsidies. Chinese news reports, citing unidentified industry sources, say as many as 20 others might be in trouble.
Wired: This New Electric Bus Can Drive 350 Miles on One Charge
In the world of electric vehicles, Tesla gets most of the love. Over 100,000 of Elon Musk’s big, bad autos are zooming around the world, gasoline-free. But how many of those can claim to take an additional 40-odd cars off the road -- each?
That’s the promise of the Catalyst E2 Series, a new electric bus debuting today that’s aimed squarely at city public transit.
The bus from Proterra, a leading North American manufacturer, is set to hit the streets next year. Musk’s top-of-the-line Model S gets 315 miles per charge. Proterra’s newest? Up to 350 miles on city streets -- enough, in many places, for a full day’s worth of routes. Last month, this Goliath logged 600 miles on a Michelin track on one juice.
Guardian: Electric Cars Could Be Charged at Shell Service Stations by 2017
Electric-car charging points could appear alongside petrol pumps at Shell’s U.K. service stations as soon as next year, the oil giant confirmed after emails between the company and government officials revealed discussions on introducing them.
The company also asked the government how serious it is about wireless charging roads, which could top up an electric car without the need to plug in, as suggested by Conservative MP Oliver Letwin.
The diversification into infrastructure for battery-powered cars would mark a new departure for the company, which has largely backed biofuels as a greener alternative to petrol and diesel in the past. It could also suggest a softening of stance from an industry which Tesla co-founder Elon Musk has accused of using misinformation campaigns against electric cars.
Quartz: India Is Going to Use Godmen to Spread the Use of Solar Energy
The Gayatri Mantra from the ancient Rig Veda is the most revered of hymns in Hinduism -- and it is dedicated to the ultimate source of energy: the sun.
An energy-starved India wants to create 40,000 MW of rooftop solar power capacity by 2022 to tide over critical power shortages in the Asia’s third-largest economy. So, the government is looking to rope in an unlikely set of brand ambassadors for its ambitious solar energy program: India’s "godmen."
The Narendra Modi government has asked spiritual leaders to install solar power units in their ashrams, or hermitages, and promote this renewable form of energy among millions of their followers.
Time: See the Giant Crack That Could Collapse Part of an Antarctic Ice Shelf
A large crack in an Antarctic ice shelf has grown by 13 miles in the past six months, threatening to detach an area of ice larger than Delaware.
Images of the Larsen C shelf captured by NASA’s Terra satellite show a fault line that now stretches 80 miles in length, according to a report from the U.S. space agency. A portion of the ice shelf -- the continent’s fourth largest -- could disconnect.