Wired: Apple's Probably Not Gonna Buy McLaren, but It Should
Rumors swirl around Apple like exhaust around a race car, and one of the most persistent is that Apple wants to break into the auto industry with an electric, self-driving car. The speculation intensified today when The Financial Times reported that company is negotiating a deal to buy McLaren.
McLaren is perhaps best known as one of the most storied teams in Formula 1, but the company, based in England, also makes sports cars. Very expensive, very fast sports cars.
Now, it makes sense that, if Apple is indeed serious about cars, it would buy a company with the expertise to do the job. With more than $200 billion in cash, Apple certainly has the money.
Fortune: Elon Musk Plans to Unveil New Solar Roof on October 28
Solar company SolarCity, which is in the process of being acquired by electric-car maker Tesla, plans to show off a new product, a roof integrated with solar panels, at an event on October 28 in San Francisco.
Tesla CEO and SolarCity chairman, Elon Musk, made the announcement on Twitter on Thursday morning, and said the combined company would unveil a solar roof with an integrated battery and a Tesla charger.
While SolarCity has offices in San Mateo, Calif., Tesla has its factory in Fremont, Calif. and a new retail outlet in downtown San Francisco. The companies’ merger is expected to close in the coming months, but it could also be delayed by a series of shareholder lawsuits.
Green Car Reports: Ford's Electric-Vehicle Strategy
Earlier this year, Ford announced that it would significantly expand its lineup of electrified vehicles -- including mild hybrids with advanced start-stop systems, regular hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and perhaps a battery-electric model or two.
By the end of 2019, Ford expects powertrains with some kind of electrification to be available in 40 percent of its global nameplates.
At its recent Investor Day presentation, the Dearborn automaker unveiled a strategy to get investors onboard with this plan.
Ford will try to negate the higher costs of hybrid and electric powertrains by deploying them aggressively in high-profit trucks and commercial vehicles, according to financial website The Motley Fool.
The Arizona Republic: Apple's Secret Solar Project
Apple Inc. has built a 300-acre solar power plant in Florence to make up for the electricity used in its Mesa data center, and Salt River Project finally released details of the secretive project Tuesday.
Apple wants its customers to know that when they ask the Siri app on their phones for directions, they aren't contributing to global climate change. The company has a goal of generating enough clean energy from multiple facilities to compensate for the power its global factories and other operations draw from the power grid.
Apple said in 2015 when it announced its command center project in Mesa that it would run the facility with solar power, but until now, the Cupertino, Calif.-based iPhone maker hasn't provided any details of how it would accomplish that.
Forbes: New Chip Material Makes Solar Shine Like a Diamond
Scientists at GE’s Global Research Center have been developing a better material for use in the solar industry. First discovered in attempts to produce artificial diamonds, silicon carbide (SiC) is likely to replace silica in the semiconductor and solar industries, significantly increasing their efficiency and speed.
SiC is a synthetic crystalline compound of silicon and carbon with diamond-like strength and resistance to high temperatures, along with excellent abilities to conduct electricity.
The most effective application of SiC in the solar industry is in solar power inverters. Inverters switch direct current (DC) generated by the solar panels into alternating current (AC) that flows from the wall outlet or that can feed back into the electric grid.