Google invests in a startup that could make electric cars more efficient tnr.v, czx.v, lmr.v, rm.v, alk.ax, sqm, fmc, roc, lit, li.v, wlc.v, clq.v, res.v, ree, avl.to, nsany, f, gm, rno.pa, dai, byddf, hev, aone, vlnc

  Electric Cars are going mainstream and investment space around them is getting crowded. Warren Buffett is backing BYD with its lithium dreams and now guys from Google are doing their part going further after investing in Aptera and driving Teslas.

   All we need to do is to take our Energy Diet out from the Oil Needle and into the technology space - guys from the Silicon Valley will make the progress for Electric Cars smart, fast and unimaginable to us today. We need to channel all frustrations in the corrupt financial system into the new technological Industrial Revolution based on Alternative Energy. Electric Cars will be a very important driver for this movement. We can not sustain our lifestyle addicted to Oil any more. Fuel Riots and Food Strikes in U.S. can be a reality with Oil pushing people into the corner. Stop the Oil Servitude and do your part - now you have the choice.

 "Electric Cars are coming on our streets and utility companies are getting ready to charge our future. All naysayers will be proven wrong in the end - we could only dream about the numbers of Electric Cars to be on the streets when they will put sizable constrain on the existing grid! This time will come and it will be matter of technological progress and investment into the smart grid to accommodate the new demand for electricity and flexible grid management. 

  It is a manageable task and presents an investment opportunity on its own. Who are the big players here - corporate "cream de la cream": GE, Google, Siemens, SAP, ABB and utilities companies world-wide amongst others. We are confident that they will manage to make electricity available for our Electric Cars in time.

   Electricity could be produced from the number of sources, some of them could be renewable and their share will increase dramatically in the years to come  - Oil comes from depleting source and can not sustain our Energy diet any more."

SmartPlanet:

Google invests in a startup that could make electric cars more efficient

By Ami Cholia

Nissan LEAF charging

For electric cars to truly be competitive, their batteries are going to have to get smaller, cheaper and more efficient. And when there’s a tech need, you know Google is, somehow, going to find a way to get involved.

Yesterday, Google invested in a Southern California start-up called Transphorm that would make power conversions more energy-efficient. In fact,  Transphorm’s technology could cut down 90 percent of the power lost when energy is being converted from alternating current to direct current and back.

The practice could be used for solar panels, data centers, laptops, cell phones, hybrid and electric cars and much more.

According to the startup, the U.S. power grid currently wastes the equivalent of the output of 318 coal-fired power plants, which costs the country about $40 billion annually, AFP reported.

Google’s $20 million investment brings the start-up’s funding to $38 million. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Foundation Capital and Lux Capital have also invested in the company.

The key part of this technology is the use of the semiconductor material gallium nitride (it’s the same material used in LED lighting), instead of silicon. Transphorm CEO Umesh Mishra said at the event, reportedReuters: “The current solution, which is based on silicon, is a solution which has reached its limit in high voltage power conversion. We can’t eke out any more efficiency out of this technology. The time is now to do something different and to impact the 10 percent of wasted energy that occurs in power conversion.”

While the technology won’t currently be manufactured for electric cars, the eventual result could give EVs a much longer range with significantly smaller batteries.

“We are going to start working on it soon. But I believe it will take three years to five years before it becomes something the automotive sector will have the stomach for,” CEO Umesh Mishra in an interview withVentureBeat. “But it’s a hugely attractive thing. … People in that sector completely understand the value proposition. We just have to work with them to get there.”

Range anxiety is one of the biggest hurdles facing the electric car industry. Even if it takes a few years, this technology could single-handedly help curb several of those fears. We’re excited to see where this heads."

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