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Volvo develops new energy storage technology

Volvo is looking to make heavy batteries in electric vehicles a thing of the past, unveiling a new technology still under development that could use the body panels of the vehicle to store energy. Everyone knows that right now one of the biggest technological limiting factors of electric vehicles are the batteries. They can be damaged through depletion, they add weight, they use expensive and polluting technologies to manufacture, and they just don't hold as much energy as we'd like.

Approved mechanics essential for quality service

DRIVERS need to make sure their car is being properly serviced by a qualified mechanic, says the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI). To help drives do this, it has launched a government-backed scheme called the Professional Register. While there are around 175,000 people in the UK who call themselves automotive technicians, the IMI says it can only recommend around 27,000 as having the required skills and competence to carry out work to the required standard in their specialism.

MIT researchers rethink electric-car batteries

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say a new battery design for electric vehicles could be a lightweight and inexpensive alternative. The goal for the team's three-year project, launched in September 2010, is to have a functioning prototype ready to be engineered as a replacement for existing electric-car batteries. At this point in the project, the prototype uses a “semi-solid flow” to separate the two functions of a battery--storing energy and discharging it when needed--into separate physical structures.