Energy harvesting is off-grid production of electricity where it is needed using ambient energy such as wind, tide and waves or just vibration.

Electric vehicles have gone from curiosity to being a frequent news item and, if you live in Norway or the Netherlands, something you see often. However, that is nothing compared to EVs shaking the foundations of society over the coming decade from robot agriculture and delivery to almost free travel in sunny countries and almost eliminating air pollution even in mining.

Toyota and Daimler presented at a recent IDTechEx conference on their fuel cell vehicle programs. A questioner asked them to reveal the unique selling proposition of fuel cell vehicles. They said there is no USP.

Major focus is batteries with new form factors.

The "IDTechEx Show!" in Santa Clara, California, November 16-17 is the world's most comprehensive event for those seeking to use or make energy harvesting devices and systems and for those developing the functional materials or considering investing in this vibrant industry.

Wearable technology for humans is a big business. There will be almost 40 product sub-categories in the next 10 years, including fitness trackers, smartwatches, connected clothing, smart eyewear, medical devices, smart patches, headphones, and hearing devices.

Leo Motors Inc of Korea with the support of government officials of Henan, China, Leo Motors, Inc and Zhong Ji Well Parking System Co Ltd have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to set up a joint venture company focused on battery production, electric boat business, and Connected Vehicle business based on Internet of Things platforms.

Tesla is an eye-catching company active in clean energy applications - not only pure electric cars, but also home battery systems. With its launch of Tesla's Powerwall on April 30, 2015 and every progress update on its Gigafactory's building, Tesla has continue to fuel interest in home battery systems.

It is no surprise that the Tesla - Solar City merger has been approved by investors. Elon Musk will combine his two co-founded companies after paying $2.6bn dollars for SolarCity in an all-stock transaction. The merger will be completed before the end of the year, and save the companies $150 million in costs in the first full year after closing.

Pure electric short range trucks are rapidly becoming viable as they face much tougher local and global emissions regulations.

There is a frenzy of investment by in fully autonomous cars, some without even a steering wheel, but it is almost entirely supplier push. Virtually no private individual is interested in buying one. It is very different with fleets such as taxis where potential corporate purchasers such as Uber see many benefits including cost and space saving

Mexico is not widely adopting pure electric vehicles on its roads partly because of inadequate incentives but also because charging infrastructure is inadequate in such a large country and there is no payback from putting it in.

The saying is, "In a gold rush, get there first, sell shovels". The "shovels" of the EV business are covered in the unique new IDTechEx report, Industrial and Commercial Electric Vehicles on Land 2016-2026.

Daniel Boston and Alyssa Werthman of Ford Motor Company, Dearborn MI have recently published a study "Plug-in Vehicle Behaviors: An analysis of charging and driving behaviour of Ford plug-in electric vehicles in the real world".

To overcome the diverse charging landscape described in Part One, Continental acknowledges that it is a clever idea to equip the EV with all the charging interfaces discussed

Tesla is a leader in the design and commercialisation of pure electric cars. It lacks profit but has an orderbook that its competition can only dream about. Since last year Tesla has also been selling batteries based on Panasonic cells that can power homes and businesses copying several other companies that were there before

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have developed a new type of high-power integrated motor drive and battery charger for electric vehicles. Compared to today's electric vehicle chargers, the new system could shorten the charging time from eight to two hours, and to reduce the cost by around $2,000, according to the developers.

A novel axial field switched reluctance motor design is presented which intend to improve the output torque by single flux path distribution in C- core stator while exploiting the high power density of the switched reluctance technology.

Off-grid clean power is a big focus of attention nowadays as we seek clean propulsion of land, water and airborne vehicles and clean power for buildings and remote equipment off-grid.

An electric vehicle with three energy storage systems shows the complexity of commanding different control systems in only one vehicle. Both new systems can supply the required energy to propel the electric motor and the fuel cell system can also recharge the high-voltage battery.