Ferrari, BYD, Wrightspeed, Faraday Future, Michigan Tech.

Ferrari eyes Formula E: It look as though another carmaker is interested in joining the all-electric racing series, though CEO Sergio Marchionne still sees two hurdles. One, he is not a fan of the necessary car swap during the race, which will supposedly be a thing of the past from 2018. And two, he wants Ferrari to be have more technical freedom during vehicle development. Here, too, the ePrix is racing in the right direction.
autosport.com, eurosport.com

Electric waste management: BYD has unveiled and all-electric 3.9-ton rubbish collection truck, said to offer around 100 miles (160 km) of range. Exact battery capacity is still kept under wraps. Meanwhile, Ratto Group has taken Wrightspeed’s very first rubbish collection truck with range-extender and a turbine-electric powertrain into service in Sonoma County, California.
electrek.co (BYD), trucks.com (Wrightspeed)

Possible in-wheel drive: Under the name “Reinvent The Wheel,” Faraday Future released a new teaser video of its first series model. One reason for the focus could be that FF will actually use individual motors connected to each wheel, as suggested by recent patent applications. The latter states that the “motor may be built into a wheel such that the wheel may rotate co-axially with a rotor of the motor.”
thetruthaboutcars.com

Lower energy consumption: The Michigan Technological University received 2.8m dollars in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), to develop control systems for hybrid and electric vehicles that will help lower energy consumption by about 20 percent. The idea is to use on-board or cloud-based sensors, data and computers to help the car better process and react to surroundings.
wnmufm.org, mtu.edu