Mon.Jun 18, 2012

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Audi R18 e-tron quattro hybrid with flywheel energy system wins Le Mans; first hybrid win there

Green Car Congress

The R18 e-tron quattro hybrids at work. Click to enlarge. Marking the first victory of a hybrid vehicle at Le Mans, the Audi R18 e-tron quattro ( earlier post ), equipped with Williams Hybrid Power’s (WHP) electromechanical hybrid flywheel system, took the top two spots at the 80 th running of the endurance race over the weeken. The win was Audi’s 11 th Le Mans victory.

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Audi A3 e-tron Prototype: First Drive Video (Exclusive)

Green Car Reports

Unlike other carmakers--including BMW with its ActiveE program--Audi has chosen to use only in-house drivers to test the fleet of electric A3 e-tron prototypes it has brought to the U.S. So we're pleased to be among the few media outlets to drive an Audi A3 e-tron, one of just 17 such cars in North America. Our short 45-minute test drive in the.

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ITF analysis finds that societal costs for electric cars and vans range from €7K to €12K more than fossil-fueled equivalents

Green Car Congress

Sample consumer and societal break-even curves for BEVs, with data points for a compact diesel for comparison. Source: Philippe Crist — Discussion Paper 2012-03. Click to enlarge. Electric passenger cars currently cost €4K to €5K (US$5,079 to $6,349) more to their owners than an equivalent fossil fuel car over the vehicle’s lifetime, according to the latest policy brief from the International Transport Forum (ITF), an intergovernmental organization with 54 member countries at the OECD.

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Your Guide To Charging Station Rage, And How To Avoid It

Green Car Reports

A few weeks ago while borrowing a 2012 Ford Focus Electric, Forbes writer Todd Woody experienced what he described as Electric Car Road Rage: fear and anger associated with unsuccessfully trying to charge an electric car. It happened while he was at a cafe in downtown Berkeley, California, when the car he was driving was unplugged by another.

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How serious is Norway about climate change? So much that its streetlights self-dim

emissions global warming Norway climate change carbon dioxide youtube lighting

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Air Canada to conduct biofuel flight from Toronto to Mexico City

Green Car Congress

Air Canada is operating its first flight with biofuel today to highlight the airline's commitment to the environment. Flight AC991 from Toronto to Mexico City is expected to generate at least 40% fewer emissions by using jet fuel derived from recycled cooking oil and through other fuel-saving measures, making it the most environmentally-friendly flight ever flown by Air Canada.

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Weekend Test-Drive: Can Tiny Renault Twizy Be A Real Car?

Green Car Reports

When we first heard that French automaker Renault was producing a tiny, two-seat electric car with a top speed of 52mph called the Twizy, we have to admit to laughing. A lot. But after driving a production Renault Twizy in Ibiza earlier this year, our impression of the plucky go-kart changed. Could it, we wondered, be used as a second or third car.

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More Trending

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2013 Hyundai Elantra Coupe, GT: 40MPG Highway, Less Than $20k

Green Car Reports

Earlier this year at the Chicago Auto Show, Hyundai announced the expansion of its highly-popular Elantra line by announcing two new models for 2013. Now we know that both cars -- the 2013 Elantra Coupe and 2013 Elantra GT Five-door hatchback -- will go on sale for less than $20,000. Powered by the same 1.8-liter, four-cylinder, 148-horsepower.

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Winners of 2012 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge

Green Car Congress

American Chemical Society (ACS) President Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, Ph.D., and Jim Jones, Acting Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), announced the winners of the 2012 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge was established to recognize and promote innovative chemical technologies that prevent pollution and have broad applicability in industry.

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Mitsubishi Teases Outlander Plug-In Hybrid Coming This Fall

Green Car Reports

Mitsubishi is only the second global volume carmaker to sell a plug-in electric car in the U.S., but battery electric minicars like its 2012 'i' won't be a high-volume segment any time soon--if ever. The company sells far more Outlander crossover utilities than 'i' electric cars, so the launch of the Outlander Plug-In Hybrid model at this fall's.

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Mitsubishi Motors to unveil New Outlander PHEV at Paris Show

Green Car Congress

At the forthcoming 2012 Paris Motor Show (“Mondial de l’Automobile”), Mitsubishi Motors will stage the premiere of the new Outlander Plug-in Hybrid EV. The New Outlander PHEV will share its architecture with the soon-to-be-introduced New Outlander’s internal combustion engine (ICE) versions. The new Outlander PHEV will have three driving modes supported by front and rear electric motors and front traction/generator engine.

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Faurecia and Accenture partner on products and services for connected and autonomous vehicles

Brief

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Nissan Sticks With 20K Leafs In U.S. By End Of (Fiscal) Year

Green Car Reports

Electric-car sales are actually doing better than sales of hybrid-electric vehicles were at the same stage of their launch, though you'd never know it from much of the media. But the prevalent "electric-car-sales-are-disastrous" meme has caused carmakers to couch their predictions much more carefully. Nissan, which sold 10,000 Leafs in the U.S.

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Brookhaven study finds carbon availability is a key metabolic factor controlling oil biosynthesis in algae

Green Car Congress

Confocal image of the algae Chlamydomonas showing the accumulation of oil droplets (golden dots). Red represents chlorophyll autofluorescence. Source: BNL. Click to enlarge. Although interest in microalgal oils as potential feedstocks for renewable fuels is high, the understanding of the regulatory mechanisms controlling oil biosynthesis and storage in microalgae is rather limited at this point.

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Mazda To Supply SkyActiv-D Diesels For 2013 Le Mans Teams

Green Car Reports

If you’re not directly involved with the high-octane world of 24-hour endurance racing, it’s easy to forget that races like last weekend’s 24 Heures Du Mans take months -- even years -- to prepare for. On Saturday, Mazda reminded us of just that fact by announcing its intention to bring its SkyActiv-D diesel engines to next.

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Butamax expands Biobutanol Early Adopters Group; brings bio-isobutanol capacity to half a billion gallons per year

Green Car Congress

Butamax Advanced Biofuels announced that the Fagen-owned facility Platinum Ethanol LLC of Arthur, Iowa and three other facilities have joined the Butamax Early Adopters Group ( earlier post ), indicating their interest in biobutanol production. The three additional facilities are Little Sioux Corn Processors of Marcus, Iowa; Granite Falls Energy LLC of Granite Falls, Minnesota; and Siouxland Ethanol of Jackson, Nebraska.

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ExxonMobil announces 6th oil discovery offshore Guyana with Ranger-1; Guyana may move from non-producer to regional powerhouse

Oil

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2012 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport: Quick Drive

Green Car Reports

On paper, the 2012 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport sounds like the ideal compact crossover solution for those on a limited budget. It’s small in size, coming in at over a foot shorter than the standard Mitsubishi Outlander, which shaves some 700 pounds off the crossover’s curb weight. Power comes from the same 2.0-liter, 148-horsepower four.

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UQM powering new Hino Electric Buses

Green Car Congress

UQM technologies, Inc. PowerPhase Select 200 electric drive systems are powering Hino electric city buses, featuring the ‘Poncho’ low-floor bus platform, already deployed in Japan. The UQM PowerPhase Select 200 systems comprises a power-dense electric motor and advanced controller. The systems are rated at 900 N·m (664 lb-ft) of peak torque, 200 kW of peak power, and 115 kW of continuous power.

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Cyclists saved the UK £40 million and tonnes in CO2

Green Cars News

Britain’s cyclists saved the economy more than £40 million last year according to estimates by sustainable travel charity Sustrans. The UK’s biggest increase in cycling use of the National Cycle Network last year saw an extra 40 million extra journeys made on bike than in 2010, Sustrans reveals at the start of Bike Week. According [.].

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Myriant receives USDA loan guarantee to close bond placement for construction of bio-succinic acid plant

Green Car Congress

Myriant Corporation closed a $25 million private bond placement for the construction of its flagship commercial bio-succinic acid plant located in Lake Providence, Louisiana. The placement utilized the Business and Industry (“B&I”) Rural Development Loan Guarantee program that is administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Myriant’s commercial plant will produce 30 million pounds of bio-succinic acid annually and construction is on-schedule for the planned commercial star

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Recycling battery to boost hybrid and electric car industry

Green Cars News

The end-of-life for battery packs in the first generation of electric and hybrids represents an opportunity for industry, according to US automotive website Edmunds.com. As the very first battery packs reach the end of their lives from the hybrid models first launched in the late nineties, there will be a vital opportunity to recapture and [.].

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Tokyo Electric signs equity and additional LNG offtake agreements with Chevron for Wheatstone Project

Green Car Congress

Chevron Corporation’s Australian subsidiaries have signed additional binding agreements with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) for liquefied natural gas (LNG) offtake and equity interests in the Chevron-operated Wheatstone Project. Under the agreements, TEPCO will purchase an additional 0.4 million tons per annum (MTPA) of LNG from the Wheatstone Project for up to 20 years.

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Electric vehicle sales slump in India

Green Cars News

With a subsidy scheme on electric vehicles reaching its conclusion in India, there has been a 75 per cent drop in sales of electric cars (such as India’s first electric car, the Reva, pictured) and other battery powered vehicles in the country. The slump has occurred since April 2012 with many key industry players now [.].

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Sandia InGaN solar nanowire array may increase percentage of sun’s frequencies available for energy conversion

Green Car Congress

Changing the concentration of indium gallium nitride in photovoltaics allows researchers to tune the material’s response to collect solar energy from a variety of wavelengths, thereby maximizing efficiency. The more variations designed into the system, the more of the solar spectrum can be absorbed, leading to increased solar cell efficiencies. Silicon, today’s photovoltaic industry standard, is limited in the wavelength range it can ‘see’ and absorb.

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Mitsubishi to unveil Outlander plug-in hybrid in Paris

Green Cars News

Mitsubishi is to reveal its next step in its electrification programme when it unveils a new plug-in hybrid version of its Outlander model at the Paris Motor Show this autumn. After the launch of its fully-electric i-MiEV city car last year, the Japanese car maker is to join the growing number of firms launching larger [.].

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Oerlikon Graziano to showcase new multispeed EV transmission and innovative supercar transmissions at VDI Congress

Green Car Congress

Oerlikon Graziano SpA will exhibit a family of electric and hybrid vehicle transmissions ( earlier post ), plus examples of its latest high-performance supercar transmissions, at the VDI Congress in Germany on 19 - 20 June. The electric transmissions displayed at VDI include four-speed seamless-shift transaxles using e-DCT technology, as well as single- and dual-speed transaxles, providing solutions for a wide range of electric vehicle applications.

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Electric cars in race around the world

Green Cars News

The race is on to be the first team to drive around the world purely powered by electricity. Back in September, Rafael de Mestre declared that he would be making a trip around the world in a Tesla Roadster (pictured) in fewer than 80 days. However, his journey started almost three months after French engineers [.].

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Will Buick Launch A Volt Version Called Electra?

Green Car Reports

Sometimes online news sites can build complete stories--almost entirely hypothetical--around a single factoid. This is one of those stories. The factoid is that General Motors registered its intent to use the name Electra on a product in the category of "Motor land vehicles, namely, automobiles, sport utility vehicles, trucks, vans, engines.

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US EPA grants E15 market approval

Green Cars News

Ethanol blends of 15 per cent (E15) look set to be introduced in the US marketplace after receiving approval from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA approved plans from individual companies to satisfy misfuelling mitigation conditions of E15 partial waivers. All of the approved companies now meet all Clean Air Act requirements and [.].

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Audi hybrid takes Le Mans title

Green Cars News

For the first time ever, a hybrid vehicle has won the Le Mans 24 Hours Race – as the Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro (pictured) raced to victory. The vehicle, which is equipped with Williams Hybrid Power’s electromechanical hybrid flywheel system, took both of the top two spots during the endurance race last weekend – marking [.].

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Next year at Le Mans: Mazda to go SKYACTIV

Green Cars News

This year’s Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race may barely be in the record books, but attention has already turned to the 2013 event. That’s because Mazda has decided to sell racing versions of its SKYACTIV-D diesel engines (pictured) to teams that will compete in the LMP2 class of the event: with the technology to [.].

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