Green Car Congress

APRIL 14, 2012

Conventional industrial 11 kW induction motor (left) and Hitachi’s new 11kW motor (right). Source: Hitachi. Click to enlarge. Hitachi has developed a high-efficiency 11 kW permanent magnet synchronous motor without using rare earth (neodymium, dysprosium) materials; the work follows on its 2008 announcement of a prototype 150 W motor that used cores made of amorphous metal coupled with ferrite magnet rotors. ( Earlier post.).

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Motor Motors Motoring 2008 390

Green Car Reports

APRIL 18, 2012

In the minds of many consumers, electric cars like the 2012 Nissan Leaf are over-priced, second-cars that are only capable of short trips around town. We’ve proven that sentiment wrong ourselves, covering just over 15,000 miles in a year in our 2011 Nissan Leaf. Earlier this week however, we found out about a 2011 Nissan Leaf owner who has.

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DIY Electric Car

APRIL 14, 2012

Hi, I have not posted for a while and have not worked on the car for a while. But I made up for it this weekend. Pulled out the drive shafts and finally after a lot of huffing and puffing got the engine and gearbox out. Also thanks for all the comments, very helpfull. Fatboynotslim. Attached Thumbnails.

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Engine Cars 100

National Green Transportation

APRIL 15, 2012

Claiming electric cars might overstress the electric power grid, IBM, Honda and PG&E have begun a pilot project exploring integrating electric cars to the smart grid, allowing grid operators to manage the charge rate of all plugged-in.

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Grid Honda Electric Cars Power Grid 83

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Norway

Green Car Congress

APRIL 19, 2012

Annual average PM 2.5 concentration due to combustion emissions from (a) power generation; (b) commercial, institutional, residential, and agricultural sources; (c) industry; (d) road transport; (e) other transport; and (f) all UK combustion sources. Credit: ACS, Yim and Barrett. Click to enlarge. UK combustion emissions of PM 2.5 cause ~13,000 premature deaths in the UK per year, while an additional ~6,000 deaths in the UK are caused by non-UK European Union (EU) combustion emissions, according

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MIT Transportation United Kingdom Emissions 316

Green Car Reports

APRIL 20, 2012

There’s an ongoing joke among electric car owners that every new electric car should come with a free wallet. Why? To store the array of cards, tags and access keys that electric car drivers inevitably collect to gain access to an increasingly complicated public charging network. Earlier this week, we highlighted our concerns that confusion.

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National Green Transportation

APRIL 15, 2012

Claiming electric cars might overstress the electric power grid, IBM, Honda and PG&E have begun a pilot project exploring integrating electric cars to the smart grid, allowing grid operators to manage the charge rate of all plugged-in.

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Grid Honda Electric Cars Power Grid 81

Green Car Congress

APRIL 20, 2012

Roland Berger forecasts for LiB market size by vehicle class (left) and region (right). High and low growth scenarios are shown. Source: Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. Click to enlarge. Roland Berger Strategy Consultants has updated its global Li-ion automotive battery study ( earlier post ). In light of recently presented or announced vehicle models with electric, hybrid or plug-in-hybrid drives (xEV), Roland Berger experts expect the global LiB market to grow from US$1.5 billion to US$9-1

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Green Car Reports

APRIL 20, 2012

How will you be charging your electric car in future? In your garage? At work? At a rest stop somewhere with a fast charger? Or will you be using a wireless charger, embedded in a parking spot somewhere, that you can simply park over and forget about? It's a question many are asking, and one Evatran, a Morrisville electric charging startup, is.

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Electric Cars Charging Cars Electric 139

Green Cars News

APRIL 17, 2012

Tuesday 17 April 2012. The Green Piece Column. Smart grids-they’ve been in the news a lot lately and their importance is ever growing. The UK, like countries around the world, is seeking to increase the share that renewable sources play in its energy mix, while also striving for cleaner forms of transport such as electric [.].

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Grid Green Energy Cleaner 58

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National Green Transportation

APRIL 15, 2012

Claiming electric cars might overstress the electric power grid, IBM, Honda and PG&E have begun a pilot project exploring integrating electric cars to the smart grid, allowing grid operators to manage the charge rate of all plugged-in.

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Grid Honda Electric Cars Power Grid 58

Green Car Congress

APRIL 17, 2012

The Ford Focus Electric. Click to enlarge. Ford has begun the consumer roll-out of the Focus Electric, the battery-electric version of its new Focus; production of the vehicles began in December 2011 at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant. ( Earlier post.) The Focus Electric is Ford’s first electric drive light-duty passenger vehicle resulting from its strategy to electrify its entire high-volume platforms, rather than one-off specialty models.

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Green Car Reports

APRIL 20, 2012

NASA has developed a system that captures carbon dioxide and helps to prevent pollution from wastewater while creating renewable algae biofuel, fertilizer and possibly animal feed, too. NASA calls its system OMEGA, for Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae, self-contained bags of wastewater and fast-growing algae cultures that are.

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Pollution Renewable Carbon 130

Green Cars News

APRIL 17, 2012

Electric cars-‘they are too expensive’-it’s something we hear all the time. The response from the industry has often been ‘it will get more affordable over time’. Well at last there is some proof to back up that conventional wisdom from the car industry. A new Electric Vehicle Battery Price Index report from Bloomberg New Energy [.].

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Electric Cars Price Batteries Battery 58

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Guyana

Green Car Congress

APRIL 18, 2012

Asahi Shimbun. Toshiba Corp. will retrofit small buses owned by Tokyo’s Minato Ward with its SciB lithium-ion cells and electric motors to produce fast-charge battery-electric buses. Toshiba is planing on a 5-minute recharge with the battery state of charge at 50%. To keep the battery level above 50 percent, the buses will return to a garage for a recharge after traveling roughly a modest 12 kilometers (7.5 miles).

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Charging Lithium Ion Recharge Electric 278

Green Car Congress

APRIL 19, 2012

Westinghouse Electric Company and utility Ameren Missouri have entered into an agreement to respond collaboratively to the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for developing and licensing the Westinghouse Small Modular Reactor (SMR). Under the terms of the agreement, Ameren Missouri will become part of and. co-chair a Westinghouse-led Utility Participation Group (UPG) made up of Missouri utilities, non-Missouri utilities and industrial firms interested

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Green Car Congress

APRIL 16, 2012

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the 17 th annual US greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory. The final report shows overall emissions in 2010 increased by 3.2% from the previous year. EPA attributes the trend to an increase in energy consumption across all economic sectors, due to increasing energy demand associated with an expanding economy, and increased demand for electricity for air conditioning due to warmer summer weather during 2010.

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2010 EPA Transportation Emissions 252

Green Car Congress

APRIL 14, 2012

Superbrightleds.com —which says it is the leading online retailer of LED lights and accessories—is offering a range of 12V automotive LED bulbs designed to replace conventional incandescent bulbs in applications such as tail, brake and turn lights, as well as interior lights (no head lamps at this point). A sample of LED brake and turn bulbs.

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Light Installation GM Standards 252

Green Car Congress

APRIL 20, 2012

Cadillac is road-testing a semi-autonomous driving technology it calls “Super Cruise” that is capable of fully automatic steering, braking and lane-centering in highway driving under certain optimal conditions. The system could be ready for production vehicles by mid-decade. Super Cruise is designed to ease the driver’s workload on the freeway, in both bumper-to-bumper traffic and on long road trips by relying on a fusion of radar, ultrasonic sensors, cameras and GPS map data.

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Cadillac Fusion General Motors GM 240

Green Car Congress

APRIL 15, 2012

The Nikkei reports that Toyota Motor Corp. and Tohoku University will jointly establish an R&D center for advanced automotive technology by the end of this month on an idle Sony Corp. factory site in Miyagi Prefecture. The project will be headed by Toyota unit Kanto Auto Works Ltd., which manufactures the Aqua compact hybrid in Iwate Prefecture, and the New Industry Creation Hatchery Center, which is run in a collaborative effort between the automotive industry and Tohoku University.

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Toyota Universal Industrial Industry 240

Green Car Congress

APRIL 14, 2012

The US Department of Energy announced the selections for three consortia that will make up the $125-million US-India Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center (JCERDC). These consortia—led in theUS by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the University of Florida, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)—will bring together experts from national laboratories, universities, and industry in both the US and India.

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India Clean Cleaning Solar 240

Green Car Congress

APRIL 15, 2012

Voltage profile of poly(anthraquinonyl sulfide) (PAQS)-graphene (left) and polyimide (PI)-graphene (right) at different C-rates. Credit: ACS, Song et al. Click to enlarge. A team of researchers from the US and China have developed novel polymer?graphene nanocomposites as high-rate cathode materials for rechargeable lithium batteries. Compared to the pure polymer, the polymer-graphene nanocomposites possess much higher active material utilization ratios and superior ultrafast-charge and -discharg

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Li-ion Polymer Green Batteries 239

Green Car Congress

APRIL 19, 2012

Ford will invest US$760 million to build a new assembly plant in Hangzhou, China with its joint venture Changan Ford Mazda Automobile (CFMA), adding initial capacity of 250,000 units. When Hangzhou opens in 2015, Ford’s total passenger car capacity in China will increase to 1.2 million units annually, doubling current output. The Hangzhou plant announcement comes two weeks after Ford said it will invest US $600 million to expand capacity at its Chongqing facilities by 350,000 passenger cars, and

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China 2015 Ford Building 236

Green Car Congress

APRIL 20, 2012

Integrity Exports. Five Mazda engineers are receiving the 2011 Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers Medal for developing Mazda’s 1.3-liter gasoline engine with “Skyactiv” technology that allows an exceptionally high 14.0:1 compression ratio and fuel efficiency of 30 km/L (70.6 mph US, 3.33 L/100 km) under Japan’s 10-15 test cycle. Achieving a high compression ratio in conventional gasoline engines has been difficult due to the phenomenon of abnormal combustion, widely known as “knocking”.

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Mazda Japan Engine 2011 236

Green Car Congress

APRIL 18, 2012

TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. has been awarded new business for its next-generation Electric Park Brake (EPB) technology with two major North American based vehicle manufacturers. The EPB system functions as a conventional hydraulic brake for standard service brake applications, and as an electric brake for parking and emergency braking. TRW expects the penetration rate for vehicles sold in North America with EPB to approach 10% by 2015.

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Market North America 2001 America 236

Green Car Congress

APRIL 18, 2012

A team led by Pratul Agarwal of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has used light of specific wavelengths to modify the enzyme Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) to promote catalysis. Preliminary estimations indicate that the engineered enzyme achieved 8–52 fold better catalytic activity than the unmodulated enzyme. Enzymes are present in every organism and are widely used in industry as catalysts in the production of biofuels and countless other products.

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Engine Light Industrial Industry 231

Green Car Congress

APRIL 16, 2012

HPEV, Inc., a plug-in hybrid conversion company, says it ia delivering sub-assemblies and components for commercializing its parallel hybrid conversion system on a Ford 350 class 3 truck. Final assembly will begin shortly with a target date for completion of the introductory unit at the end of the third calendar quarter. The HPEV system uses lead acid batteries to power an electric motor drive which in turn powers a traction motor attached to the rear axle of a vehicle.

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Conversion Ford Companies Lead Acid 231

Green Car Congress

APRIL 16, 2012

Magna E-Car Systems, a partnership between Magna International and the Stronach Group, held the grand opening of its latest facility, a plant in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, that manufactures components for hybrid and electric vehicles. The 66,000-square-foot facility will house approximately 95 employees making electric motors, inverters and electronic powertrain controllers for the Ford Focus Electric, as well as inverters for the Fisker Karma and assorted components for other global custom

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Manufacturer Hybrid Karma North America 231

Green Car Congress

APRIL 19, 2012

China’s State Council will take steps to accelerate the promotion of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, and popularize non-plug-in hybrid vehicles and more efficient internal combustion engine vehicles. The State Council is the highest executive organ of State power in China, as well as the highest organ of State administration. The cultivation and development of the new energy and more efficient conventional vehicles will ease pressure on energy and the environment, promote the transfo

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Green Car Congress

APRIL 19, 2012

American Honda Motor Co, Inc. has established a “Green Dealer” program for its independently-owned Honda and Acura automobile dealers in the United States. The Honda Environmental Leadership Award and Acura Environmental Leadership Award will be given to dealers who quantifiably reduce their environmental impact, beginning with a minimum 10% reduction in total energy use at their dealerships.

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Acura Dealers Honda Green 225

Green Car Congress

APRIL 18, 2012

The average global temperature for March 2012 made it the coolest March since 1999, and the 16 th warmest since record keeping began in 1880, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). At the same time, the contiguous US recorded warmest March on record since 1895. ( Earlier post.). Arctic sea ice extent during the month was below average but was the largest extent since 2008 and one of the largest March extents of the past decade, according to NOAA.

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Global Peru Russia New Zealand 225

Green Car Congress

APRIL 18, 2012

The Gas Technology Institute (GTI) hosted an open house at its new Pilot-Scale IH 2 Plant in Chicago, Illinois to demonstrate the successful efforts to broaden biomass-to-liquid hydrocarbon fuel conversion. IH 2 technology is a catalytic thermochemical process that promises to be a very cost-effective route to produce liquid transportation fuels from renewable resources. ( Earlier post.).

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Fuel Houston Chicago Convert 225

Green Car Congress

APRIL 17, 2012

ALTe Powertrain Technologies, developer of a range-extended plug-in electric hybrid powertrain for light commercial fleet vehicle applications, and Club Assist, a supplier of mobile, car electric and road services to motoring clubs worldwide, are partnering on a joint development project to study ALTe’s powertrain technology in Club Assist’s fleet. ( Earlier post.).

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Green Car Congress

APRIL 17, 2012

Li-ion technology and cost directions through 2030. Click to enlarge. Step-change improvements in performance of advanced automotive batteries are “highly unlikely” to occur out through 2020 as there are no “breakthrough” technologies approaching the electronic consumer market—which is where battery chemistry innovations first appear before trickling down to the more demanding automotive market—today, according to a new report commissioned by the UK Committee on Climate Change.

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