Sat.Dec 01, 2012 - Fri.Dec 07, 2012

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Volt drivers collectively log more than 100M all-electric miles since sales launch

Green Car Congress

Chevrolet announced that Volt owners collectively have driven more than 100 million all-electric miles since the vehicle went on sale two years ago this month. The average Volt owner travels more than 65% of the time in pure electric mode as the car was designed, only using the gasoline-powered generator for longer trips. By charging regularly, Volt owners drive approximately 900 miles, or a month and a half, between fill-ups.

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Electric Car Price Guide: Every 2012-2013 Plug-In Car, With Specs

Green Car Reports

It's a hot topic whenever anyone mentions electric cars: Pricing. Many electric cars are more expensive than their regular counterparts, though naturally they cost less to run too. But what do today's electric and plug-in cars actually cost? We've gathered together each plug-in car on sale today in one place. Every vehicle here shows the.

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Nissan LEAF Driving Lesson!

Electric Cars are for Girls

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Mid-size cities looking to Bus Rapid Transit for traffic improvements

National Green Transportation

Public transportation systems have historically shaped the structure of cities. The largest metropolitan areas typically have extensive mass transit systems providing mobility for commuters, residents and visitors while providing a backbone for.

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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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Lotus Engineering Phase 2 lightweighting study for ARB shows crashworthiness of low-mass body structures and potential for cost-effective mass production

Green Car Congress

Phase 2 body-in-white material usage front three-quarter view. Source: Lotus Engineering. Click to enlarge. The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has published the results of Lotus Engineering’s Phase 2 vehicle mass reduction study on a Crossover Utility Vehicle (CUV). Building on a Phase 1 Lotus study published in 2010 ( earlier post ), the Phase 2 study demonstrated the crashworthiness of a low mass body-in-white (BIW) using computer aided analysis and simulation.

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Electric Car Maintenance A Third Cheaper Than Combustion Vehicles?

Green Car Reports

Driving an electric car has plenty of advantages, but many owners also like the simplicity of their vehicles. An electric motor is incredibly simple in operation. In contrast, internal combustion engines can be made up of hundreds of parts--even thousands, in particularly advanced engines. That's why it's perhaps unsurprising to hear that new.

More Trending

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Mid-size cities looking to Bus Rapid Transit for traffic improvements

National Green Transportation

Public transportation systems have historically shaped the structure of cities. The largest metropolitan areas typically have extensive mass transit systems providing mobility for commuters, residents and visitors while providing a backbone for.

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VTTI team proposes optimization algorithm for driverless vehicles at unsignaled intersections

Green Car Congress

The layout of the proposed multi-agent system (MAS) for driverless vehicles at intersections. Zohdy and Rakha. Click to enlarge. Researchers at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) have developed a heuristic optimization algorithm for driverless vehicles at unsignalized intersections using a multi-agent system (MAS). Their research, presented at the Intelligent Transportation Society World Congress in Vienna in October, won the Best Scientific Paper Award for North America.

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Green Car Reports 2013 Best Car To Buy Nominee: Nissan Altima

Green Car Reports

Not all green cars are hybrids, diesels, or plug-ins. And with new fuel economy regulations now set through 2025, all cars are going to get more efficient--gasoline cars first and foremost. The new 2013 Nissan Altima mid-size sedan has the highest EPA rating for combined gas mileage of any gasoline powered mid-size sedan: 31 mpg. That breaks down.

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Formula E electric car race heads to Rome

Green Cars News

Rome has been confirmed as the first European city which will host the new FIA Formula E electric car racing championship. To announce the arrival of the new official racing series for electric cars in the Italian capital-set to launch in 2014-Formula E Development Driver and Pirelli test driver, Mr Luca di Grassi gave a [.].

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

Brief

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BP Biofuels to invest $350M to expand sugarcane ethanol production in Brazil

Green Car Congress

BP Biofuels plans to invest $350 million to expand the ethanol processing capacity of Tropical, one of its sugarcane processing ventures in Brazil. Tropical’s processing capacity will double to five million tons of sugarcane producing 450 million liters (119 gallons US) of ethanol equivalent per year. The expansion, which is scheduled to start next year, includes the building of a new mill.

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Iveco to supply 115 natural gas Daily Vehicles to TNT Express Italy

Green Car Congress

Iveco Daily Natural Power vehicles awaiting delivery. Click to enlarge. Iveco contracted to deliver 115 Daily Natural Power light commercial vehicles to TNT Express Italy by 2013. The methane gas-powered vehicles will be used by TNT for its express courier activities in the Rome area as well as other parts of Central Italy. The New Daily Natural Power is equipped with a 100 kW, 3.0L, in-line 4-cylinder Fiat Powertrain Technologies (FPT) Industrial CNG engine with three-way catalytic converter, u

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BMW introduces 4 Series Concept Coupé; Air Curtain and Air Breather for front wheel aero enhancements

Green Car Congress

In Munich, BMW presented the BMW Concept 4 Series Coupe—a look ahead to the fourth generation of its sporty mid-range coupé, and successor to the current generation of the BMW 3 Series Coupé and Convertible. BMW Concept 4 Series Coupé. Click to enlarge. The wheelbase (2,810 mm) is 50 millimeters longer than that of the existing 3 Series Coupé, while 45 mm has been added to the front track (1,545 mm) and 80 mm to the rear track (1,593 mm).

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Consumer Reports road testing finds Ford Fusion and C-MAX hybrids falling far short of EPA ratings

Green Car Congress

Road testing by Consumer Reports has found the fuel economy on the 2013 Fusion Hybrid sedan and new C-Max Hybrid falling far short below Ford (and EPA) triple 47 mpg (5.0 l/100 km) figures—i.e., 47 mpg for city, highway and combined—for both vehicles. Consumer Reports found the Fusion Hybrid delivered 39 mpg (6.0 l/100 km) overall and 35 (6.7 l/100 km) and 41 (5.7 l/100 km) in city and highway conditions, respectively.

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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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GM sets annual sales record in China

Green Car Congress

With a month of sales remaining, General Motors and its joint ventures set an annual sales record in China. With domestic sales of 260,018 vehicles in November, GM’s sales in 2012 reached 2,593,642 units in the first 11 months compared with 2,547,171 vehicles sold in China for all of 2011. Last month’s sales were the highest ever for November and the second-highest for any month in GM’s largest market, rising 9.7% from November 2011.

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car2go carsharing expands to Seattle

Green Car Congress

car2go North America, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler North America, will start its carsharing service in Seattle on 19 Dec. by introducing a network of 330 car2go edition smart fortwo vehicles that will be available for shared use 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Registration for membership opens today at seattle.car2go.com. For a limited time, all new members who use the promotion code SOUND will receive 30 free minutes of driving time, and currently the one-time $35 membership fee

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US DOE opens “Apps for Vehicles” challenge; leveraging open data for fuel efficiency and safety

Green Car Congress

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Vehicle Technologies Program (VTP) officially opened the Apps for Vehicles Challenge , which is offering $50,000 in prizes for the best business plans, app ideas and product designs that use open vehicle data to improve safety and fuel efficiency through technology innovation. The challenge had been announced earlier at the DOE’s Energy Datapalooza event in October.

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Pike Research forecasts annual investments in vehicle-to building technologies will reach about $103M worldwide by 2020

Green Car Congress

Annual total V2B investment by region, world markets: 2012-2020. Source: Pike Research. Click to enlarge. Despite the potential of defraying a plug-in vehicle’s cost by supporting a building’s energy consumption, vehicle-to-building technology (V2B) as a viable commercial market is still 3 to 5 years off, according to a new report from Pike Research.

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Autotalks introduces first VLSI for vehicle-to-vehicle communication

Green Car Congress

Autotalks, a fabless semiconductor company developing a novel solution for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, recently released the first VLSI (very large scale integration) chip for vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Dubbed “CRATON”, the VLSI is the result of several years of working closely with leading OEMs and Tier 1s, and was developed based on the performance and quality requirements of vehicle-to-vehicle communication safety applications.

Vehicles 225
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Talison Lithium agrees to be acquired by Chengdu Tianqi

Green Car Congress

The Directors of Australia-based Talison Lithium (which is listed in on Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX), a producer of lithium with projects in Western Australia and Chile, are recommending the company’s full acquisition by China-based Chengdu Tianqi Industry (Group) Co., Ltd for C$7.50 per share. The Tianqi Group is Talison’s largest customer and one of the largest producers of lithium chemicals in China.

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Delphi and University of Luxembourg SnT partner on joint research on electronic control systems for automotive

Green Car Congress

Leading global automotive supplier Delphi and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust ( SnT ) of the University of Luxembourg have signed a four-year agreement to cooperate on a joint research program involving electronic control systems for automotive applications. This is the first cooperation between Delphi and the SnT. The program, entitled Cost-Effective Automated Testing of ECU-Software, initially includes two research projects: embedded software testing (model-bas

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Global Bioenergies and Synthos announce direct biological pathway for butadiene; program entering development phase

Green Car Congress

Global Bioenergies, a France-based industrial biology company developing. sustainable routes to light olefins, and Synthos, a. European leader in the rubber industry, announced the discovery of a direct biological pathway to convert renewable resources into butadiene, a light olefin core to the petrochemical industry. ( Earlier post.). Presently, 10 million tons of butadiene are produced each year from oil, representing a market exceeding $20 billion. 7 million tons are used to manufacture rubbe

Global 225
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ITM Power provides update on hydrocarbon fuel cell membrane performance

Green Car Congress

In partnership with the UK’s Carbon Trust and major automotive OEMs, ITM Power has been performing numerous standardized accelerated stress tests on its high power density membrane material ( earlier post ) designed to exacerbate degradation and benchmark durability. Unlike the majority of conventional fluorocarbon membrane materials which are expensive and require significant chemical plant to fabricate, ITM’s materials are low-cost hydrocarbons made by mixing together liquid chemicals to a par

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UMTRI: November average new vehicle fuel economy in US same as October; September Eco-Driving Index at a record 0.8

Green Car Congress

The average fuel economy (window-sticker value) of new vehicles sold in the US in November was 24.1 mpg (9.76 l/100 km)—tying the record set in October, and up 4.0 mpg from October 2007, according to the latest tracking figures from Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). This 20% improvement in fuel economy (mpg) corresponds to a 17% reduction in fuel consumption (gallons per mile).

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EIA Energy Outlook 2013 reference case sees drop in fossil fuel consumption as use of petroleum-based liquid fuels falls; projects 20% higher sales of hybrids and PHEVs than AEO2012

Green Car Congress

Transportation sector gasoline demand declines. Click to enlarge. The US Energy Information Administration released its Annual Energy Outlook 2013 (AEO2013) Reference case (the Early Release ), which highlights a growth in total US energy production that exceeds growth in total US energy consumption through 2040. Among its many findings, the Reference case suggests that US primary energy consumption will grow by 7% from 2011 to 2040 to 108 quadrillion Btu.

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AES Selects Mitsubishi-GS Yuasa and Parker-Hannifin to supply Li-ion grid Energy Storage System in Chile

Green Car Congress

AES Gener and AES Energy Storage have selected Parker-Hannifin to supply advanced battery energy storage systems for their new Cochrane power station. The battery energy storage system will be supplied by Mitsubishi Corporation with the lithium-ion battery module manufactured by GS Yuasa and the lithium ion battery cells by Lithium Energy Japan, a joint venture of Mitsubishi Corporation and GS Yuasa.

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American Suzuki Motor receives bankruptcy court approval of up to $100M in Debtor-In-Possession (DIP) financing

Green Car Congress

American Suzuki Motor Corporation (ASMC) has received court approval for Debtor-In-Possession (DIP) financing. As a result, the Company will be able to borrow up to $50 million for operations and up to $50 million for purchases of inventory from Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC). These funds will help ensure that ASMC has the cash necessary to operate its business during the pendency of the chapter 11 case. ( Earlier post.

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DOE and EPA release annual fuel economy guide with 2013 models

Green Car Congress

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) released the 2013 Fuel Economy Guide. The 2013 models include efficient and low-emission vehicles in a variety of classes and sizes, but notable this year is the growing availability of hybrids and the increasing number of electric vehicles. This year, for the first time, EPA and DOE have added a second top ten list of most efficient vehicles—separating advanced technology vehicles from conventional gasoline an

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Petrobras announces new ultra deepwater discovery; fourth important hydrocarbon discovery in the basin this year

Green Car Congress

Brazil’s Petrobras announced the discovery of a new light hydrocarbon accumulation in ultra deepwaters of the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin, in the concession area BM-SEAL-10, block SEAL-M-424. The discovery took place during drilling of well 1-BRSA-1108-SES (1-SES-172). The well is 85 km (53 miles) off the Aracaju coast, state of Sergipe, at a 2,583 meter (8,474 feet) water depth.

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Cobalt and Total announce significant North Platte deepwater Gulf of Mexico discovery

Green Car Congress

Cobalt International Energy, Inc., an independent oil exploration and production company focusing on the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico and offshore Angola and Gabon, announced a significant oil discovery at its North Platte prospect on Garden Banks Block 959 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Total is in a strategic alliance with Cobalt International Energy to explore for oil in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

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Teijin begins operations at carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic plant; targeting components for mass-produced vehicles

Green Car Congress

Teijin Limited began operating a pilot plant for the fully integrated production of carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP) components from carbon fiber on the premises of its Matsuyama Factory in Ehime Prefecture, Japan. ( Earlier post.). The plant features Teijin’s proprietary mass-production technology for CFRTP components, which significantly reduces cycle times required for molding composite products to under a minute, enabling rapid production of prototypes and performance evaluation

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Led by Focus, Ford China sales up 56% in November

Green Car Congress

Ford China broke sales records for a third consecutive month in November. Led by strong sales of the Ford Focus—the best-selling passenger car in China from August through October—Ford sold 67,505 wholesale vehicles last month, a 56% increase compared to November 2011. Ford China’s year-to-date sales are now up 18%. Our plan to introduce 15 new vehicles by 2015 is on track, and with the launch of the Ford Kuga and EcoSport SUVs, we’re going to make more inroads into China’s fastest-g

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DOT proposes requiring event data recorders on all light-duty vehicles beginning in 2014

Green Car Congress

The US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed a new standard that would capture valuable safety-related data in the seconds before and during a motor vehicle crash. The proposed rule would require automakers to install event data recorders (EDRs)—devices that collect specific safety-related data (i.e., “black boxes”)in all light passenger vehicles beginning 1 September 2014.

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Tesla Model S 60-kWh Version: EPA Range Rated At 208 Miles

Green Car Reports

Without any fanfare, the EPA has released its range rating for the second version of the Tesla Model S to come to market. The 2013 Tesla Model S fitted with a 60-kilowatt-hour battery pack has a rated range of 208 miles. That compares to 265 miles for the Model S version with the largest 85-kWh battery pack. The new 60-kWh Model S has a higher.

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