Green Car Congress

JUNE 24, 2013

'XL1s ready to roll. Click to enlarge. During a media event in Wolfsburg, Germany, Volkswagen provided a medium dive into details of its two-seater XL1 Super Efficient Vehicle diesel plug-in hybrid ( earlier post ) as well as some driving time on local roads and highways. The XL1 is aggressively optimized for efficiency in all areas of its design and technology—from materials (carbon fiber reinforced polymer monocoque); to powertrain (0.8L two-cylinder diesel, 20 kW electric motor and 5.5

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Plug-in Diesel Plug Hybrid 324

Green Car Reports

JUNE 28, 2013

'The 2012 Ford Focus Electric is already available in select parts of the U.S. -- and to answer all your questions about Ford’s first mass-produced all-electric car here’s our ultimate guide to the Ford Focus Electric. For our guide, we’ve hand-picked the best information about the five-seat hatchback, detailing everything from.

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Green Cars News

JUNE 27, 2013

'The third model in the Mazda line-up to feature SKYACTIV technology has been unveiled: in the form of the new Mazda3 (pictured). The vehicle, which has sold more than 3.5million units across 120 countries, has been redesigned for 2014 and will come with a choice of new engines: the SKYACTIV-G 2.0li[.].

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Mazda Green Cars 2014 Green 60

Green Car Congress

JUNE 27, 2013

'FlowCath PEM fuel cell. Click to enlarge. UK-based ACAL Energy Ltd announced that its FlowCath platinum-free liquid cathode system has enabled a PEM hydrogen fuel cell to reach 10,000 hours’ runtime on a third-party automotive industry durability test without any significant signs of degradation. ACAL Energy’s approach is also significantly cheaper than conventional fuel cell technology. ( Earlier post.). 10,000 hours, the equivalent of 300,000 driven miles, is the point at which hydrogen fuel

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Fuel Energy 2017 Hydrogen 321

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 25, 2013

'Boulder Electric Vehicle and Coritech Services have demonstrated bi-directional DC fast charging, making Boulder Electric Vehicle the first electric truck company to implement Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) charging. At the Alternative Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in Washington DC, this week, the companies demonstrating their turnkey solution to V2G charging utilizing Boulder EV’s Electric Flatbed Utility Truck equipped with a 72 kWh battery pack and a Coritech 60kW DC Fast Charger System.

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Grid Electric Vehicles Charging Vehicles 301

Green Car Congress

JUNE 25, 2013

'Audi’s e-gas plant. Click to enlarge. Audi has opened its e-gas plant in Werlte, making it the first automobile manufacturer to develop a chain of sustainable energy carriers. ( Earlier post.). The Audi e-gas plant, which can convert 6MW of input power, utilizes renewable electricity for electrolysis to produce oxygen and hydrogen. Because there is not yet a widespread hydrogen infrastructure, the hydrogen is reacted with CO 2 in a methanation unit to generate renewable synthetic methane, or Au

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Gas-Electric Audi Gas Water 296

Green Car Congress

JUNE 27, 2013

'The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Board of Directors approved a contract with BYD Motors for the manufacture and delivery of up to 25 new all-electric buses as part of a $30-million clean air bus technology pilot project. This marks the first time that all-electric transit buses will be purchased and placed into Metro revenue service.

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Los Angeles BYD Purchase Parts 262

Green Car Congress

JUNE 26, 2013

'New Golf TDI BlueMotion. Click to enlarge. Volkswagen’s third-generation Golf TDI BlueMotion, introduced as a concept at the Mondial de l’Automobile in Paris last September( earlier post ), is rated with fuel consumption of 3.2 l/100 km (73.5 mpg US) on the NEDC—equivalent to 85 g/km CO 2. This represents a 15% improvement in fuel consumption compared to the previous model.

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MPG Diesel Fuel Water 249

Green Car Congress

JUNE 25, 2013

'Among the transportation-related elements of US President Barack Obama’s new climate action plan, which he is outlining today in a speech at Georgetown University, is the development of new fuel economy standards for heavy-duty vehicles post-2018. In 2011, the Obama Administration finalized the first fuel economy standards for Model Year 2014-2018 for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, buses, and vans. ( Earlier post.).

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Obama Cleaner Climate Fuel Economy 249

Green Car Congress

JUNE 23, 2013

'Researchers at the University of Delaware have developed an inexpensive bismuth?carbon monoxide evolving catalyst (Bi-CMEC) that can be used in conjunction with ionic liquids to convert CO 2 to carbon monoxide (CO) using electricity. CO can then be reacted with H 2 O via the water?gas shift to generate H 2 , and this CO/H 2 mixture (syngas) can be used to generate synthetic petroleum and liquid fuels using Fischer?

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Conversion Renewable CO2 Energy 247

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 24, 2013

'FedEx Express, a unit of FedEx Corp. has added 1,900 lightweight, composite-body Reach vehicles from Spartan Motors , a division of Utilimaster, to its fleet. The Reach van, with its four-cylinder, 3.0-liter Isuzu diesel engine, demonstrates a 35% fuel efficiency improvement over traditional vehicles in the FedEx Express fleet. The lower-weight body design—light-weight composite materials save 600 lbs (272 kg) of weight per vehicle—along with the engine, allows every Reach to signif

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Fleet Fuel New York City Isuzu 240

Green Car Congress

JUNE 24, 2013

'A Volkswagen Passat TDI, produced at the Volkswagen Chattanooga (Tennessee) plant, now has covered 8,122 miles (13,071 km) with record low fuel consumption and within 16 days. The record drive was witnessed by officials of the Guinness World Record Organization. The driver team, hyper-miler Wayne Gerdes of CleanMPG and engineer Bob Winger, achieved a fuel consumption of only 3.02 l/100 km (77.99 mpg US).

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Fuel Economy MPG Economy Fuel 236

Green Car Congress

JUNE 27, 2013

'Pie chart showing mean estimates by the USGS of technically accessible storage resources (TA SR ) for CO 2 by region. Click to enlarge. The United States has the potential to store a mean of 3,000 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide in geologic basins throughout the country, according to the first detailed national geologic carbon sequestration assessment released today by the US Geological Survey (USGS).

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CO2 United States Carbon Coal 230

Green Car Congress

JUNE 25, 2013

'Navigant automotive Li-ion Leaderboard. Source: Navigant Research. Click to enlarge. In a new Leaderboard report , Navigant Research ranks LG Chem as the top vendor for automotive Li-ion batteries, looking at all types of vehicles with electrified drivetrains, including hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and battery-electric vehicles (BEVs).

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Li-ion Manufacturer Batteries Battery 230

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 28, 2013

'The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $3.5 million for four advanced nuclear reactor projects that go beyond traditional light water designs. These projects—led by General Atomics, GE Hitachi, Gen4 Energy and Westinghouse —will address key technical challenges to designing, building and operating the next generation of nuclear reactors.

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Sodium Maintenance Design Climate 220

Green Car Congress

JUNE 28, 2013

'Fuel Systems Solutions announced that its IMPCO Automotive division, a Gaseous Fuels QVM of Ford Motor Company, recently received an order from AT&T to convert 650 MVP Ford F350 trucks to run on dedicated CNG fuel systems. In 2009, AT&T announced it expected to spend an estimated $350 million to purchase about 8,000 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles. ( Earlier post.).

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Conversion Ford 2009 Convert 220

Green Car Congress

JUNE 28, 2013

'Model-year 2014 marks the debut of Chrysler Group’s nine-speed automatic transmission. ( Earlier post.) The advanced-technology gearbox enables aggressive launches, smooth power delivery at highway speeds and greater fuel efficiency than a six-speed automatic transmission. Its ratios are: 4.71. 2.84. 1.91. 1.38. 1.00. 0.81. 0.70. 0.58. 0.48. The wide ratio spread delivers outstanding low-end performance while small gear-ratio steps contribute to smooth transitions.

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Fuel Economy Chrysler Economy 2014 220

Green Car Congress

JUNE 24, 2013

'At the Paris Air Show, Airbus demonstrated a modified A320 fitted with its electric green taxiing system (EGTS), which was developed by EGTS International—a joint venture of Safran and Honeywell. Electric taxiing system. Click to enlarge. One wheel on each main gear is equipped with an electric motor, reduction gearbox and clutch assembly to drive the aircraft during taxi operations, with power electronics and system controllers allowing pilots to control its speed and direction.

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Taxi Electric Electrical International 218

Green Car Congress

JUNE 28, 2013

'The new Audi Matrix LED headlights will make their debut on the new A8, which is appearing on the market at the end of 2013. Audi Matrix LED technology splits up the LED high-beam headlights into numerous individual, small diodes working in conjunction with lenses or reflectors connected in series. Managed by a control unit, they are activated and deactivated or dimmed individually according to the situation.

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Audi Light MPH Supplies 210

Green Car Congress

JUNE 27, 2013

'Diamond Green Diesel (DGD), the joint venture between Valero subsidiary Diamond Alternative Energy LLC and Darling International Inc., has reached mechanical completion and the startup process will lead to full production of renewable diesel. ( Earlier post.). Once in full operations, the 9,300 barrel-per-day plant will process recycled animal fat and used cooking oil as well as corn oil into renewable diesel fuel that has comparable properties to petroleum-based diesel using the UOP hydrotreat

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Diesel Renewable Green Production 210

Green Car Congress

JUNE 24, 2013

'SAE’s Cooperative Research Project (CRP) team has wrapped up its latest study of the low global warming potential refrigerant R-1234yf and concluded again that risks of fire resulting from its use are still very small compared to the risks of a vehicle fire from all causes and well below risks that are commonly viewed as acceptable by the general public. ( Earlier post.).

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Land Rover EPA Mazda Chrysler 210

Green Car Congress

JUNE 24, 2013

'As part of an ongoing collaboration, seven joint research teams from the University of Michigan (U-M) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) have won funding for research projects that explore the potential of nanotechnology in energy and biomedical applications. Two of those are working on promising new technologies for advanced Li-ion batteries.

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Li-ion Universal Batteries Battery 210

Green Car Congress

JUNE 27, 2013

'2014 Mazda3. Click to enlarge. Mazda unveiled the redesigned 2014 Mazda3 (known as the Axela in Japan) in a series of launch events world-wide. The new Mazda3 is the third new-generation model to embody Mazda’s new KODO Design and SKYACTIV Technology, after the CX-5 and new Mazda6. With more than 3.5 million units sold since its original debut, the Mazda3 is now sold in more than 120 countries and accounts for 30% of the company’s annual global sales.

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Mazda Fuel Economy 2014 Gasoline-Electric 207

Green Car Congress

JUNE 26, 2013

'Components of the new 2500-bar DCR system. Click to enlarge. Global automotive supplier DENSO Corporation has developed a new 2500-bar diesel common rail (DCR) fuel injection system; DENSO says this is the currently the world’s highest injection pressure for a diesel common rail fuel injection systems comprising injector, fuel pump and common rail.

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Diesel Emissions Fuel 2002 207

Green Car Congress

JUNE 26, 2013

'By rerouting the metabolic pathway that makes fatty acids in E. coli bacteria, researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School have devised a new way to make targeted precursors of high-octane biofuels. A paper on their work is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Gasoline Engine Carbon Ford 207

Green Car Congress

JUNE 22, 2013

'Brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) curves for a 5.7L V8, a 3.6L Turbo-DI V6 (both with actual data), and a 2.2L VCR 4-cylinder engine (projected data) from a 2011 report by Envera. All three engine BSFC curves correspond to an engine speed of 2000 rpm.Click to enlarge. The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) of the US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded Envera LLC a $2.8-million contract (DE-EE0005981) to develop and to test a high-efficiency variable compression ratio (VCR) eng

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Engine Eaton Fuel Economy Downsizing 207

Green Car Congress

JUNE 27, 2013

'Four San Francisco Bay Area local government fleets—San Jose, Los Gatos, Campbell and Mill Valley—are deploying a total of 50 Mitsubishi i-MiEV EVs, representing the largest municipal fleet deployment of light-duty all-electric vehicles (EVs) in the US to date. Supporting the region’s efforts to establish the Bay Area as the “EV Capital of the US” and Governor Brown’s goal of 1.5 million EVs on California roads by 2025, this deployment is one in a series the Bay Area Climate Collabo

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i-MiEV San Jose San Francisco Oakland 199

Green Car Congress

JUNE 27, 2013

'Audi posted its 12 th Le Mans 24 Hour victory on Sunday in its Audi R18 e-tron diesel hybrid quattro. Post-race analysis showed that the victorious Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Loïc Duval/Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish (F/DK/GB) designated as car number ‘2’ made 34 pit stops at Le Mans and required 47 minutes and 14.799 seconds for them. A permitted fuel tank capacity of 58 liters theoretically made a maximum of 1,972 liters of diesel fuel available at the stops.

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Audi Fuel Bentley Porsche 199

Green Car Congress

JUNE 26, 2013

'In a new paper in the International Journal of Engine Research , Koichiro Aikawa of Honda R&D and Jeff Jetter of Honda R&D Americas report that their “PM Index”—reported in a paper in 2010—applies well to direct-injection (DI) gasoline engines as well as to the port-fuel-injection (PFI) engines of their original study. In the original study, Aikawa and Jetter, along with Takayuki Sakurai, also from Honda R&D, investigated the relationship between gasoline properties and vehicle part

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Gasoline Honda Engine 2010 199

Green Car Congress

JUNE 26, 2013

'Fiat’s City Brake Control safety system, which automatically applies the brakes to avoid collisions and is active at speeds up to 30 km/h (19 mph) has won the Euro NCAP Advanced 2013 award. Optional on Fiat Panda and 500L,the innovative active safety system detects the presence of vehicles or obstacles in front of the car and automatically applies the brakes if the driver fails to do so in order to avoid the collision or to reduce its consequences.

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MPH 2013 Light Parts 199

Green Car Congress

JUNE 26, 2013

'In his talk at Georgetown University outlining his climate action plan, President Barack Obama suggested that the controversial Keystone XL pipeline would only be built if the project “ does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution. ”. Now, I know there’s been, for example, a lot of controversy surrounding the proposal to build a pipeline, the Keystone pipeline, that would carry oil from Canadian tar sands down to refineries in the Gulf.

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Obama North Dakota Oil-Sands Canada 199

Green Car Congress

JUNE 26, 2013

'Infiniti today announced full US pricing on the 2014 Infiniti Q50 sports sedan, which goes on sale at Infiniti retailers nationwide in early July. The Q50 is offered in 3.7-liter V6 and 3.5-liter Hybrid models. ( Earlier post.) The Q50 Hybrid, with a starting price of US$43,950, features one of the fastest accelerating hybrid engines and fuel consumption of 36 mpg highway.

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Infinity Price Hybrid MPG 199

Green Car Congress

JUNE 26, 2013

'Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) struck a deal with the Irish Presidency of the European Council to retain the 95g CO 2 /km by 2020 reduction target for average car emissions. The agreement still needs the official endorsement of EU member states. The agreement confirms the 95g/km by 2020 target for new cars sold in the EU, down from 130g in 2015.

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Emissions CO2 2020 Cars 199

Green Car Congress

JUNE 24, 2013

'Royal DSM recently launched Arnite A-X07455, the first high performance PET (polyethylene terephthalate) engineering plastic that is highly resistant to hydrolysis. This breakthrough development opens up opportunities for significant weight and cost benefits over metal in automobile engine compartment applications, according to the company. As a result of continuous engine downsizing, particularly in the compact car segment, temperatures under the hood are going up, putting extra demands on pla

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Parts Auto Downsizing Exhaust 199