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Ford lowers fuel economy ratings for hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and Fiestas; goodwill payments to buyers coming

Green Car Congress

reduction in combined fuel economy (45 mpg down to 38 mpg), and the C-MAX and Fusion plug-in hybrids saw about a 12% decrease in charge sustaining and charge depleting fuel economy, and about a 10% decrease in all-electric range. In some cases, the reduction was minor, on the order of 2-3%. The MKZ hybrid, however, was hit with a 15.6%

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Siemens, Duke Energy and Ford demonstrate lower cost home smart charging technology for plug-ins; due on market next year

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Siemens Energy Management Division has teamed with Duke Energy and Ford to demonstrate the results of an 18-month effort to reduce the cost and expand electric vehicle charging technologies. Held at the Duke Energy Envision Center in Erlanger, Ky., Held at the Duke Energy Envision Center in Erlanger, Ky., In 2012, Siemens was awarded $1.6

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5 Big Ideas for High-Temperature Superconductors

Cars That Think

It refers to materials that superconduct above −195.79 °C, the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. Those high magnetic fields may one day enable nuclear fusion energy, which I wrote about recently [see “ This Fusion Reactor Is Held Together With Tape ”]. Since then, research has lagged due to the high cost of the materials.

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ARPA-E awarding $60M to 23 projects; dry cooling and fusion power

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The Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) will award $60 million in funding to 23 new projects aimed at creating highly efficient and scalable dry-cooling technologies for thermoelectric power plants and developing prototype technologies to explore new pathways for fusion power. PARC, a Xerox Company.

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Researchers using ORNL Jaguar supercomputer for simulations to develop improved gasifiers

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Multiphase refers to the process of changing a solid (in this case, coal) to a gas (syngas). The program allocates hours to large-scale, computationally-intensive research projects in a range of areas including fusion, climate, and materials. Click to enlarge. NETL funded the research.

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UC Davis ITS study suggests hastening consumer adoption of plug-ins will require innovation on the sales side

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The SSI study captures 12 different PEV models from eight vehicle manufacturers, including GM (Chevrolet Volt); Nissan (LEAF); Tesla (Model S); Ford (Focus EV, C-Max Energi and Fusion Energi); Honda (Fit EV and Accord PHEV); Toyota (Prius Plug-in and RAV4 EV); Mitsubishi (i-MiEV); and Daimler (Smart Fortwo ED).

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DOE seeking comment on draft $50M solicitation for new projects over 11 areas of interest to improve vehicle performance and decrease fuel consumption

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Development of more established techniques such as conventional fusion welding, riveting, friction joining and ultrasonic joining is underway and not supported by this AOI; this AOI seeks to support early stage development and demonstration of completely new techniques. mm and 5 mm thick. mm and 5 mm.

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