Nikkei: Geely Group breaks into global Top 10 in auto sales for 1Q 2024

The Nikkei reported that the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group sold 730,000 vehicles in the January-March period to become the first Chinese carmaker to break into the global top 10 in auto sales for the quarter. Geely, which had placed 12th in the first quarter of 2023, passed the Mercedes-Benz Group... Read more →


Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory used additive manufacturing to produce the first defect-free complex tungsten parts for use in extreme environments. The accomplishment could have positive implications for clean-energy technologies such as fusion energy. Tungsten has the highest melting point of any metal, making it ideal for fusion reactors... Read more →


ArcelorMittal and partners Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), BHP, along with Mitsubishi Development Pty Ltd (Mitsubishi Development) have successfully started operating a pilot carbon capture unit on the blast furnace off-gas at ArcelorMittal Gent in Belgium. The pilot carbon capture unit will operate for one to two years at Gent... Read more →


Fortescue’s hydrogen-powered haul truck prototype, dubbed “Europa”, has reached the significant milestone of having operated off hydrogen for the first time. This development marks a major step in Fortescue’s mission to decarbonize heavy industry as well as the company’s partnership with Liebherr Mining. Delivered in collaboration with Liebherr, Europa is... Read more →


Toyota Motor will enterthe ENEOS Super Taikyu Series 2024 Empowered by BRIDGESTONE Round 2 NAPAC Fuji SUPER TEC 24 Hours Race, to be held from May 24 to 26, with the #32 ORC ROOKIE GR Corolla H2 Concept, a hydrogen-powered GR Corolla running on liquid hydrogen. (Earlier post.) The durability... Read more →


Kenworth showcased its SuperTruck 2 demonstrator vehicle at the ACT Expo in Las Vegas. The truck was developed over a six-year period as part of a collaboration with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) SuperTruck program, designed to challenge truck makers to improve freight efficiency using a diesel engine as the... Read more →


A research team led by Principal Researcher Young Kim from the Heat Pump Research Center of the Research Institute of Carbon-neutral Energy Machinery of the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) has successfully developed a highly efficient microchannel reactor which reduces the required catalyst amount to 30% for electrofuel... Read more →


Mitsubishi Electric, AISIN to establish EV parts JV

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric Mobility Corporation (collectively “Mitsubishi Electric Group”) and AISIN have reached a basic agreement to establish a joint venture company to handle products for next-generation electric vehicles. The JV will succeed to part of Mitsubishi Electric Mobility’s business, and will develop, produce and sell traction motors,... Read more →


Volvo Trucks is developing trucks with combustion engines that run on hydrogen. On-road tests with trucks using hydrogen in combustion engines will begin in 2026, and the commercial launch is planned towards the end of this decade. Volvo trucks with hydrogen-powered combustion engines will feature High Pressure Direct Injection (HPDI),... Read more →


Moscow has begun testing an autonomous tram. In the initial phase, a driver is still present at the controls on the road. Within the depot, the tram operates completely autonomously. During the test phase, it will run on the 10th tram route without passengers. In the next phase, by the... Read more →


Ohio State/Wilberforce University team takes home first place in year two of the EcoCAR EV Challenge

The Ohio State/Wilberforce University Team has been named the Year Two champion of the EcoCAR Electric Vehicle (EV) Challenge, followed by Georgia Tech in second place and McMaster University (CA) in third place. The Year Two competition challenged teams to complete a series of vehicle events, comparable to tests automakers... Read more →


Prologis and Performance Team – A Maersk Company, launched Southern California’s largest heavy-duty electric vehicle (EV) charging depot, located near the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and powered by the nation’s largest EV truck microgrid. Located directly off the Harbor (110) Freeway in Los Angeles on Denker Avenue,... Read more →


TotalEnergies has announced that it will invest $600 million to strengthen exploration and production activities in the Republic of Congo in 2024. The investment will be used to finance exploration and maintain production in the country’s deep offshore Moho Nord field, which accounts for approximately half of all Congolese oil... Read more →


Swiss Steel Group is participating in a consortium for renewable energies, the “Initiative EE-Industrie”. This initiative, comprising 19 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany, aims to build, operate and utilize wind and photovoltaic plants for self-supply with green electricity. Based on initial forecasts, the consortium will require a total... Read more →


Volkswagen delays introduction of ID. 7 electric sedan in North America

Volkswagen announced it will delay the introduction of the ID.7 electric sedan (earlier post) in the US and Canada in response to changing market dynamics. Volkswagen had announced in March that ID.7 would be offered stateside in two trims—Pro S and Pro S Plus—with an 82 kWh battery and 282... Read more →


Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has successfully completed development of a hydrogen-fueled Class-8 demonstration vehicle, built as part of its industry-supported H2-ICE consortium. The central focus of the demonstration includes development of a Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (H2-ICE) that produces ultra-low NOx and CO2 emissions while still providing enough torque and... Read more →


Hexagon Purus to supply Toyota Motor North America for serial production of heavy-duty fuel cell electric powertrain kits

Hexagon Purus will be supplying a full hydrogen storage system and high voltage battery pack to Toyota North America (TMNA) for serial production of its heavy-duty fuel cell electric powertrain kits. Hexagon Purus’s collaboration with Toyota started in 2017 as Toyota began development of the fuel cell electric powertrain kits... Read more →


Hyundai Motor and autonomous driving software company Plus unveiled the first Level 4 autonomous Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell electric truck in the US at the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo. A result of the collaboration between Hyundai Motor and Plus, Hyundai Motor’s XCIENT Fuel Cell truck, equipped with Plus... Read more →


ARPA-E announces $150M to develop systems that provide abundant primary energy, enable intermodal energy transport, and sustainably meet demand for polymers & other materials

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) announced up to $150 million in funding to develop groundbreaking technologies to realize ARPA-E’s vision of the energy future. (DE-FOA-0003387) This vision includes three goals that are critical to achieve a sustainable energy and carbon transition with: 1) greenhouse... Read more →


NGK INSULATORS, LTD. (NGK) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) jointly will develop two types of membrane dehydration systems, one for Bioethanol and e-Methanol, respectively. The goal is to realize low cost and to optimize efficiency of manufacturing processes for Bioethanol and e-Methanol to meet expected demand growth for clean... Read more →


Metafuels, European Energy plan eSAF facility in Denmark; methanol to SAF

Metafuels AG (earlier post), a Swiss aviation tech company, has signed an agreement with European Energy to set up a synthetic sustainable aviation fuel (eSAF) facility near Padborg in southern Denmark. The new facility is set to be constructed adjacent to a future Power-to-X facility from European Energy. The facility... Read more →


BMW i Ventures invests in cloud simulation company Simr

BMW i Ventures announced an investment in Simr, a cloud simulation company that gives engineers a single platform for using any compute resources with any leading simulation tool. The company’s newly launched Simulation Operations Automation (SimOps) platform has the potential to revolutionize how engineers design, verify, and test products by... Read more →


ENNOVI, a mobility electrification solutions partner, has introduced the new ENNOVI-MB2B multi-row board-to-board (BTB) connector platform featuring a proprietary snap-in biscuit design, allowing multiple connector units to be stacked together without solder. This cost-effective approach enables different pin count requirements to be accommodated via the same basic interconnect platform, without... Read more →


TotalEnergies (40%), along with its Block 20/11 partners, Petronas (40%) and Sonangol (20%), announced the Final Investment Decision (FID) of the $6-billion Kaminho project to develop the Cameia and Golfinho fields, located 100 km off the coast of Angola, in 1,700 m water-depth. This FID has been made possible thanks... Read more →


A team of scientists led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has found an unconventional way to improve catalysts made of more than one material. The solution demonstrates a path to designing catalysts with greater activity, selectivity and stability. A catalyst normally uses a support to... Read more →


Range Energy (Range), a company developing powered trailers for the commercial trucking market (earlier post), unveiled the development of a new trailer data and telematics platform that will bring unique operational insights to its electric-powered trailer customers. The platform is being developed in partnership with connected vehicle technology company, Sibros,... Read more →


Leading school bus manufacturer Blue Bird unveiled the operating prototype of an electric-powered step van and underlying stripped chassis at the 2024 Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo. Blue Bird teamed up with Xos and Morgan Olson to build the prototype of the last-mile delivery commercial vehicle. Blue Bird is building... Read more →


Achates showcases 2.5L opposed-piston engine at ACT Expo

At ACT Expo, Achates Power (API) is displaying one of three engine variants of what it calls the cleanest and most efficient combustion engine architecture to date. With the industry facing massive disruption due to stringent limits on both criteria and CO2 emissions, API’s demonstrations of its opposed-piston engines have... Read more →


BAE Systems and Eaton successfully tested their integrated electric drive system for medium- and heavy-duty commercial trucks. Using this technology, existing truck models can be adapted across various zero-emission applications, improving efficiency, performance, and flexibility. Testing occurred at Eaton’s proving grounds in Marshall, Michigan on a Class 7 demonstration vehicle.... Read more →