Green Car Congress

JANUARY 22, 2013

Elements of the “Hybrid Air” hydraulic hybrid powertrain under development for B, C, and D vehicles. Click to enlarge. Following the introduction of the Bosch electric axle-split hybrid in PSA Peugeot Citroën diesel vehicles ( earlier post ), the two companies are now planning to develop a hydraulic hybrid powertrain for passenger cars. The hydraulic system, which uses compressed air for energy storage, basically comprises two hydraulic units and their pressure accumulators.

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Green Car Reports

JANUARY 4, 2013

Startups making small, economical vehicles come and go, but one company offering a high-efficiency vehicle has big plans, buying a former General Motors assembly plant. Elio Motors is the company behind a three-wheeled car capable of 84 mpg highway, on nothing more complicated than gasoline. Reuters reports the company has bought an old GM plant.

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Green Cars News

JANUARY 21, 2013

While biofuels may right now make up much of our answer to the demand for renewable transport fuel, both here in Europe and in the US, that could soon change. According to new research from the University of California-Santa Barbara, photovoltaic panels are a much more efficient method of producing clean, renewable fuel compared to [.].

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 3, 2013

The US Department of Energy announced more than $10 million in funding to five new projects that will develop new synthetic biological and chemical techniques to convert biomass into advanced biofuels and bioproducts such as plastics and chemical intermediates. Two of these projects will develop cost-effective ways to produce intermediates from the deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass, while three projects will propose new conversion techniques to transform biomass intermediates into advanc

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 15, 2013

Nissan announced that US pricing for the updated 2013 Nissan LEAF electric vehicle ( earlier post ) will start at an MSRP of $28,800 for the newly-added entry-level S grade—an 18% reduction from the $35,200 MSRP of the 2012 LEAF entry model, the SV. The entry-level 2013 LEAF S becomes the lowest priced five-passenger electric vehicle sold in the United States.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 5, 2013

Exxon Mobil Corporation will develop the Hebron oil field offshore the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador using a gravity-based structure that will recover more than 700 million barrels of oil, an increase from earlier estimates. Capital cost for the project, which is expected to begin oil production around the end of 2017, is estimated at $14 billion.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 9, 2013

The US Department of Energy selected a team led by its Ames Laboratory for an award of up to $120 million over five years to establish an Energy Innovation Hub that will develop solutions to the domestic shortages of rare earth metals and other materials critical for US energy. The new research center, which will be named the Critical Materials Institute (CMI), will bring together leading researchers from academia, four Department of Energy national laboratories, and the private sector. ( Earlie

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 20, 2013

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a third update on its investigation into the fire aboard a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 at Logan International Airport in Boston on 7 January. ( Earlier post.) NTSB said that examination of the flight recorder data from the JAL B-787 airplane indicated that the APU battery did not exceed its designed voltage of 32 volts.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 18, 2013

John F. Thomas, Brian H. West and Shean P. Huff Fuels, Engines and Emissions Research Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Figure 1. Vehicle installed on the chassis dynamometer in the ORNL vehicle research laboratory. Click to enlarge. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) staff have been performing vehicle research and testing in support of the fueleconomy.gov website.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 11, 2013

Total lithium-ion transportation battery revenue by region, world markets: 2012-2020. Source: Pike Research. Click to enlarge. In a new report , Pike Research forecasts that the overall market for Li-ion batteries in light duty transportation will grow from $1.6 billion in 2012 to almost $22 billion in 2020. Battery-electric vehicles will be the dominant vehicle technology for driving market growth, Pike suggests, because they utilize much larger battery packs than plug-in hybrid electric vehicl

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 22, 2013

Well-to-wheels results for greenhouse gas emissions in CO 2 e for six pathways. Source: Wang et al. Click to enlarge. A new lifecycle analysis of five bioethanol production pathways by a team from Argonne National Laboratory led by Dr. Michael Wang found that, relative to petroleum gasoline, ethanol from corn; sugarcane; corn stover; switchgrass; and miscanthus can reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [P10-P90 (P50)] by 19–48% (34%); 40–62% (51%); 90–103% (96%); 77–97% (88%); and 101–

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 24, 2013

Damaged electrode with sign of internal short circuit from the 787 Li-ion battery. Source: NTSB. Click to enlarge. At a briefing on the progress in the investigation of the Li-ion battery fire on-board a JAL Boeing 787 at Logan Airpot in Boston ( earlier post ), NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman reported that the investigating team had found signs of electrical short circuiting and thermal runaway in the cells.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 4, 2013

Direct land use, life cycle GHG emissions (excluding indirect land use change), and life cycle fossil fuel requirements to generate the transportation services provided by 17.8 × 10 12 MJ NCV of gasoline, the amount used in transportation in the US in 2009. Credit: ACS, Geyer et al. Click to enlarge. A new spatially-explicit life cycle assessment of five different “sun-to-wheels” conversion pathways—ethanol from corn or switchgrass for internal combustion vehicles (ICVs); electricity from

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 11, 2013

Rendering of the battery-electric car ferry. Click to enlarge. Siemens, together with the Norwegian shipyard Fjellstrand, has developed a battery-electric car ferry, the miljøferge (environmental ferry) ZeroCat. The 80-meter vessel can carry up to 120 cars and 360 passengers. From 2015 onward, it will serve the E39 route between Lavik and Oppedal, across the Sognefjord.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 19, 2013

Evonik Corporation is featuring the Wind Explorer—a lightweight, electric vehicle that crossed Australia on less than $15 of electricity—at its administrative center in Parsippany, N.J. The vehicle produced virtually zero emissions during the 3,000 mile (4,828 km) Australian journey, a distance roughly 200 miles (322 km) further than from New York City to Los Angeles.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 7, 2013

The study task design steps. Source: fka. Click to enlarge. A recent study found that an aluminum electric vehicle can cost up to €635 (US$829) less than that its steel counterpart despite the higher cost of aluminum, given equivalent range targets. The study, conducted by Forschungsgesellschaft Kraftfahrwesen mbH Aachen (fka) for the European Aluminium Association (EAA) and the International Aluminum Institute (IAI), found that any additional cost of building a car with aluminum is more than of

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 30, 2013

Li-ion battery maker A123 Systems LLC, a newly formed, wholly owned subsidiary of Wanxiang America Corporation, has acquired substantially all of the non-government business assets of bankrupt A123 Systems, Inc. Included in the acquisition, which has received approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), are A123’s automotive, grid and commercial business assets, including technology, products, customer contracts and U.S. facilities in Michigan, Massachusetts an

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 31, 2013

Thirteen major US employers and eight stakeholder groups have joined the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) new Workplace Charging Challenge to help expand access to workplace charging stations for American workers across the country. In a speech at the Washington Auto Show, Energy Secretary Chu outlined the new initiative, which aims to expand the availability of workplace charging, increasing the convenience of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and providing drivers with more options.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 9, 2013

Bosch is working to expand its range of driver assistance systems to incorporate autonomous braking, acceleration, and steering functions. The traffic jam assistant will step in when the vehicle is moving at speeds between 0 and 50 km/h (31 mph). This means that it will operate in most stop-and-go traffic situations. The first generation of the traffic jam assistant is expected to enter series production in 2014.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 4, 2013

2012 US sales of plug-in vehicles by major OEMs. Click to enlarge. GM was the US sales leader among the major OEMs for plug-in vehicles in December, and for 2012. GM sold 2,633 units of the Volt extended range electric vehicle in December, up 72.2% by volume from 1,529 units in December 2011. For the year, GM posted sales of 23,461 Volts, up 205.8% from the 7,671 units in 2011, giving it a dominant lead among the major OEMs in the nascent plug-in vehicles market for the year.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 10, 2013

BASF has expanded its partnership with Nissan, and is now also supplying the automaker with coatings and paints for the Pathfinder and Infiniti models at its Smyrna plant in Tennessee, USA. BASF supplies Nissan with coating solutions from e-coat and basecoat to clearcoat. BASF is also working on more streamlined technologies with Nissan in emerging markets such as China—for example with the 3 Wet waterborne coating technique, which is also used in Smyrna.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 17, 2013

Williams flywheel unit. Click to enlarge. Williams Hybrid Power, a division of the Williams group of companies that includes the Williams F1 Team, and Alstom Transport have signed an exclusive agreement that will see Williams Hybrid Power’s composite flywheel energy storage technology ( earlier post ) applied to Alstom’s Citadis trams by 2014. After several years of research into energy storage, Alstom teamed up with Williams Hybrid Power to trial its composite MLC (magnetically loaded composite

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 2, 2013

Bentley will introduce the new Continental GT Speed Convertible at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this month. The new GT Speed Convertible shares its powertrain specification with its Bentley stablemate, the GT Speed coupé: a 616 bhp (459 kW) twin-turbocharged 6.0 liter W12 combined with a close-ratio eight-speed ZF transmission to deliver a 15% improvement in fuel economy.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 2, 2013

Pike’s projected vehicle sales by electrified drivetrain, European markets: 2012–2020. Click to enlarge. Pike Research forecasts that electric vehicles—conventional hybrids (HEVs), plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and battery-electrics (BEVs)—will grow from 0.7% of the market in Europe in 2012 to 4% in 2020. While that is still a small portion of the market, it represents more than 827,000 vehicles per year, Pike notes.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 25, 2013

Fuji Electric Corporation of America will introduce a new generation of UL-Certified 25kW DC Quick Charging Stations for electric vehicles, offering a slimmer, sleeker version to suit a wider variety of applications and site locations. The release will be the fourth generation DC Quick Charger for the power electronics manufacturer, having launched the first model overseas in 2008 before entering North America’s EV market in March 2012.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 26, 2013

China is the world’s largest truck market. Click to enlarge. AB Volvo has signed an agreement with the Chinese vehicle manufacturer Dongfeng Motor Group Company Limited (DFG) to acquire 45% of a new subsidiary of DFG, Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles (DFCV), which will include the major part of DFG’s medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles business. Completion of the transaction will make the Volvo Group the world’s largest manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks with a combined annual volume (2011) of

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 24, 2013

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. will conduct test drives of the ATLAS F24 Refrigerator Truck by Li-ion Battery for a one-year period starting this month, in cooperation with Yamato Transport Co., Ltd. This vehicle is the first truck to sustain continued operation of its refrigerator and chiller compartments through a dedicated lithium-ion battery system during small cargo delivery runs.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 18, 2013

The ExxonMobil MTG process flow diagram. Source: EMRE. Click to enlarge. G2X Energy, Inc., a developer of natural gas to gasoline projects, entered into a licensing agreement to use ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company’s (EMRE’s) methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) technology ( earlier post ) in the development of a world-scale natural gas to gasoline project. ( Earlier post.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 16, 2013

Schematic overview of the primary black-carbon emission sources and the processes that control. the distribution of black carbon in the atmosphere and determine its role in the climate system. Source: Bond et al. Click to enlarge. Black carbon (BC) is the second largest man-made contributor to global warming and its influence on climate has been greatly underestimated, according to the first quantitative and comprehensive analysis of this pollutant’s climate impact.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 14, 2013

Powertrain of the CrossBlue SUV PHEV concept. Click to enlarge. Volkswagen unveiled the CrossBlue SUV concept at the North American International Auto Show. Developed specifically for US and Canada, the six- to seven-seat midsize crossover CrossBlue is targeted at the rapidly growing mid-size SUV segment, and would sit in the Volkswagen SUV lineup above the Tiguan and below the premium Touareg.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 22, 2013

In a new report, Pike Research forecasts that the smart city technology market will grow from $6.1 billion annually in 2012 to $20.2 billion in 2020—a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.2%. Globally, Pike anticipates cumulative investment of more than $117 billion in smart city technologies between 2012 and 2020. Pike Research analyzes the market in terms of the five “industries” that are core to the development of smart cities: smart energy; smart water; smart transportation; smart

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 17, 2013

As a result of an in-flight battery incident on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner yesterday in Japan, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) to address a potential battery fire risk in the 787 and to require operators to temporarily cease operations of the aircraft. Before further flight, operators of US-registered, Boeing 787 aircraft must demonstrate to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the batteries are safe.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 2, 2013

US consumers of electricity should be willing to pay, on average, $0.24–$0.45/kWh—approximately 2–4 times current retail costs—for emission-free alternatives to fossil fuel electricity due to the cost of health impacts from fossil fuel electricity, according to a new analysis by a pair of researchers at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Energy and Climate Change Office, Region 9.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 2, 2013

Polk light vehicle forecast through 2016. Data: Polk. Click to enlarge. New light vehicle registrations in the US in 2013 are expected to rise 6.6% over 2012 levels to 15.3 million vehicles, according to Polk, a global automotive market intelligence firm. At the same time, Polk analysts forecast North American production volumes to increase to the 15.9 million unit range (an anticipated 2.4% increase from 2012), driven by an improving economy and capacity expansion in the region.

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