Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 20, 2016

WiTricity announced it is working with General Motors (GM) to test an advanced wireless charging system prototype for electric vehicles. The companies are working together to test WiTricity’s Drive 11 park and charge system, designed for maximum efficiency and interoperability across vehicle platforms. The prototype testing focuses on wireless charging systems at 7.7 and 11 kW charge rates, capable of charging both battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and extended range electric vehicles (EREVs), an

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Green Car Reports

DECEMBER 20, 2016

It's one of the most frequently asked questions by anyone hearing about a modern electric car: do I have to replace the battery? With 15 years of experience in mobile phones and more than that with laptop computers, most buyers know that lithium-ion batteries lose capacity over time. Replacing phone or laptop batteries, generally for less than.

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Green Cars News

DECEMBER 18, 2016

As usual, it’s been a record-breaking year for Mercedes-Benz, with November marking the company’s 45th consecutive record month. It has delivered more.

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Mercedes 47

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2016

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $15 million ( DE-FOA-0001639 ), subject to appropriations, to support community-based projects to accelerate the adoption of advanced and alternative fuel vehicles and demonstrate energy efficient mobility systems including connected and autonomous vehicles as well as new transportation system models. DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy seeks highly leveraged Alternative Fuel Vehicle Community Partner Projects that will significantly

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Transportation Alternative Fuels Gas-Electric Hydrogen 212

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2016

Thirteen new electric buses have been added to Nottingham’s existing fleet of 45 electric vehicles, turning another two park and ride services into fully zero emission services. The Chinese-built BYD eBuses will run on the CentreLink and EcoLink routes which have been designed to cut the amount of traffic entering the city centre. The current fleet of 45 Yorkshire-built Optare electric buses have saved more than £300,000 (US$370K) in fuel savings and an estimated 1,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2016

by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com. Oil prices are probably already high enough to spark a rebound in shale production. The IEA says that in the third quarter of 2016, the US shale industry became cash flow neutral for the first time ever. That isn’t a typo. For years, the drilling boom was done with a lot of debt, and the revenus earned from steadily higher levels of output were not enough to cover the cost of drilling, even when oil prices traded above $100 per barrel in the go-go drilling day

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2016

Enel, as coordinator, and Austria’s main utility Verbund are collaborating on a fast-recharging network project in Italy and Austria, alongside some of the world’s largest EV carmakers including Renault, Nissan, BMW and Volkswagen Group Italia (represented by Volkswagen and Audi). Electric Vehicle Arteries (EVA+) aims to create a fast charging infrastructure for electric vehicles on key roads and motorways in Italy and Austria.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2016

Sandia National Laboratories has formed an industry-funded Spray Combustion Consortium to better understand fuel injection by developing modeling tools. Control of fuel sprays is key to the development of clean, affordable fuel-efficient engines. Intended for industry, software vendors and national laboratories, the consortium provides a direct path from fundamental research to validated engineering models ultimately used in combustion engine design.

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Engine Design Isuzu Massachusetts 188

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 21, 2016

In 2016, Euro NCAP tested 18 new passenger cars and four heavy quadricycles; three cars were awarded “Best in Class”: the Toyota Prius in the Large Family Car category; the Hyundai Ioniq in the Small Family Car category; and the VW Tiguan in the Small Off-Roader category. To define the Best in Class, a calculation is made of the weighted sum of the scores in each of the four areas of assessment: Adult Occupant, Child Occupant, Pedestrian and Safety Assist.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 20, 2016

Volkswagen AG and Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State of California, by and through the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the California Attorney General, to resolve civil claims regarding approximately 83,000 affected 3.0L TDI V6 diesel engine vehicles in the United States (almost 15,000 of them in California).

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California Diesel Audi EPA 183

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2016

Researchers from the University of Waterloo Center for Automotive Research (WatCAR) in Canada are modifying a Lincoln MKZ Hybrid to autonomous drive-by-wire operation. The research platform, dubbed “ Autonomoose ” is equipped with a full suite of radar, sonar, lidar, inertial and vision sensors; NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 AI platform ( earlier post ) to run a complete autonomous driving system, integrating sensor fusion, path planning, and motion control software; and a custom autonomy software stack bei

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Canada Vehicles Fusion Engine 177

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 19, 2016

A team of researchers from Missouri University of Science and Technology and National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece have developed a highly efficient transition metal selenide-based coordination complex, [Ni{(SePiPr 2 ) 2 N} 2 ] for oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution reactions (OER and HER, respectively) in alkaline solution. In a paper published in ChemSusChem describing their work, the researchers reported that very low overpotentials of 200 mV and 310 mV were required t

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Water Missouri Greece Hydrogen 177

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 21, 2016

GKN Driveline will invest nearly $179 million to expand manufacturing facilities in Alamance, Catawba, Lee and Person counties in North Carolina. The investment will occur over the next five years and will create 302 jobs. The investment and new jobs have been added to support growing All-Wheel-Drive and eDrive business for several North American automotive manufacturers.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2016

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced that the company has reached the 100 million-unit milestone in cumulative global automobile production. Honda began automobile production in 1963 with the production of the T360 mini-truck, Honda’s first mass-production model, at Saitama Factory. In the same year, Honda began production of the S500 small-sized sports car at Hamamatsu Factory in Shizuoka Prefecture.

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Automobile Honda Production Global 174

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 21, 2016

A multi-year quantitative study of the influence of ship emissions on urban air quality by a team from Fudan University found that ships could contribute 20–30% (2–7 μg/m 3 ) of the total PM 2.5 within tens of kilometers of coastal and riverside Shanghai during ship-plume-influenced periods. A paper on the study is published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology.

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Emissions Wind Pollution China 174

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 19, 2016

Anellotech announced today that it has developed proprietary technology to extend catalyst lifetime in its Bio-TCat process for low cost conversion of biomass into valuable aromatic chemicals and renewable fuels. ( Earlier post.) The new MinFree technology reduces mineral (ash) content of biomass feedstocks, thereby enabling economic catalyst lifetimes.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2016

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $18 million to five projects for research, development, and demonstration of innovative plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) and direct injection propane engine technologies, as well as community-based projects to accelerate the adoption of light, medium and heavy duty vehicles that operate on fuels such as biodiesel, electricity, E85, hydrogen, natural gas, and propane.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2016

Volkswagen is taking a further step to develop market potentials in Africa. The Hon. Francis Gatare, Director of the Rwanda Development Board, and Thomas Schäfer, CEO of Volkswagen Group South Africa, this week signed a memorandum of understanding for a new integrated mobility concept in Kigali in the presence of Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Dr.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2016

Visedo, a Finnish manufacturer specializing in electric powertrains and components, has secured a financing package of €20 million (US$21 million) to support its international growth plans. The financing consists of an equity investment of €13.5 million, an EFSI loan of €5 million and €1.5 million in funding from other sources. Founded in 2009, Visedo specializes in electric powertrains and components for heavy-duty machinery, commercial vehicles and the marine industry.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2016

Volkswagen will present a new I.D. family model—a multi-functional electric vehicle—at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January. Like the I.D. concept shown this year ( earlier post ), this new concept is also based on the Modular Electric Drive Kit (MEB), and so it shows the potential and bandwidth of the MEB. Teaser image of the new microbus-like I.D. concept to appear in Detroit.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2016

Honda R&D Co., Ltd., the R&D subsidiary of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., is entering into formal discussions with Waymo, an independent company of Alphabet Inc. ( earlier post ), to integrate its self-driving technology with Honda vehicles. This technical collaboration between Honda researchers and Waymo’s self-driving technology team would allow both companies to learn about the integration of Waymo’s fully self-driving sensors, software and computing platform into Honda vehicles.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2016

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced the award of up to $40 million, subject to appropriations, to design, permit, and construct an open-water, grid-connected national wave energy testing facility. The facility will be constructed in Newport, Oregon, by the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center at Oregon State University and will support innovations in wave energy technologies capable of harnessing the significant wave energy resources along United States coastlines.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2016

Suzuki is joining The Linux Foundation and Automotive Grade Linux. Suzuki is the ninth automaker to join AGL and joins Toyota and Mazda as a Platinum member. Adopting an open source approach to software development is a key part of our technology strategy and will help us to keep pace with the rapid advances happening across the auto industry. Joining Automotive Grade Linux expands our R&D capabilities and enables us to collaborate with hundreds of developers across the industry on new automotiv

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Suzuki Mazda Connect Connected 163

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 21, 2016

MIT engineers have studied a simple vehicle-platooning scenario and determined the best ways to deploy vehicles in order to save fuel and minimize delays. Their analysis, presented this week at the International Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics ( WAFR 2016 ), shows that relatively simple, straightforward schedules may be the optimal approach for saving fuel and minimizing delays for autonomous vehicle fleets.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 21, 2016

ABB has inaugurated the first OppCharge fast-charging station for electric buses in Benelux, in the commuter belt town of Bertrange, Luxembourg. The fast charger, with associated electrical systems, is based on OppCharge , an open interface for DC electric bus charging using pole-mounted pantographs, as opposed to putting the pantograph on the vehicle’s roof.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 20, 2016

Irizar e-mobility, the electromobility business of the Irizar Group , has just gained a large contract with the Agglomeration of the Basque-Adour Coast in France. The contract includes the provision of 18 Irizar i2e 18.73m electric articulated buses (BRT), the charging stations at the end of each line with fast charging infrastructure, and slower charging at the depots.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 20, 2016

Huawei researchers recently unveiled what they said was the first long-lifespan graphene-assisted Li-ion battery able to withstand high temperatures. The announcement was made by Watt Laboratory, an organization under Huawei’s Central Research Institute, at the 57 th Battery Symposium held in Japan. Huawei’s research results show that new graphene-assisted heat-resistant technologies allow Li-ion batteries to remain functional in a 60 ˚C (140 ˚F) environment, a temperature 10 ˚C higher than the

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 19, 2016

A little more than a year after the launch of BlueIndy, the all-electric car sharing service in Indianapolis ( earlier post ), the Bolloré is opening BlueLA electric car-sharing in Los Angeles, California. The service is scheduled to open in 2017. The BlueLA service will initially include the deployment of 200 public charge points and 100 electric vehicles.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 19, 2016

Waymo (formerly the Google self-driving car project, earlier post ) and FCA announced that production of 100 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans ( earlier post ) uniquely built to enable fully self-driving operations has been completed. The plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles are currently being outfitted with Waymo’s fully self-driving technology, including a purpose-built computer and a suite of sensors, telematics and other systems, and will join Waymo’s self-driving test fleet in early 2017.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 18, 2016

BMW will stage the world premiere of the new BMW 5 Series Sedan and the US premiere of the BMW Concept X2 at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in January in Detroit. Also part of the line-up at the BMW stand will be the new BMW 530e iPerformance plug-in hybrid, the BMW M550i xDrive, and the BMW 6 Series model range. BMW ConnectedDrive will be showcasing a selection of new services.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2016

Earlier this year, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) received several petitions from state and local government agencies from across the country and other organizations to increase the stringency of the on-highway heavy-duty engine NO x emission standards from 0.2 grams per brake horsepower-hour (g/bhp-hr) to 0.02 g/bhp-hr. On 20 December, EPA formally responded , saying that it will initiate the work necessary to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with the intention of proposing s

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2016

The Volkswagen Group has now received all necessary official approvals within the remit of the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) for the modification of diesel vehicles with type EA189 engines. ( Earlier post.) In close consultation with the relevant authorities, the Group brands concerned will successively notify European and international vehicle owners in the weeks ahead.

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Engine South Korea California Diesel 150

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2016

Venture capitalists have pumped in $5.8 billion into bio-based materials and chemicals (BBMC) startups since 2010, reflecting the drive for sustainability, performance, and alternatives to petroleum feedstocks. While from 2010 to 2015, the investment focus was on drop-in replacements for established chemicals, in 2016 VCs’ focus has shifted to disruptive synthetic biology (synbio) and conversion technologies, according to Lux Research.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 21, 2016

Global Bioenergies, the developer of a process to convert renewable resources into light olefin hydrocarbons via fermentation (with an initial focus on isobutene) ( earlier post ), signed a contribution agreement with the shareholders of Syngip B.V. to transfer all Syngip shares to Global Bioenergies S.A. Syngip is a third-generation industrial biotech start-up created in 2014 in the Netherlands that has developed a process to convert gaseous carbon sources such as CO 2 , CO, and industrial emis

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