Green Car Congress

JULY 14, 2017

Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology have devised a low-cost, scalable approach to developing all-solid-state batteries, improving prospects for scaling up the technology for widespread use in electric vehicles, communications and other industrial applications. Described in a paper in the ACS journal Chemistry of Materials , the approach involves substituting germanium in the solid electrolyte for two more readily available elements: tin and silicon.

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Li-ion Low Cost Lithium Ion Batteries 277

DIY Electric Car

JULY 11, 2017

With the technology that the automotive industry has today, it is not surprising to see cars out performing records on an annual basis. Over the years, we were made to believe that petrol is the best option to run cars. However, modern engineering has been able to change this notion by introducing the fastest electric cars. Why make electric cars? Electric cars in the long run can be cheaper.

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Electric Cars Cars Electric Electrical 140

Green Car Reports

JULY 9, 2017

As the market for electric vehicles continues to grow, electric-car infrastructure will need to keep up with the growing population of them. To solve the problem, companies are looking at a variety of new and innovative ways to charge more cars without actually taking up more space. Enter the ebee Smart Technologies streetlight charging.

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Electric Cars Charging Cars Electric 129

Electric Cars are for Girls

JULY 13, 2017

The Historic Route 66 Electric Vehicle Museum in Kingman, Arizona adds to its collection.

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Electric Vehicles Vehicles Electric Electrical 89

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Norway

Green Car Congress

JULY 13, 2017

A Japanese partnership, consisting of the Kanagawa Prefectural Government, the municipal governments of the cities of Yokohama and Kawasaki, Iwatani Corporation, Toshiba Corporation, Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Industries Corporation, Toyota Turbine and Systems, Inc., and Japan Environment Systems Co., Ltd. announced that all facilities to be used in the FY2015 Regional Cooperation and Low-carbon Hydrogen Technology Demonstration Project commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment have

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Toyota Carbon Fuel Hydrogen 225

Green Car Congress

JULY 14, 2017

A new study by an international team led by researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland has found that modern diesel passenger cars equipped with diesel particulate filters (DPFs) emit fewer carbonaceous particulates than gasoline-powered vehicles. The open-access study is published in the journal Scientific Reports. Carbonaceous PM is made up of black carbon, primary organic aerosol (POA) and—especially—secondary organic aerosol (SOA), which is known to contain

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Gasoline Diesel Cars Emissions 218

Green Car Congress

JULY 13, 2017

With funding provided by the California Energy Commission, Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) demonstrated its LX1 prototype mid-sized (20 ton) hybrid-electric wheel loader ( earlier post ), a piece of equipment widely used in the construction, refuse, and agricultural industries, that achieved a 50% improvement in fuel efficiency. The LX1 is a series hybrid that incorporates a driveline that consists of electric drive motors mounted at the wheels, electric driven hydraulics, a battery ene

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Volvo Diesel Hybrid Fuel 186

Green Car Congress

JULY 11, 2017

The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), one of the organizations at the root of uncovering the Volkswagen diesel emission scandal ( earlier post ), has published a new analysis of developments and trends in advanced diesel engine technology. The ICCT team—John German and Aaron Isenstadt—concluded that diesels have and will retain two significant advantages over gasoline engines: significantly better fuel economy and cargo hauling and towing ability.

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Diesel Fuel Economy Light Gasoline 186

Green Car Congress

JULY 14, 2017

The Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) recently recorded a second history making event—25,000 hours of continuous operation of a Fuel Cell Electric Bus (FCEB #7). Just two years ago, the FCEB power plant set an international record for 20,000 hours of continuous operation. AC Transit says that with each accomplishment, it has advanced alternative fuel vehicles by both proving the durability of hydrogen fuel cell in daily revenue service and remaining at least one year ahead

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Diesel Fuel Hydrogen Fleet 170

Green Car Congress

JULY 14, 2017

Tata Motors Limited and MAHLE have signed a joint development agreement for designing and developing a Secondary Loop Mobile Air Conditioning System (SL-MAC), under the aegis of United Nations Environment. In the SL-MAC system, the alternative refrigerants first cool a secondary fluid/coolant, which in turn cools the air to comfortable temperatures inside the vehicle cabin.

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Motor Motors Motoring Vehicles 170

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Green Car Congress

JULY 12, 2017

Blue Bird unveiled two new electric-powered school buses at the STN Tradeshow in Las Vegas: a Type A Micro Bird G5 electric-powered school bus and an all-new electric Type D chassis which will power its Type D All-American rear engine (RE) school bus. The Blue Bird All American RE electric bus chassis was developed in conjunction with California-based Adomani , Inc. and operates on an energy-efficient electric drivetrain supplied by Efficient Drivetrains, Inc. ( EDI ).

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Electric Electrical Las Vegas All-Electric 170

Green Car Congress

JULY 11, 2017

ITM Power has signed a fuel contract with Honda (UK), which will purchase hydrogen at £10/kg (US$12.91/kg). The contract covers fuel dispensed across ITM Power’s hydrogen refueling network. The refueling network has been financially supported by Innovate UK, Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU).

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Honda Hydrogen Fuel Gas-Electric 170

Green Car Congress

JULY 11, 2017

Toyota Research Institute (TRI) is investing an initial $100 million to launch Toyota AI Ventures , a new corporate venture capital subsidiary designed to provide early-stage financing to startup technology companies. TRI launches the venture by contributing initial investments it has made in three technology companies: Nauto , SLAMcore and Intuition Robotics.

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Toyota Automobile Prius Financing 170

Green Car Congress

JULY 11, 2017

A recently completed study by researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) of the anisotropic—i.e., directionally dependent—thermal conductivity of packed copper wire for electric-drive vehicle (EDV) motor applications is providing a baseline for the assessment of new materials and winding structures.

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Motor Motors Motoring Electric 170

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Oil

Green Car Congress

JULY 11, 2017

The UK Government will award £20 million (US$26 million) to support the development of electric vehicles capable of returning electricity to the grid. The projects will investigate technology that allows plug-in electric vehicles to not only draw power from the grid when charging but return it to people’s homes or back to the grid. There are already 100,000 electric cars and 11,000 chargepoints in the UK.

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Grid Electric Vehicles Electric Cars Vehicles 170

Green Car Congress

JULY 14, 2017

ClipperCreek, Inc. recently unveiled a new expansion card for their HCS product line of charging stations. COSMOS is an option for the Level 2, 240V ClipperCreek HCS Series and can be added to any HCS Series charging station for $184. COSMOS was designed for developers, system operators, and system integrators; it features a simple digital load management interface, as well as UART Serial Communication interface for more advanced connection to third party monitoring and control systems.

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Charging Vehicles Available Power 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 14, 2017

In the San Francisco Bay Renewable Energy Electric Vessel with Zero Emissions study, known as SF-BREEZE, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories concluded liquid hydrogen fuel cells are feasible on technical, regulatory and economic bases. ( Earlier post.). Now, Sandia researchers are taking the work to the next level in a second study that focuses on the optimal combination of vessel design, speed and passenger capacity, which, once determined, could reduce uncertainty in the industry; and

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Green Car Congress

JULY 14, 2017

Mobis, a global producer of automotive components, is researching a new near-term autonomous safety function that could prevent more than 6,000 traffic fatalities each year. The Departed Driver Rescue and Exit Maneuver (DDREM) technology detects the critical situation where the driver departs from controlling the vehicle. DDREM then mitigates the risk of a crash by taking control of the vehicle and guiding it to safety.

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Green Car Congress

JULY 13, 2017

Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America is looking to hire a principal engineer to head up power electronics system development of fuel cell Electric Vehicle (EV) powertrains for heavy-duty truck applications. In April, Toyota revealed “Project Portal”—a hydrogen fuel cell system designed for heavy-duty trucks applied in a Class 8 truck for use at the Port of Los Angeles (POLA). ( Earlier post.).

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Toyota Fuel Engine Los Angeles 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 13, 2017

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) is awarding nearly €2 million (US$2.3 million) to support a truck platooning project by DB Schenker, MAN, and Hochschule. ( Earlier post.) The project will run until January 2019. Initially the partners will test truck convoys in everyday operation at the digital test site, the A9 freeway, for several months to analyze their suitability for practical application and system safety in real traffic scenarios as well as within

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Germany Vehicles Transportation 2018 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 13, 2017

Despite a plethora of alternative transportation modes—buses, trains, bicycles—city dwellers are driving more miles than ever, say University of Michigan researchers. In a new study using data from the US Department of Transportation, Dr. Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the U-M Transportation Research Institute examined the annual distance driven by locale and type of roadway in both urban and rural areas in the US from 2000 to 2016.

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2000 Transportation Michigan 2016 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 13, 2017

An evaluation of the implementation possibilities of power-to-fuel (PTF) technologies by a team from Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH in Germany recommends the PTF products DME, OME 3-5 and n-alkanes as suitable diesel alternatives for the transportation sector. PTF processes essentially use renewable energy, CO 2 and water to produce fuel, as in Audi’s targeted e-fuels projects. ( Earlier post.

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Diesel Fuel Power Powered 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 13, 2017

Researchers at MIT, and their colleagues in Germany, suggest that smooth surfaces on a solid electrolyte may prevent harmful Li infiltration, thereby improving the performance of solid-state Li-ion batteries. Their paper is published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials. Researchers have tried to get around the problems posed by conventional liquid electrolytes for Li-ion batteries—including flammability and dendrite formation that can lead to short circuits—by using a solid-stat

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Li-ion MIT Batteries Battery 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 13, 2017

Electrovaya Inc. announced that it has sold €1 million (US$1.14 million) of lithium ion cells for electric vehicle application to an electric vehicle producer in Europe. Under the terms of the order, the customer will take possession late in Q3 2017, with 50% of the purchase price payable this month and the remaining 50% in September 2017. We are very pleased to receive this follow-on order, after the customer had earlier purchased smaller quantities of lithium ion cells from us This underlines

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Li-ion Lithium Ion Electric Vehicles Europe 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 13, 2017

Mercedes-Benz will build the fourth battery production factory in its global network—after the two plants in Kamenz and one in Beijing—at its Untertürkheim plant in Germany. As part of a transformation plan introduced in 2015, Untertürkheim—the lead plant in the global powertrain production and the home of Daimler headquarters—is successively transitioning from the production of conventional engines, transmissions and axles to production of the future powertrain component

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Mercedes Batteries Battery Electric 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 13, 2017

A Citroën C4 Picasso from Groupe PSA’s autonomous vehicles fleet has crossed through the toll station at Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines in the Paris area without a driver’s assistance using communication between the vehicle and the infrastructure. This test in real traffic conditions shows a significant step forward in the autonomous car development towards Level 4 autonomy—without drivers’ supervision.

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Cars Vehicles Fleet Connect 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 12, 2017

All US 2017 Mazda models tested by the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety ( IIHS ), including the all-new Mazda CX-5, have been awarded the nonprofit organization's highest safety rating, Top Safety Pick+, when equipped with optional front crash prevention and adaptive LED headlights. IIHS evaluates crashworthiness with five tests: moderate and small overlap frontal crashes, a side crash, a roof strength test and a head restraint and seat test that simulates a rear impact.

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Mazda 2017 Auto Vehicles 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 12, 2017

Daimler Buses is joining the Berlin-based CleverShuttle mobility service as a strategic investor. As part of a minority stake, EvoBus GmbH and CleverShuttle plan a strategic cooperation for “on-demand mobility”, such as mobility offers which are flexibly adapted to suit customer demands. Using the CleverShuttle software platform, traffic associations and companies offer innovative solutions in order to be able to adapt their mobility offers optimally to customer requirements at any time.

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Green Car Congress

JULY 12, 2017

Audi AI is the umbrella term for its new generation of high-end assistance technologies extending all the way up to highly automated driving. Three of them will be available for the first time in the new A8: the Audi AI traffic jam pilot (the first Level 3 autonomous traffic jam feature on the market); the Audi AI (remote) parking pilot and the Audi AI remote garage pilot.

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Audi MPH Automobile Vehicles 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 12, 2017

Solaris—one of the leading bus manufacturers in Europe—has secured an order for more than 200 hybrid buses from Société Régionale Wallonne du Transport, the primary bus operator in Wallonia, Belgium. These buses will not only be the first Solaris buses to include BAE Systems hybrid systems for propulsion, but also the first buses to use BAE’s newest energy storage system, the ESS-3G-1K.

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Energy Storage Belgium Hybrid Energy 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 12, 2017

London Taxi Company (LTC) has relaunched as London EV Company (LEVC), marking the next stage in the company’s transformation. Underpinned by an investment totalling £325 million (US$420 million), LEVC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Geely, intends to be the urban commercial vehicle provider of choice for cities around the world. LEVC also revealed the final version of the new London Taxi—the TX—and its eCity technology comprising an advanced battery electric powertrain with a small gas

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Taxi London Netherlands Gasoline-Electric 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 12, 2017

Ricardo has developed a new Battery Management System (BMS) for EVs that is scalable to a wide range of applications. The new BMS enhances the use of advanced model-based control methods to optimize the performance of both existing and next-generation cell chemistries. One of the most significant impediments to an increased market share for plug-in vehicles is the high cost of rechargeable energy storage.

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Batteries Battery Lithium Sulfur Lithium Ion 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 12, 2017

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $19.4 million to 22 new cost-shared projects to accelerate the research of advanced battery, lightweight materials, engine emission control technologies, and energy efficient mobility systems (EEMS). Among the awardees are Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America and GM, with separate projects on Li-sulfur batteries, as two of the fifteen Phase 1 “Battery Seedling” Projects.

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Li-ion Batteries Battery Mercedes 150

Green Car Congress

JULY 12, 2017

In a recent B2B technology survey, ABI Research found that only 10% of respondents expect mass market OEMs to have the most to gain from the mobility as a service (MaaS) megatrend. Though automotive incumbents recognize that new personal mobility opportunities will attract competitors from markets such as ride-sharing and autonomous system development, the overwhelming expectation remains that premium brands stand to gain the most from the prevalent automotive technology megatrends.

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