Sat.Jan 05, 2013 - Fri.Jan 11, 2013

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ExxonMobil to proceed with $14B Hebron heavy oil project off Canada’s East Coast; more than 700B barrels of oil

Green Car Congress

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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2013 Nissan Leaf: Longer Range, Faster Charging, Leather Seats, And More: All The Upgrades

Green Car Reports

In its third year on the market, the updated 2013 Nissan Leaf will have a slightly longer range, a new and lower-priced base model, faster charging, and a more efficient cabin heater. The battery electric car goes into production at Nissan's assembly plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, this week. While the 2013 Leaf is still being tested to determine its.

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Solar-powered car ports help EV owners drive on sunshine

Green Cars News

A company that provides sustainable charging to electric cars is expanding nationwide, in a bid to get EV owners charging from solar power. Herefordshire-based My Solar Port provides oak-framed solar-powered car ports with an integrated charging point to power an electric car, from renewable solar energy, for a truly zero-emission drive. The firm uses sustainably [.].

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Sales of plug-ins in France in 2012 reached 5,663 units for cars and 3,651 for LCVs

Green Car Congress

AVERE-France, the French hybrid and electric vehicle association, reports that sales of electric vehicles in France reached 5,663 units for cars (VP) and 3,651 units for commercial vehicles (LCV) in 2012, increasing 115% and 117%, respectively, against the 2011 results. In France, PSA Peugeot Citroën was in first place (2,744 units) in the VP market with the Ion/C-Zero, followed by the Bolloré BlueCar (1,800), followed by the Nissan LEAF (524) and Renault Fluence (343).

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How serious is Norway about climate change? So much that its streetlights self-dim

emissions global warming Norway climate change carbon dioxide youtube lighting

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Ames Lab team to head new $120M Critical Materials Institute; addressing shortages in rare earth metals and other materials

Green Car Congress

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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Pike Research forecasts automotive Li-ion battery market to grow to almost $22B in 2020; China to become global leader in production by 2015

Green Car Congress

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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Study finds that aluminum reduces electric vehicle cost against steel counterpart for same targeted range

Green Car Congress

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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First generation of Bosch traffic jam assistant to enter series production in 2014

Green Car Congress

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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BASF and Nissan expand coatings and paint partnership

Green Car Congress

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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Ford, GM rolling out third-party developer programs for in-vehicle apps

Green Car Congress

Reflecting the rapid evolution of the automobile as an application development platform, both Ford and GM announced programs to support third-party development of in-vehicle applications at CES in Las Vegas. The Ford Developer Program for open mobile apps provides a software development kit (SDK), technical support from Ford engineers and a developer community to enable utilizing the SYNC connectivity system and AppLink application programming interface (API).

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Faurecia and Accenture partner on products and services for connected and autonomous vehicles

Brief

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Johnson Controls to unveil micro hybrid lead-acid/Li-ion battery demonstration module at North American International Auto Show

Green Car Congress

Johnson Controls, Inc. will introduce a 48V Micro Hybrid battery demonstration module as part of its full spectrum of advanced energy storage solutions for automobiles at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Leveraging a dual voltage architecture, Johnson Controls’ Micro Hybrid battery system would involve a low voltage lead-acid battery and a 48 volt Lithium-ion battery that enable optimization of energy generation and consumption, thus saving fuel.

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UC Davis team engineers cyanobacterium for enhanced direct production of 2,3-butanediol; design methods for exogenous chemical production

Green Car Congress

A research team from the University of California, Davis has engineered a 2,3-butanediol (23BD) biosynthetic pathway in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC7942 to establish design methods for efficient exogenous chemical production in cyanobacteria—a technology area that is still in its infancy compared with model fermentative organisms, they noted.

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Smartphone app for improving driving style; improved safety, lower fuel consumption

Green Car Congress

The Group of Computer Networks-DISCA of the Universitat Politècnica de València has developed a smartphone application that characterizes our driving style. The new DrivingStyles app, currently available for Android-based phone, detects bad habits and helps promote better driving behavior. Using a Bluetooth device, the application collects information from the electronic control unit of the vehicle such as speed, acceleration, revs, accelerator position and geographical position by GPS.

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Nevada grants Audi first automaker permit to operate autonomous vehicles on public roads

Green Car Congress

The State of Nevada issued to Audi a license allowing the testing of autonomous vehicles on the state’s public roads. This makes Audi the first automotive original equipment manufacturer to obtain this special permit. The first license went to Google; in December 2012, the state also awarded a testing license to automotive supplier Continental. ( Earlier post.).

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ExxonMobil announces 6th oil discovery offshore Guyana with Ranger-1; Guyana may move from non-producer to regional powerhouse

Oil

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Sweetwater Energy and Ace Ethanol to begin commercial production of cellulosic ethanol; potential contract value of $100M

Green Car Congress

Flow chart of a portion of Sweetwater’s distributed hydrolysis process to produce C 5 and C 6 sugar streams from biomass. Source: Sweetwater patent application. Click to enlarge. Sweetwater Energy, Inc., a Rochester NY-based cellulosic sugar producer ( earlier post ), announced a long-term commercial agreement with Ace Ethanol, a Stanley, WI-based corn ethanol production facility, to generate cellulosic ethanol at Ace’s plant for up to 16 years.

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Visteon to showcase e-Bee vehicle concept at 2013 International CES

Green Car Congress

Visteon Corporation will showcase the e-Bee vehicle concept at the 2013 International CES show in Las Vegas next week. Representing Visteon’s vision of mobility in the year 2020, the e-Bee vehicle concept is designed to explore new and alternative ways of using a vehicle, including car-sharing, private ownership and short-term rental. Driver cockpit with reconfigurable TFT instrument cluster, interactive touch screen controls and head-up display.

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Ford OpenXC platform out of beta; open-source hardware and software platform

Green Car Congress

Following on the launch of its first software developer program ( earlier post ), Ford is now turning its attention to the growing trend in hardware hacking by transforming vehicles into an experimental development environment. The OpenXC research platform from Ford is now out of beta and available to all “makers” and do-it-yourselfers at [link]. The Ford Developer Program launched earlier this week at CES makes the SYNC AppLink application programming interface (API) available for the creation

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Novozymes receives $2.5M award from DOE to improve advanced biofuels production

Green Car Congress

Novozymes received an award of up to $2.5 million from the US Department of Energy to find new and more efficient enzymes for turning corn stover into fuel for cars and trucks. ( Earlier post.) The funded project, entitled “SynTec,” was submitted by Novozymes and its partner MBI. The project will run two years, relying on biology to rapidly and cost-effectively screen natural enzyme diversity for the best performing enzymes.

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Penn State researchers developing methods to prolong operating life of valve regulated lead-acid batteries; electric locomotive as example

Green Car Congress

A team of Penn State researchers is developing more cost-effective ways to prolong the life of valve regulated lead-acid (VRLA) batteries, such as those applied in Norfolk Southern Railway No. 999—the first all-electric, battery-powered locomotive in the United States. ( Earlier post.). A leading cause of damage and death in lead-acid batteries is sulfation, a degradation of the battery caused by frequent charging and discharging that creates an accumulation of lead sulfate.

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Pacific Ethanol Stockton partners with Edeniq to boost corn ethanol yield up to 2-4%

Green Car Congress

Pacific Ethanol, Stockton LLC has entered into an agreement to install Edeniq’s Cellunators to boost ethanol yields and OilPlus corn oil extraction process to increase corn oil recovery at the company’s Stockton, California ethanol plant. ( Earlier post.). Edeniq’s Cellunator technology mills corn and other plant materials into particles of feedstock that can be more efficiently converted into the plant sugars needed to produce biofuels.

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Honda to build 2014 Accord Hybrid in Ohio

Green Car Congress

Honda of America Mfg., Inc. will invest $23 million at its Marysville, Ohio auto plant to add production of the new two-motor Accord Hybrid Sedan ( earlier post ), scheduled to go on sale nationwide this fall. This will be the third hybrid model built by Honda in the US and the first in Ohio. Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, LLC in Greensburg, Ind. was the first Honda plant in North America to build a hybrid vehicle, and currently produces both the Civic Hybrid and Acura ILX Hybrid models.

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NHTSA proposes new minimum sound requirements for hybrid and electric vehicles

Green Car Congress

As required by the bipartisan Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2010 (PSEA), the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed minimum sound standards for hybrid and electric vehicles. The proposed standard, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 141, would fulfill Congress’ mandate in the PSEA that hybrid and electric vehicles—including passenger cars, light trucks and vans (LTVs), medium- and heavy-duty trucks, buses, low spee

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NASA moves Environmentally Responsible Aviation project into next phase of research with 8 large-scale technology demonstrations

Green Car Congress

NASA has selected eight large-scale integrated technology demonstrations to advance aircraft concepts and technologies for reducing the impact of aviation on the environment over the next 30 years. The demonstrations, which are part of by NASA’s Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) Project, will focus on five areas: aircraft drag reduction through innovative flow control concepts; weight reduction from advanced composite materials; fuel and noise reduction from advanced engines; emissions

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Prius PHV top-selling PHEV in UK in 2012 with 470 units

Green Car Congress

Toyota’s Prius PHV was the best-selling plug-in hybrid (PHEV) in the UK in 2012, achieving 470 sales from its launch date in July 2012 and outselling its nearest rival, the Vauxhall Ampera, despite it being on sale 3 months longer than the Toyota. Overall, the brand sold 12,840 hybrid vehicles in the UK in 2012, an increase of 15.2% compared to 2011.

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USDA to award $25M for R&D for next-generation biofuels

Green Car Congress

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will award some $25 million to four projects to research and development of next-generation renewable energy and high-value biobased products—such as biofuels—from a variety of biomass sources. The projects are funded by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the Biomass Research and Development Initiative, established in the 2008 Farm Bill.

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California Energy Commission awards more than $1.8M additional funding to further UCSD microgrid project; energy storage, EV charging and V2G services are components

Green Car Congress

The California Energy Commission (CEC) approved funding to advance further the development of its pioneering 42 MW peak microgrid and expand electric vehicle charging at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The Commission approved a $1.6-million award to increase its previously awarded funding of $1,394,298 for the university’s microgrid.

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NTSB update on Boeing 787 fire incident in Boston; severe fire damage to APU battery

Green Car Congress

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released an update on its formal investigation of Monday’s fire aboard a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 at Logan International Airport in Boston. There were no passengers or crew on board at the time. One firefighter received minor injuries. Boeing had issued an initial statement saying that JAL reported that smoke detected while the 787 was on the ground during cleaning was traced to the battery used to start the auxiliary power unit (APU).

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Sulfur–TiO2 yolk-shell cathode for Li-sulfur battery shows best long-cycle performance so far

Green Car Congress

Electrochemical performance of sulfur–TiO 2 yolk–shell nanostructures. (a) Charge/discharge capacity and Coulombic efficiency over 1,000 cycles at 0.5 C. (b) Capacity retention of sulfur–TiO 2 yolk–shell nanostructures cycled at 0.5 C, in comparison with bare sulfur and sulfur–TiO 2 core–shell nanoparticles. Seh et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers at Stanford University and SLAC led by Stanford associate professor Yi Cui have used a sulfur–TiO 2 yolk–shell design for a cathode material for a li

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Southern Research Institute wins $1.5M DOE award to test new coal-biomass-to-liquids method; seeking to reduce cost and environmental impact

Green Car Congress

Southern Research Institute has entered into a $1.5-million cooperative agreement with the US Department of Energy to test an innovative method for producing liquid transportation fuels from coal and biomass, thereby improving the economics and lifecycle impacts of coal-to-liquid (CTL) and coal-biomass-to-liquid (CBTL) processes. The novel approach eliminates the conventional Fischer-Tropsch (FT) product upgrading and refining steps and enhances the ability of CTL and CBTL processes to compete w

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ChargePoint and DBT USA partner on networked EV charging in North America

Green Car Congress

Via a new partnership to expand networked EV charging stations in North America, DBT USA’s new North American portfolio of Level II EV charging stations now have the option to connect to ChargePoint, the world’s largest global EV charging network. In a recent study by Pike Research, ChargePoint and DBT are rated as the number one and two EV charging station equipment manufacturers, respectively, in the world. ( Earlier post.).

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Audi unveils in-car 4G LTE wireless broadband powered by Qualcomm’s 2nd generation chipset

Green Car Congress

Audi AG unveiled the 2013 Audi A3 with 4G LTE wireless connectivity powered by the second-generation Gobi multi-mode 3G/4G LTE chipset (MDM9215) from Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated. With peak data rates approaching 100 megabits per second, the enhanced Audi connect services in the A3 are expected to provide enhanced features such as an in-car Wi-Fi hotspot, Internet radio, Web services and an augmented navigation system that presents street level

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Delphi introducing new plug-and-play cloud-based connectivity service for drivers; key fob functions and alerts

Green Car Congress

Delphi is releasing a new cloud-based automotive connectivity service for consumers. At the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the company will be demonstrating Vehicle Diagnostics by Delphi, a device that provides a car-to-cloud/cloud-to-car connectivity service. Drivers can mimic their key fob functions to control their car, track, locate, access, secure and monitor their vehicles anywhere at any time with a smartphone or browser.

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Hyundai to debuts a number of new automotive connectivity and assistance technologies at CES, including Siri and Eyes Free mode

Green Car Congress

Hyundai will debut a number of new vehicle technologies for connectivity and driver assistance at the the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), 8-11 January in Las Vegas. Along with demonstrations of its Blue Link telematics and infotainment platform, Hyundai will display working versions of future vehicle infotainment systems and voice-recognition technology incorporating features enabled by several technology partners, including: Siri and Eyes Free mode: Hyundai will integrate Apple’s

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J.D. Power survey finds vehicle owners ask for smartphone integration and better voice controls for nav systems

Green Car Congress

Despite many new-vehicle owners saying their factory-installed navigation system is better than their previous system, navigation system satisfaction has declined from 2011, as owners are frustrated by the complexity of menu systems, voice control commands and inputting destinations, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 US Navigation Usage and Satisfaction Study.

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