Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 25, 2014

'Mitsubishi Motors’ Outlander PHEV is now also able to supply electrical power to the home in Japan using the SMART V2H (vehicle-to-home) system made by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, the EVPower Station made by Nichicon Corporation and the Tsubaki eLINK made by Tsubakimoto Chain Co. Connecting to the V2H system is available only with vehicles with a CHAdeMO quick charging socket installed.

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Mitsubishi PHEV Supplies i-MiEV 322

Green Car Reports

DECEMBER 25, 2014

'The problem of gasoline cars parking in spaces reserved for plug-in electric cars to recharge at is nothing new. It''s known as "ICE-ing," referring to cars with internal combustion engines parking where they shouldn''t. But the problem has proved to be lucrative for Raleigh, North Carolina. DON''T MISS: Been ICEd? Gas Cars Parking In Electric-Car.

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Raleigh Gas-Electric North Carolina Gas 167

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 25, 2014

'Vitruvian Energy is trying to crowd-fund its novel biofuel EEB (ethyl 3-ethoxybutyrate). EEB is produced from organic waste, including (and initially) sewage treatment bio-solids—the leftover, dirt-like organic material that remains after a community’s wastewater is treated. With 20 days left in the campaign, the company has raised $3,500 of a targeted $200,000.

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Gasoline-Electric Gasoline Alabama Diesel 290

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2014

'The collapse in world oil prices in the second half of 2014 will have only a moderate impact on the fast-developing low-carbon transition in the world electricity system, according to research firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance. However, the slump in the Brent crude price per barrel from $112.36 on 30 June to $61.60 on 22 December will nevertheless have an impact in various sectors and regions.

Oil Prices 268

Oil Prices Oil Price Carbon 268

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Norway

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 20, 2014

'Interfacial oxygen between the silicon and carbon improves electrode performance. Credit: ACS, Son et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers at the University of Maryland have improved the cycle life of silicon/carbon matrix-composite electrodes by 300%, even at mass loadings, solely by the chemical tailoring of the interface between the silicon and the carbon with atomic oxygen.

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Maryland Li-ion F-150 Battery 255

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 20, 2014

'Starting next week, Tesla Motors will pilot a battery pack swap program with invited Model S owners. The selected owners will have the opportunity to swap their car’s battery at a custom-built facility located across the street from the Tesla Superchargers at Harris Ranch, CA. Tesla intends the pilot program to test the technology and to assess demand.

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San Francisco San Diego Battery Batteries 250

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 26, 2014

'In an opinion piece in the January 2015 issue of IEEE Spectrum , Vaclav Smil, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Science Academy), and the Member of the Order of Canada, writes that modern cars—even with the tremendous gains in efficiency and even electrics—simply weigh too much, given the dominant usage pattern of one driver per vehicle.

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Cars F-150 Canada Hummer 239

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2014

'Mexico’s Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) has proposed new heavy-duty vehicle emissions standards, aligned with current standards in place in the rest of North America and in the European Union. The current limit values in Mexico are equivalent to Euro IV or EPA 2004 standards. The proposed modification of NOM-044-SEMARNAT-20061, published on 17 December in the Diario Oficial de la Federación , establishes maximum permissible emissions limits of total hydrocarbons, no

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Mexico Standards EPA 2010 236

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2014

'Emerging materials such as gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) look to displace silicon in power electronic applications. While silicon and SiC (SiC-on-SiC) come in only one flavor, GaN comes in many different variants, including GaN-on-Si, GaN-on-SiC, and GaN-on-GaN. In a new report , Lux Research forecasts that the total market for GaN power electronics overall will grow at 32% CAGR, reaching $1.1 billion by 2024, or more than 5% of the total market share.

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Market Power Powered Taiwan 231

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2014

'The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) is preparing to issue (on or before 15 January 2015) a solicitation for a full and open competition to procure services for the Connected Vehicle (CV) Pilot Deployment program, Phase 1: Concept Development. Accordingly, USDOT has issued the synopsis notice ( DTFH6115R00003 ) for Phase 1. USDOT will conduct the CV Pilot Deployment program will be conducted under three phases: Phase 1: Concept Development Phase; Phase 2: Design/Build/Test; and Phase 3:

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Connect Connected Vehicles Transportation 230

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2014

'Renovo Motors, Inc., will offer the first public viewing of its electric supercar prototype at the upcoming 2015 International CES in Las Vegas. ( Earlier post.). Using a factory-modified Shelby American CSX9000 rolling chassis (“Cobra Daytona Coupe”), Renovo’s eponymous coupe features twin mid-mounted sequential axial-flux motors producing more than 370 kW (500 hp) and 1,000 lb-ft (1,356 N·m) of torque, with a 0-60 mph time of less than 3.4 seconds.

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Las Vegas Shelby Lithium Ion MPH 230

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 24, 2014

'An EU-funded project, Biogas2PEM-FC , has developed a system to convert the toxic waste from olive oil production into electricity. The project, coordinated by Nordic fuel cell technology company PowerCell , resulted in the building of a complete pilot plant on an olive farm in Andalucía, Spain. The two-year project was completed in October. The waste from olive oil production—which contains pesticides and toxic organic compounds, is acidic and with a high salinity—is environmentall

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Waste Convert Oil Spain 225

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 24, 2014

'The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected three projects to receive up to $2 million in new funding for analysis of the hydrogen and fuel cells domestic supply chain and manufacturing competitiveness. Funded in part by the Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative, this funding opportunity supports the Department’s broader effort to boost US competitiveness in the manufacturing sector.

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Hydrogen Manufacturer Supplies Fuel 225

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2014

'In a post on Google+, Google engineers announced that they have assembled a fully functional prototype for fully autonomous driving; the vehicle unveiled earlier this year was an “early mockup”. Since then, we’ve been working on different prototypes-of-prototypes, each designed to test different systems of a self-driving car—for example, the typical “car” parts like steering and braking, as well as the “self-driving” parts like the computer and sensors.

Google 225

Google Building 2015 California 225

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2014

'Siemens has unveiled the first electric series production vehicle with the central electronics and software architecture RACE. ( Earlier post.) This technology, developed in the research project of the same name, replaces the entire control system with standard hardware and a kind of “operating system for automobiles.”. The basic idea is to control a variety of vehicle functions on a uniform, centralized computer platform instead of providing every system with its own hardware and software as t

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Production Connect Connected Installation 225

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 26, 2014

'eInfochips, a leading Product Engineering Services company, announced the availability of a new System on Module (SoM) and related engineering services. When connected to a car’s telemetry system that collects data about the car and the environment, the system module’s thermal camera can detect the presence of children in the vehicle. In addition to that, a sensor on the system module can detect increase in the levels of carbon monoxide (CO).

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Vehicles IDEA Automobile Design 218

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 24, 2014

'In the UK, ITM Power, a manufacturer of integrated hydrogen energy solutions, secured a second commercial contract from AMEC Foster Wheeler plc and National Grid plc to create the business case for widespread deployment of Power-to-Gas energy storage technology to reduce the energy losses in the gas network. This second follow-on project will build on the Phase 1 Technical Feasibility and identify specific sites on the gas network where Power-to-Gas can be most advantageously deployed.

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Power Powered Gas Grid 218

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2014

'Australia-based specialized engine and vehicle systems company Orbital Corporation has filed court documents in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia alleging the infringement of Orbital patents on direct injection technology by Daimler AG, Mercedes-Benz USA LLC, Mercedes-Benz US International, Inc. (Mercedes), Robert Bosch GMGH and Robert Bosch LLC (Bosch). (3:14-cv-00808-REP Orbital Australia Pty Ltd et al. v.

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Mercedes 2002 Australia Engine 218

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2014

'At the 2015 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit in January, Schaeffler will show the second phase of its concept car that meets 2025 CAFE requirements, including its mild hybridization with a 48-volt system. ( Earlier post.). The vehicle is based on a modern, all-wheel-drive, midsize SUV with an automatic transmission. Last year during NAIAS, Schaeffler showed the first phase of the concept car that demonstrated its low-cost strategy to meet CAFE 2020 guidelines. the use a

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Concept SUV Long Beach Hybrid 218

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2014

'Li-ion maker Boston Power has secured US$290 million in local government financial support for the expansion of its two facilities in China. The company’s Liyang facility will receive a total investment of $160 million, increasing its manufacturing capacity fivefold by 2016. The company’s Tianjin facility will grow its capacity to 4GW by 2017, and is expected to reach 8 GWh in manufacturing capacity by 2018.

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Boston Li-ion Chinese Power 218

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2014

'Researchers at ETH Zürich developed an eco-friendly cascade process to make large amounts of lactic acid from glycerol, a waste by-product in the production of biodiesel. Polylactic acid (PLA) is a promising alternative for making plastics, as it is biodegradable and made from renewable resources. Manufacturers use PLA for disposable cups, bags and other sorts of packaging.

Waste 218

Waste CO2 2014 2020 218

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 25, 2014

'Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) has selected IHI Corporation and Toshiba Corporation as co-researchers in a project to develop and to demonstrate an underwater floating-type turbine system for ocean energy power generation. The project is slated to continue until FY 2017. Ocean power generator with counterrotating turbines.

Energy 210

Energy Power Powered Japan 210

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 24, 2014

'Researchers at Sandia and Argonne national laboratories have demonstrated , for the first time, a method to successfully predict pressure-dependent chemical reaction rates. It’s an important breakthrough in combustion and atmospheric chemistry that is expected to benefit auto and engine manufacturers, oil and gas utilities and other industries that employ combustion models.

2014 210

2014 Gas Engine Energy 210

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 24, 2014

'Researchers at Kitasato University in Japan, Brown University in the US, and colleagues in Japan have found that bacteria could be a rich source of terpenes—natural compounds common in plants and fungi that can be used to make drugs, food additives, perfumes, and other products, including advanced fuels ( earlier post , earlier post ). Terpenes are responsible for the essential oils of plants and the resins of trees.

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Japan Universal Production Green 210

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 24, 2014

'Blossman Services Inc. (BSI), a subsidiary of Blossman Gas, Inc., earlier this year announced a new joint venture in the US with BL Energie USA to develop, certify, market and sell diesel displacement systems utilizing the Prins Dieselblend technology for heavy-duty class 7 & 8 trucks. The Dieselblend system makes it possible to convert diesel engines to dual-fuel engines by means of replacing a certain quantity of diesel by LPG, CNG or LNG.

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Conversion Fuel Diesel USA 199

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2014

'Eight-speed transmission housings move down the assembly line at Kokomo Transmission Plant. Click to enlarge. With sales of vehicles equipped with the popular eight-speed transmission growing, FCA US LLC (the new name for Chrysler Group LLC) will invest an additional $266 million in its Kokomo Transmission Plant (Ind.) to increase capacity of the fuel-efficient TorqueFlite transmission.

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Chrysler Dodge Indiana Durango 199

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2014

'The Department for Transport (DfT) recently launched a £25-million (US$39-million) competition to support the development of a domestic biofuels industry in the UK. The competition will provide capital funding for three demonstration-scale advanced biofuel plants. The projects will be selected through a competitive process, with funding provided over a three-year period, beginning in 2015.

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Fuel 2015 Waste 2018 199

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2014

'OriginOil Inc., developer of Electro Water Separation (EWS)—a high-speed, chemical-free process to clean up large quantities of water—will launch a subsidiary in Hong Kong and grant it a master license for the People’s Republic of China. In turn, the subsidiary is expected to license regional joint ventures for frack and waste water treatment.

China 199

China Commercial Waste Water 199

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 22, 2014

'Sample output. Effect of increasing the β weighting factor (problem formulation with battery) and applying a higher cooling rate (problem formulation without battery) on the cumulative fuel consumption for the UDDS at a 70% target SoC. Shaltout et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Texas at Austin have developed an optimization framework for hybrid-electric and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs and PHEVs) including fuel consumption

Austin 199

Austin Motors Motoring Motor 199

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 23, 2014

'Ultracapacitor company Nesscap Energy Inc. has completed a non-brokered private placement of a US $1,000,000 Convertible Note with I2BF Energy. The proceeds will be used for working capital. The offering constituted the second tranche of the bridge financing previously announced on 8 April 2014. The Note has a maturity date of 1 April 2015; the conversion price is CAD 0.10 per common share; the interest rate is 10% per year.

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Financing Convert Conversion Green Cars 186

Green Car Reports

DECEMBER 22, 2014

'As a long-time Tesla Model S owner—almost two years now—I was naturally eager to get behind the wheel of the new dual-motor P85D. I’d had a couple of brief stints in 416-hp P85 loaners while my standard S85 was in for service. Those had been exhilarating enough, almost scary. What would it be like to drive a Model S with 691 hp.

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All-Electric 2014 Tesla Standards 167

Green Car Reports

DECEMBER 26, 2014

'Tesla Motors announced today that it has prototyped a "Roadster 3.0" package, which Roadster owners will be able to purchase in the future to update the battery pack, aerodynamics, and tires of their 2008-2012 Tesla Roadster electric sports cars. Taken together, the updates are expected to boost the Roadster''s rated range 40 to 50 percent, from.

Kits 167

Kits Range Battery Batteries 167

Green Car Reports

DECEMBER 26, 2014

'It turns out that--in addition to their environmental benefit--electric cars can help improve the health of the people who drive them. A few weeks ago, we posted an anecdote collected by advocacy group Plug-In America, about how driving an electric car helped a handful of people quit smoking. CHECK OUT: How To Quit Smoking: Buy An Electric Car? A.

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Gas Buy Plug-in America 166

Green Car Reports

DECEMBER 23, 2014

'Several states have adopted or proposed special taxes and fees for electric-car drivers. which are supposed to make up for lost revenue from taxes on the fuel their drivers don''t buy. Electric-car advocates typically view these policies as discriminatory, and claim they work against efforts to get more people into plug-ins. MORE: Washington.

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Tax Gas-Electric Washington Electric Vehicles 166