Green Car Congress

JANUARY 27, 2016

Porsche has restructured its Boxster mid-engine roadster lineup, introducing the new 718 Boxster and 718 Boxster S. The launch of the new 718 Boxster generation represents the first time since the late 1960s that Porsche is implementing sports cars with four-cylinder flat (i.e., horizontally opposed, or “boxer”) engines. The outgoing Boxsters were equipped with 2.7-liter, 6-cylinder boxer engines.

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Green Car Reports

JANUARY 27, 2016

It's a hot topic whenever anyone mentions electric cars: pricing. Many electric cars are more expensive than their regular counterparts, though naturally they cost less to run too. But what do today's electric and plug-in cars actually cost? We've gathered together each plug-in car on sale today in one place. Every vehicle here shows the.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 23, 2016

QNX Software Systems Limited, a subsidiary of BlackBerry Limited, earlier this month introduced the QNX Platform for ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems), expanding its portfolio of automotive software products. The QNX Platform for ADAS is scheduled for general release in Q2 2016. Designed for scalability, the platform will enable automotive companies to build a full range of automated driving systems, from informational ADAS modules that provide a 360° surround view of the vehicle, to sen

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 27, 2016

Duryea Technologies (founded in 1996 under the name “eCycle” with the objective of commercializing hybrid and electric motorcycles) has developed an electric supercharger for use in the consumer and commercial vehicle markets. Superchargers compress the intake charge to increase the amount of air delivered to an engine, which results in combustion that is more complete, and therefore of greater power.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 25, 2016

Global energy demand will increase 25% between 2014 and 2040, driven by population growth and economic expansion, ExxonMobil forecasts in the 2016 edition of its annual The Outlook for Energy. At the same time, energy efficiency gains and increased use of renewable energy sources and lower carbon fuels, such as natural gas, are expected to help reduce by half the carbon intensity of the global economy.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 25, 2016

A new study from Juniper Research estimated that the adoption of connected in-vehicle infotainment systems will produce revenues exceeding $600 million in 2020, representing a 10-fold increase on this year. The new research, Consumer Connected Cars: Telematics, Insurance & In-Vehicle Applications 2015-2020 , forecasts that consumer adoption of connected car entertainment will grow rapidly as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto gather traction.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 28, 2016

A team from Stanford University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has developed a new practical, high-energy-capacity lithium-ion battery anode out of silicon by encapsulating Si microparticles (∼1–3 µm) using conformally synthesized cages of multilayered graphene. The graphene cage acts as a mechanically strong and flexible buffer during deep cycling, allowing the silicon microparticles to expand and fracture within the cage while retaining electrical connectiv

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 28, 2016

Total US petroleum deliveries, a measure of consumer demand, in December rose by 1.1% from December 2014 to average nearly 19.7 million barrels per day, according to API’s Monthly Statistical Report for December 2015. These were the highest December deliveries in five years. In December, total motor gasoline deliveries rose 2.0% from December 2014 to average just above 9.1 million barrels per day.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 25, 2016

The automotive industry has been exploring the use of haptic gas pedal technologies as a way to reduce fuel consumption and increase safety by signaling the driver using a mechanism such as a vibration or a counterforce in the accelerator pedal. Continental announced its Accelerator Force Feedback Pedal in 2010, Frost & Sullivan anticipates wide premium-segment deployment of the active gas pedal technology post-2018 ( earlier post ); and Mercedes-Benz offers the technology in the C 350 PLUG-IN H

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 23, 2016

In a first for commercial aviation, Air BP, together with Norwegian airport operator Avinor, and sustainable biofuel specialist SkyNRG, announced that all airlines landing at Oslo Airport can have jet biofuel delivered from the airport’s main fuel farm, via the existing hydrant mechanism. Lufthansa Group was the first airline to confirm that it will uplift the Air BP aviation biofuel at Oslo, and began by refueling an Airbus A320 aircraft.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 29, 2016

To reach the level of investment in new renewable power generation needed to avert dangerous climate change, $12.1 trillion of investment will be needed over the next 25 years—$5.2 trillion above business-as-usual projections— according to a new report by Ceres and Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The report, Mapping the Gap: Road from Paris, was announced at the UN Investor Summit on Climate Risk, a gathering of 500 global investors this week organized by Ceres, the United Nations Foun

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 29, 2016

sonnen, the European market leader for smart energy storage systems, announced a partnership with SolarWorld, the largest crystalline-silicon solar manufacturer in the US and PetersenDean, the nation’s largest residential roofing company with more than a million roofs under its belt. The new solar-plus-storage package offers US homeowners a straightforward path for using renewable energy.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 29, 2016

Leading developers and potential customers of small modular reactors (SMR) have formed a consortium to advance the commercialization of the innovative reactor designs. The memorandum of understanding establishes an organization called SMR Start. The organization is designed to help accelerate the commercialization of SMRs by creating an industry-driven entity whereby potential reactor owners/operators would be a unified voice in a variety of policy and regulatory issues and in creating cost-shar

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 29, 2016

Intelligent Energy has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with a major drone manufacturer to develop hydrogen fuel cell powered drones. The deal will see the two companies work together in the first quarter of 2016 to develop technological solutions to increase drone flight time. The goal is for the deal to lead to a formal commercial arrangement for the solutions’ rollout.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 29, 2016

Almost two years after SDG&E proposed its Electric Vehicle Grid-Integration (VGI) pilot project (April 2014), the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a modified version of the program, enabling the utility to own and to install 3,500 charging stations at 350 sites—businesses and multi-family communities, including in underserved neighborhoods, throughout San Diego and south Orange Counties.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 28, 2016

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced the 2016 Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) Phase I Release 1 Awards, including four projects focused on durable and inexpensive polymer electrolyte membranes (PEM) for transportation and stationary fuel cell applications. ( Earlier post.). These projects are awarded through the Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 28, 2016

European ultracapacitor manufacturer Skeleton Technologies received a €4-million (US$4.4-million) investment from KIC InnoEnergy, an investment company dedicated to promoting sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship in Europe’s energy industry. The €4m investment from KIC InnoEnergy—the shareholders of which include ABB, EDF, Iberdrola and Total—will be used to further develop the competitive advantage of Skeleton Technologies’ ultracapacitors.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 28, 2016

PSA Peugeot Citroën, which has operated in Iran for more than 30 years, and Iran Khodro signed a joint venture agreement to produce latest-generation vehicles in Iran. This 50/50 joint venture lays the foundations for a strategic partnership between the two companies. This joint venture is expected to invest up to €400 million (US$437 million) over the next five years in manufacturing and R&D capacity.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 28, 2016

SDCmaterials, a developer of advanced catalyst products based on a novel materials fabrication and integration platform, announced a partnership and formalized a supply agreement with Car Sound, a leading manufacturer of catalysts and catalytic converters for the automotive aftermarket. Investors in SDCmaterials include the venture capital arms of General Motors, Volvo Group, and SAIC Motor as well as BASF Venture Capital.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 27, 2016

Teams at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and TU Darmstadt have produced a cost-effective fuel-cell catalyst material consisting of iron-nitrogen complexes embedded in tiny islands of graphene only a few nanometers in diameter. The FeN 4 centers provide excellent catalytic efficiency, approaching that of platinum. For their synthesis process, they devised a simple and feasible way to reduce the contribution of inorganic metal species in the catalyst material—in some cases even down to zero.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 27, 2016

Valence Technology and EaglePicher Technologies have entered into a strategic alliance including a technology license agreement for certain Valence Lithium-Ion technology and future supply considerations. The agreement accelerates EaglePicher’s expanding Lithium-Ion based portfolio of products and applications that will be developed at its Lithium-Ion Center of Excellence in Joplin, Missouri.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 27, 2016

The IBM board of directors elected Mark Fields, president and chief executive officer, Ford Motor Company, to the board effective 1 March 1, 2016. We are pleased that Mark will be joining the IBM board of directors. Mark led the highly successful transformation of his company in a competitive industry where technology has driven innovation. He is leading Ford into a future where cars are not only vehicles, but increasingly becoming mobile technology platforms.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 27, 2016

ExxonMobil and Renewable Energy Group (REG) are partnering to study the production of biodiesel by fermenting renewable cellulosic sugars from sources such as agricultural waste. The agreement is between ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company and REG’s Life Sciences subsidiary. Terms were not disclosed. REG has developed a patented technology that uses microbes to convert sugars to biodiesel in a one-step fermentation process similar to ethanol manufacturing.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 27, 2016

Silicon Valley-based Sprig Electric is among the first electrical contractors in the nation to pair Tesla’s Powerpack stationary battery system ( earlier post ) with a 350 kW commercial rooftop photovoltaic (PV) system to optimize energy savings. The pairing, installed by Sprig Electric at their corporate headquarters in San Jose, will cut the building’s total energy costs by 80-95%.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 27, 2016

Current mild-hybrid vehicle projects, in partnership with Ford and Hyundai/Kia, that utilize advanced 48V lead-carbon batteries, can reduce CO 2 emissions by 15-20%, according to the latest data from the Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC), presented at the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference (25-28 January, Mainz). The T-Hybrid (based on a Kia Optima) ( earlier post ) and the ADEPT (based on a Ford Focus) ( earlier post ) both utilize an advanced 48V lead-carbon battery system with

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 26, 2016

DeltaWing Technology Group—creators of the DeltaWing vehicle design ( earlier post )—and DHX Electric Machines —a Georgia Tech spinout and developer and manufacturer of ultra-high torque density electric machines using proprietary and patented direct cooling technology— announced an agreement granting DeltaWing worldwide rights to make, use and sell DHX electric motors and components specifically designed for automotive applications.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 26, 2016

The Nikkei Asian Review reported that Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk said that the company has trimmed its China EV sales target for this year to 5,000 units, down from last year’s target of 10,000. Tesla has reported that it had sold 3,025 cars in China through the first nine months of 2015. Nevertheless, Tesla’s Q3 2015 results were its strongest yet in China: 1,345 Model S vehicles, 11% of Tesla’s global deliveries.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 26, 2016

UQM Technologies announced today that Kalmar Motor AB in Sweden has successfully passed vehicle trials with major airlines and plans on beginning production orders by mid-2016 using the PowerPhase HD220, UQM’s heavy-duty commercial traction electric motor/controller system, for their TBL50 airplane tugs. The PowerPhase HD220 delivers 700 N·m peak torque and 220 kW peak, 120 kW continuous motor power.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 26, 2016

Oil and energy company Tamoil has begun selling a cold-weather diesel blend containing a minimum 20% Neste NEXBTL renewable diesel to its corporate customers in the northern Italian Alps region. “Gasolio Artico Tamoil - New Generation Diesel” fuel reduces emissions and provides excellent performance in cold conditions. We are happy to be able to help our customer Tamoil to be the first in Northern Italy to launch a renewable fuel with excellent cold properties into the market.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 26, 2016

There has been growing interest in the potential for converting glycerol—a relatively large (about 10 wt %) byproduct of the conventional production of biodiesel (fatty acid methyl esters)—into solketal (2,2-dimethyl 1,3-dioxalane-4-methanol) for use as an oxygenated fuel additive or diesel combustion promoter. A number of approaches to solketal production have been explored.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 26, 2016

Researchers at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering have found that crumpled graphene balls are an extremely promising lubricant additive. In a series of tests, a polyalphaolefin base oil with only 0.01–0.1 wt % of crumpled graphene balls outperformed a fully formulated commercial lubricant in terms of friction and wear reduction.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 26, 2016

At the Volkswagen Group’s New Year reception in Brussels, Group CEO Matthias Müller said that the Group would concentrate on sustainability more than ever before—encompassing products, strategy and management. Müller will present the new Strategy 2025 for the Group this summer. Among other things, the company’s brands will introduce about 20 additional models with electrical or plug-in hybrid drive trains by 2020, the CEO confirmed.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 25, 2016

Siemens and CD-adapco have entered into a stock purchase agreement for the acquisition of CD-adapco by Siemens. The purchase price is $970 million. CD-adapco is a global engineering simulation company with software solutions covering a wide range of engineering disciplines including Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Solid Mechanics (CSM), heat transfer, particle dynamics, reactant flow, electrochemistry, acoustics and rheology.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 25, 2016

Tottori Prefecture, Tottori Gas Co., Ltd, Sekisui House Ltd. and Honda Motor Co., Ltd. signed an agreement to pursue jointly Tottori Prefecture’s project to establish a base for a hydrogen energy demonstration (and environmental education). This will be Japan’s first case where hydrogen energy will be utilized through the integration of a hydrogen station which creates hydrogen from renewable energy, a smart house and a fuel cell vehicle (FCV).

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