Green Car Congress

JANUARY 19, 2016

Chevrolet offers the 2015 Impala full-size sedan as an all-new bi-fuel model—the only manufacturer-produced full-size sedan in North America that can run on both compressed natural gas (CNG) and gasoline. Available at the end of 2015 to both fleet and retail customers in either LS or LT trims, the bi-fuel Impala features a dedicated version of the standard 3.6L V–6, with specific valves and hardened valve seats for improved wear resistance and durability with the CNG fuel system.

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Green Car Reports

JANUARY 21, 2016

Some electric cars use roof-mounted solar panels to provide supplementary electric power. In fact, a solar roof seems to have become an obligatory accessory on electric and plug-in hybrid concept cars. But the idea of a solar-powered electric car is far from new. DON'T MISS: Classic 1966 VW Bus With Green Drivetrain: Solar-Powered Electric Motor.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 21, 2016

At the Awards Ceremony at the SAE 2016 Government/Industry Meeting, SAE International honored the recipients of the Ralph H. Isbrandt Automotive Safety Engineering Award, including the lead author, Jesse Schneider, (BMW); along with co-authors Jihyun Shim (Hyundai); Graham Meadows (IMPCO); Steven R. Mathison (Honda); Michael J. Veenstra (Ford); Rainer Immel (Opel); Morten Wistoft-Ibsen (H2 Logic); Manfred Greisel (Wenger Engineering); Spencer Quong (SQI); Timothy McGuire (MB RDNA); and Peter Pot

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 19, 2016

An analysis by Dr. Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle at University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) has found recent decreases in the proportion of persons with a driver’s license across all age groups in the US. The study examined data came the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) from 1983 to 2014. The three main findings are: For 16- through 44-year-olds, there was a continuous decrease in the percentage of persons with a driver’s license for the years examined.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 21, 2016

Researchers at Penn State, with colleagues at EC Power , a Penn State spin-off, have developed a lithium-ion battery structure—the ‘all-climate battery’ (ACB) cell—that heats itself up from below 0 degrees Celsius without requiring external heating devices or electrolyte additives. The self-heating mechanism creates an electrochemical interface that is favorable for high discharge/charge power.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 21, 2016

At Washington, D.C. Auto Show, Honda said that it will begin retail leasing of the new 5-passenger, hydrogen-powered Clarity Fuel Cell sedan ( earlier post ) to customers in select California markets before the end of 2016. Honda expects to price the Clarity Fuel Cell at around $60,000 with a targeted monthly lease under $500. Honda expects limited volumes in the early stages of production.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 19, 2016

Researchers from Argonne National Laboratory, with colleagues in the US and Korea, have demonstrated a lithium-oxygen battery based on lithium superoxide (LiO 2 ). The work, reported in the journal Nature , could open the way to very high-energy-density batteries based on LiO 2 as well as to other possible uses of the compound, such as oxygen storage.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 22, 2016

Tesoro Corporation plans to foster the development of biocrude, made from renewable biomass, which can be co-processed in its existing refineries along with conventional fossil crude oil to produce lower-carbon drop-in fuels. Tesoro expects that converting renewable biomass into biocrude will enable existing refining assets to produce fuels with lower carbon intensities (CIs) at a significantly lower capital and operating cost than competing technologies.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 22, 2016

Nissan will produce a future generation of EV batteries at its manufacturing base in Sunderland, UK. Nissan’s UK battery plant is one of three Nissan battery production sites globally, also providing battery modules for Nissan’s all-electric van, the e-NV200, which is manufactured in the company’s plant in Barcelona, Spain. Paving the way the future generation batteries will be a new £19.4-million (US$28-million) project that will team Nissan with new academic and technology partners in the UK,

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Nissan Future Land Rover Batteries 163

Green Car Congress

JANUARY 22, 2016

Bosch has begun on-road testing of autonomous driving in Japan, its third location for the development work after Germany and the US. Bosch’s initial goal is the development of the highway pilot, which will allow cars to drive autonomously on freeways and freeway-like roads starting in 2020. Worldwide, nearly 2,500 Bosch engineers are working to develop driver assistance systems and automated driving further.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 22, 2016

BMW Brilliance Automotive (BBA) opened a new engine plant with a light metal foundry in Shenyang today. The new location will produce the latest generation of the BMW TwinPower Turbo three and four-cylinder gasoline engines and forms part of the BBA production network based in Shenyang in Northeastern China. In addition to combustion engines, the new engine plant will also produce high-voltage batteries for future Plug-in Hybrid models.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 22, 2016

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering are working with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to develop a new type of natural gas storage system that would adsorb the gas like a sponge and allow for more energy-efficient storage and use. In the journal Physical Review Letters , the team reports on their study of heat transfer mechanisms in such systems, work that may advance the technology.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 22, 2016

An 8.75MW battery storage network which will capture and reuse the energy created by braking subway cars will help Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) reduce operating costs, ensure energy resiliency, and support the stability of the electrical grid. Constellation, a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation, will fund, own, and operate the 8.75MW battery storage network, deployed at seven SEPTA substations.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 21, 2016

Ford is making Auto Start-Stop technology standard across the entire lineup of EcoBoost-equipped 2017 F-150 pickups. The 2016 F-150 with 2.7-liter EcoBoost engine comes standard with Auto Start-Stop. That offering continues for 2017, with the addition of the technology as standard equipment for all 3.5-liter EcoBoost engines including the all-new high-output version for F-150 Raptor.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 21, 2016

Ballard Power Systems has received a follow-on purchase order from Nisshinbo Holdings Inc. for a further phase of a Technology Solutions program related to the development of a breakthrough catalyst technology intended to reduce the cost of certain proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. The program, now entering its seventh phase, has been underway for approximately 2.5 years. ( Earlier post.).

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 21, 2016

TM4 , PSA Peugeot Citroën, Exagon Motors, Hydro-Québec and the Gouvernement du Québec are collaborating to develop a new electric drivetrain for light-duty vehicles. TM4 will act as the developer of the electric powertrain in the pre-development phase of the project. The government’s contribution will be made up of a CAD 10-million equity interest and a CAD 6-million loan.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 21, 2016

Schneider Electric and EverCharge, a provider of intelligent, scalable, and fully managed electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions, announced a global collaboration to accelerate the build-out of EV charging infrastructure in urban buildings with multiple occupants including apartments, condominiums and office buildings. EV charging currently presents multi-tenant facilities and their occupants with a number of challenges when trying to add EV charging stations, especially when it comes to shari

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 20, 2016

The Volkswagen brand has restructured its vehicle development organization. The new organization bundles competencies into four series groups containing several model series: small; compact; mid- and full-size; and BEV. The brand’s management intends for cross-functional collaboration to be strengthened as a result—from the concept to the end of the life-cycle for any given model, the responsibility for technology, quality, cost and deadline compliance, and the responsibility for cost-effe

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 20, 2016

A team of engineers at the University of Bristol has developed a new type of 3D printing that can print composite materials. Their technique, described in an open-access paper in Smart Materials and Structures , uses ultrasonic waves to position carefully millions of tiny reinforcement fibres as part of the 3D printing process. The fibres are formed into a microscopic reinforcement framework that gives the material strength.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 20, 2016

Ricardo will partner with Gas Technology Institute (GTI) on two major contracts to enable natural gas engines to provide a viable, fuel-efficient, and less polluting alternative to diesel power for medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles on the highways of California. Despite California’s substantial progress in reducing emissions from heavy-duty trucks and other mobile sources, diesel trucks remain major contributors to statewide emissions of NO x , greenhouse gases (GHG), and diesel particul

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 20, 2016

DuPont Industrial Biosciences (DuPont) and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) have developed a new breakthrough process for the production of furan dicarboxylic methyl ester (FDME) from fructose. FDME is a high-purity derivative of furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA)—one of the 12 building blocks identified by the US Department of Energy that can be converted into a number of high-value, bio-based chemicals or materials that can deliver high performance in a number of applications.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 20, 2016

As of 2018, Audi Brussels will produce exclusively the commercial version of Audi’s e-tron quattro battery-electric SUV ( earlier post ). The plant will also produce its own battery packs. The site in Belgium will thus become a key plant for electric mobility at the Volkswagen Group. Audi will transfer production of the Audi A1 from Brussels to Martorell in Spain; in 2014, Audi Brussels produced 115,378 Audi A1 models.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 20, 2016

3M has introduced a new magnet bonding adhesive system designed to provide electric motor design and manufacturing engineers with an advanced tool for bonding permanent magnets to rotors and stators in high-efficiency permanent magnet (PM) electric motors. The 3M Magnet Bonding Adhesive AU-205 is a high-performance structural bonding adhesive system designed to virtually replace messy liquid adhesives to simplify magnet positioning and achieve high bond strength with bond line thickness control.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 20, 2016

Battery cost reductions, government funding programs and utility tenders led to a 45% increase in the global energy storage pipeline in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2015 compared to the previous quarter. According to IHS Inc., the global pipeline of planned battery and flywheel projects had reached 1.6 gigawatts (GW) in Q4 2015. Continued battery cost reduction, government funding programs and utility tenders have helped spark a notable acceleration in the global energy storage market, and IHS rec

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 20, 2016

Pellion Technologies, a startup commercializing magnesium-ion battery technology ( earlier post ), announced an investment by Motorola Solutions. Because magnesium is divalent, it can displace double the charge per ion (i.e., Mg 2+ rather than Li + ). As an element, magnesium is much more abundant than lithium, and more stable. Magnesium-ion batteries theoretically could offer good electrochemical performance, while being safer and less expensive than Li-ion batteries.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 20, 2016

Hecate Canada Storage II, LLP, an emerging Canadian Project Development and Electrical Systems Integrator, has selected Switzerland-based Leclanché as the exclusive partner to provide 13MW / 53MWh Li-ion battery Energy Storage Systems in one of the largest Grid Ancillary Services energy storage projects in North America. All the contracted facilities will be built near Toronto, Ontario.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 19, 2016

The 10,000 th Dürr painting robot is being deployed to Opel in Spain. The EcoRP E033 model will apply the primer coat on various Opel car bodies in Zaragoza. Dürr will deliver two primer stations with 16 painting robots and three stations for rocker panel coating to the automobile manufacturer. Dürr’s first RP7 robots were delivered to Nissan in Spain in 1998, where they proved their worth with high painting quality, fast color changes and great process reliability.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 19, 2016

The European Parliament will vote at the next plenary session on a proposal to veto a draft decision to raise diesel car emission limits for NO x by up to 110% when the Real Driving Emissions (RDE) test procedure is introduced. Parliament’s Environment Committee argues that MEPs should veto plans to relax the limits because this would undermine the enforcement of existing EU standards.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 19, 2016

Westport Innovations Inc. received certification from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the dedicated compressed natural gas (CNG) and bi-fuel CNG Westport WiNG Power System models of the Ford 5.0L F-150 trucks for Model Year (MY) 2016. This marks the first time that Ford has offered gaseous prep in the 5.0L F-150—the best selling vehicle in both the United States and Canada.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 19, 2016

MINI and HAX, a division of venture capital firm SOSV, have launched a startup accelerator program to support, educate, and invest in compelling new businesses. Urban-X by MINI and HAX will combine the core competencies of MINI, including design, engineering, and usability, with HAX’s best-in-class acceleration processes, investing experience, and ability to help companies bring innovative technologies to market rapidly.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 19, 2016

Evatran Group, Inc. and Zhejiang VIE Science and Technology Company (VIE), a leading manufacturer of automotive parts based in Zhejiang Province, China earlier this month moved to the second phase of a planned global expansion with Evatran’s Plugless EV charging technology. VIE’s total $3.2-million investment to date formally kicks off Evatran’s $10M Series B Raise with VIE as lead investor and plans for a third investment as the companies move forward in North America and China.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 19, 2016

One potential path for delivering higher energy density storage that current Li-ion batteries is to use a multivalent ion such as Ca 2+ or Mg 2+. ( Earlier post.) Now, researchers at Argonne National Laboratory and the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) have demonstrated the first rechargeable calcium-ion battery. Utilizing manganese hexacyanoferrate (MFCN) as the cathode, the battery intercalates Ca reversibly in a dry nonaqueous electrolyte with tin as the anode with a capacity o

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 19, 2016

Belgium-based VRT News has charged that Opel dealers have been modifying the software in the Zafira Tourer 1.6 diesel to change the emission behavior of the vehicles. Opel swiftly rebutted , noting that (a) service update 15-P-0444 (cited in the VRT News report) has nothing to do with changing emission levels; (b) no other recalls to achieve better emission values have been launched in 2015; and (c) service update 15-P-044 had been discussed with the German Type Approval Authority KBA.

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 18, 2016

Ceres Power Holdings PLC has signed a new Joint Development Agreement with Honda R & D Co Ltd jointly to develop Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) stacks using Ceres Power’s metal-supported Steel Cell technology for a range of potential power equipment applications. Ceres produces the Steel Cell by screen printing layers of ceramic ink onto a drilled sheet of steel.

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