Audi is offering its customers in Europe and other markets—outside of the US and Canada—a retrofit program for cars with EU5 and EU6 diesel engines. A total of up to 850,000 cars worldwide with six-cylinder and eight-cylinder diesel engines (V6/V8 TDI, EU5/EU6) will get new software. This will further improve their emissions in real driving conditions beyond the current legal requirements. MORE

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Institute of Transport Research signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Berlin that aims to promote cooperation between the two institutions in the field of sustainable urban mobility. The MoU provides a framework for cooperation within which the organizations will work together on issues related to sustainable urban mobility. MORE

Although silicon is a very attractive anode material because of its higher energy density, its huge volume change over repeated charge−discharge cycles rapidly degrades cycle life. As an alternative approach to mitigate the well-known drawbacks of silicon while retaining the energy density advantages, silicon monoxide (SiO x , x ≈ 1) has become attractive as well (e.g., earlier post ). MORE

Saitama City (Japan), Honda Motor and Yamaha Motor will begin evaluation testing towards the expansion of the use of electric motorcycles. As part of Saitama City’s “E-KIZUNA Project” policies to promote the spread of electric vehicles, this collaborative initiative by the three parties also aims to resolve the issues in areas which are lacking in transport accessibility. MORE

Today, our missing plug-in Mini review, some rumors on future Chevrolet Volts, a new Volvo crossover, and much more diesel drama. All this and more on Green Car Reports. We updated our article on the Bolt EV production shutdown to reflect information added by a worker at the Orion Assembly Plant where it's built. The upcoming Volvo XC40 compact. Today in Car News MORE

As numerous political probes over the years have famously shown, once investigators dig into the circumstances around an alleged crime, anything can happen. The September 2015 announcement by the EPA that VW Group engineers had admitted to deliberate cheating on U.S. emission tests of the company's "clean diesel' engines may prove to be another. Europe emissions VW Group Volkswagen diesel scandal MORE

The makers of the 2018 Mini Coooper S E Countryman All4, the unwieldy name for its first plug-in hybrid small crossover utility vehicle, aren't going to make any friends among electric-car fans. That's because the company has included in its marketing the notion that the car's hybrid powertrain should offer some fuel-economy benefits even though. Plug-In Hybrids plug-in cars MORE

Small SUVs are all the rage, steadily eating into sales of passenger sedans and hatchbacks of pretty much every size. It's not just limited to North America, either: the trend is global, which is why several makers have jacked up perfectly standard front-wheel-drive hatchbacks and turned them into "crossover" utility vehicles. Now GM may be. General Motors Plug-In Hybrids GM Future Cars Chevy Volt plug-in cars MORE

Electric cars may receive most of the attention within the realm of alternative propulsion methods, but liquid hydrocarbon fuels will be with us for many decades to come. The challenge then becomes how to reduce the carbon footprint of extracting, transporting, refining, and burning those fuels to reduce the damage they impose on the environment. Biofuels research alternative fuel vehicles Scotland butanol MORE

Volvo has never tackled the small crossover segment in the United States, but it's ready to change that with the new XC40. The Volvo XC40 will join the larger XC60 and XC90 as its smallest crossover option in the United States, though a previous generation of the model has found success in Europe over the past few years. With a launch getting. Plug-In Hybrids Future Cars plug-in cars MORE

Kia Motors posted its best six-month sales period in Europe, with half-year sales surpassing 250,000 for the first time in the company’s history. Hybrid and electric vehicles accounted for 7.5% of European sales so far this year, up from just one per cent in the first six months of 2016, according to Michael Cole, Chief Operating Officer of Kia Motors Europe. MORE

Announced in 2016, the Battery500 consortium, led by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), intends to build a battery pack with a specific energy of 500 Wh/kg, compared to the 170-200 Wh/kg per kilogram in today’s typical EV battery. Earlier post.) MORE

Silicon anodes can deliver 3~5-times higher capacities compared with current graphite anodes in lithium-ion batteries. MORE

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach released the draft of their proposed 2017 C lean Air Action Plan (CAAP) Update. The document outlines a new set of aggressive near-term and long-term strategies for the nation’s busiest harbor complex to further reduce harmful air pollution from all port-related sources, assist the state in meeting aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals, and ultimately achieve zero emissions for trucks and terminal equipment. MORE