Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

General Motors today announced initiatives for customer satisfaction and outlined its steps in battery safety research to ensure ongoing confidence in the safety of Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle. On Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened a formal safety defect investigation to assess the risk of a battery-related fire in Chevy Volts that have been involved in a serious crash. ( Earlier post.

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Electric Cars are for Girls

NOVEMBER 12, 2011

If you're in the San Diego area, and would like to attend an EV conversion workshop. The Kick Gas Car Club is offering a series of evening classes, starting in January, on converting a small pickup to electric. Class size is limited to 8 people. Follow the link for more information or to grab a seat.

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Green Car Reports

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

Preliminary conclusions from the investigation into a Mooresville, North Carolina, house fire that destroyed a Chevrolet Volt indicate the fire did not start in the vehicle, but elsewhere, and progressed to engulf the electric car. Iredell County chief deputy fire marshal Garland Cloer told GreenCarReports in an exclusive interview that, "the.

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National Green Transportation

NOVEMBER 6, 2011

The long-awaited sequel to Chris Paine's ground-breaking documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car, is now being shown in selected theaters around the country. Revenge of the Electric Car starts with a brief recap of WKtEC.

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Green Cars News

NOVEMBER 29, 2011

Volvo has made improvements to its automatic transmissions on its low emission DRIVe models which means that clutch-less cars now achieve the same low emission levels and strong fuel economy as manual models. The Swedish car maker, which prides itself on being among the leading manufacturers in Europe in tackling carbon emissions, announces two new [.].

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

20Ah SCiB cell. Click to enlarge. Honda selected Toshiba Corporation’s SCiB rechargeable Li-ion battery to power the Fit EV. ( Earlier post.) Toshiba will supply battery modules for the new car, which Honda will launch in summer 2012 in Japan and the US. In 2010, Toshiba announced that it was working with Mitsubishi Motors Corporation to bring the SCiB battery ( earlier post ) to electric vehicles (EVs). ( Earlier post.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 16, 2011

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Transportation (DOT) formally unveiled their joint proposal to set stronger fuel economy and greenhouse gas pollution standards for Model Year 2017-2025 passenger cars and light trucks. DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is proposing Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), as amended by the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA),

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

In a keynote interview to open F.O. Licht’s World Ethanol & Biofuels in Barcelona on 8 November, Arthur Reijnhart, General Manager, Alternative Energies and Fuel Development Strategy for Shell, described a scenario of an increasingly diverse energy supply landscape against a backdrop of soaring demand between now and 2050, driven by population growth, increasing incomes and increasing urbanisation of the world’s population.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

In its letter to its shareholders reporting Q3 performance, Tesla Motors said that it had received a letter of intent from Daimler for a full powertrain program for a vehicle in the Mercedes line. Details of this deal remain confidential, Tesla said, but will be announced in the coming months. Tesla’s existing production agreements with Daimler and its development services agreement with Toyota produced combined revenue of. more $29 million in the third quarter; total Q3 revenues were $58

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Mercedes Tesla Vehicles Toyota 317

Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

The eT! research vehicle. Click to enlarge. Volkswagen unveiled the eT! electric delivery van research vehicle at the Design Center in Potsdam. The all-electric eT!, which is equipped with wheel hub motors, can be operated semi-automatically in certain situations. The van can follow the delivery person from house to house (“Follow me”), or the van can return to the delivery person on command (“Come to me”).

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) and Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. are collaborating in the development of communications-linked next-generation vehicles. A part of this collaboration is their joint exhibition of a communications-linked electric commuter concept and an electrically power assisted bicycle concept at the 42 nd Tokyo Motor Show 2011. Electric commuter EC-Miu.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 24, 2011

A team at Stanford led by Prof. Yi Cui has developed nanoparticle copper hexacyanoferrate (CuHCF) battery cathode materials that demonstrate long cycle life and high power for use in grid storage applications. In a paper in Nature Communications , they report that after 40,000 deep discharge cycles at a 17?C rate, 83% of the original capacity of copper hexacyanoferrate is retained.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

The FCV-R concept. Click to enlarge. Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) will stage the world premiere of the FCV-R, a practical sedan-type next-generation hydrogen fuel-cell concept vehicle, at the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show. Toyota calls this concept model “ a highly practical fuel-cell vehicle ” that is planned for launch in about 2015. With the fuel-cell unit located beneath the specially designed body, the vehicle can accommodate up to four passengers and offers what Toyota calls &ldq

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 12, 2011

Northwestern Univ. researchers report on a new high-power Si–graphene composite anode material for Li-ion batteries in the journal Advanced Energy Materials. With current technology, the capabilities of a lithium-ion battery are limited in two ways: energy capacity is limited by the charge density, and charge rate is limited by the speed at which the lithium ions can make their way from the electrolyte into the anode.

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Li-ion Lithium Ion Power Powered 300

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

The 1.4-liter MultiAir Turbo. Click to enlarge. At the Los Angeles Auto Show, Fiat unveiled the 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth—a performance variant of the 500—featuring the first application of the new 1.4-liter MultiAir Turbo engine. The turbocharged, twin intercooled and MultiAir-equipped ( earlier post ) 1.4-liter engine delivers an estimated 160 hp (119 kW) and 170 lb-ft (230 N·m) of torque.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 5, 2011

Solar radiation management (SRM) is one of the geoengineering techniques proposed as a potential means of offsetting some of the anthropogenic radiative forcing of climate as a means to reduce climate change. ( Earlier post.) However, the effectiveness and associated risks of SRM are uncertain. A team of researchers from California Institute of Technology, the Carnegie Institution for Science and Harvard University has now examined the possibility of testing solar radiation management (SRM) thro

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

The decrease in CO 2 equivalent emissions of ODSs (ozone-depleting substances: CFCs, halons, HCFCs, and others) may be offset by the projected increase in their non-ozone depleting substitutes (HFCs) (lines designated as HFC scenarios). Source: UNEP. Click to enlarge. A new report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) projects that by 2050, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) could be responsible for emissions equivalent to 3.5 to 8.8 Gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon dioxide (Gt CO 2 eq)—comparable to t

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

The US Navy successfully concluded its largest demonstration of shipboard alternative fuel use with the successful arrival of the Self Defense Test Ship (SDTS) to Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme. The SDTS is a decommissioned Spruance-class destroyer ex-Paul F. Foster (EDD 964) reconfigured to provide the Navy an at-sea, remotely controlled, engineering test and evaluation platform without the risk to personnel or operational assets.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

Researchers at MIT are devising algorithms for more accurately estimating driver behavior at road intersections—i.e., whether or not an oncoming car is likely to run a red light—and validating them using real traffic data. The team has introduced two classes of algorithms that can classify drivers as “compliant” or “violating”. These are based on i) Support Vector Machines (SVM) and ii) Hidden Markov Models (HMM)—two very popular machine learning approaches that have been used

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 23, 2011

Aviation climate change impacts pathway. Credit: ACS, Stratton et al. Click to enlarge. A new study by researchers at MIT has found that factoring the non-CO 2 combustion emissions and effects into the lifecycle of a Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (SPK) aviation fuel can lead to a decrease in the relative environmental merit of the SPK fuel compared to conventional jet fuel.

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MIT Climate Emissions Fuel 273

Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 29, 2011

Engineering E. coli for use in consolidated bioprocessing. Cellulose and hemicellulose are hydrolyzed by secreted cellulase and hemicellulose enzymes (cyan) into soluble oligosaccharides. ?-glucosidase enzymes (red) further hydrolyze the oligosaccharides into monosaccharides, which are metabolized into biofuels via heterologous pathways. Bokinsky et al.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 24, 2011

Overview of Charging Network Development Organization, LLC charging service. Click to enlarge. Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC); Honda Motor Co., Ltd.; Mitsubishi Motors Corporation; ULVAC, Inc.; Kanematsu Corporation; Kandenko Co., Ltd.; Suzuyo Shoji Co., Ltd.; Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.; and the Development Bank of Japan Inc. are establishing an organization to provide membership-based quick-charging services for users of electric vehicles (EVs).

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 26, 2011

Aggregated damage costs by pollutant. The EEA quantified the damage costs arising from CO 2 emissions based on estimated marginal abatement cost. Source: EEA. Click to enlarge. Air pollution from the 10,000 largest polluting facilities in Europe cost citizens between €102–169 billion (US$135–224 billion) in 2009, according to a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) which analyzed the costs of harm to health and the environment caused by air pollution.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 25, 2011

Mazda’s ‘i-ELOOP’ regenerative braking system. Click to enlarge. Mazda Motor Corporation has developed the first production passenger vehicle regenerative braking system that uses an ultracapacitor. The system, which Mazda calls ‘i-ELOOP’, will begin to appear in Mazda’s vehicles in 2012. In real-world driving conditions with frequent acceleration and braking, i-ELOOP improves fuel economy in stop-and-go driving conditions by approximately 10%, according to the company.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

Cutaway of the 1.0L EcoBoost. Click to enlarge. Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally launched volume production of Ford’s smallest gasoline engine—the 1.0-liter, turbocharged, direct injection EcoBoost engine ( earlier post )—at Ford’s Cologne (Germany) Engine Plant. The 1.0L EcoBoost will debut in Europe in early 2012 and ultimately be available worldwide.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

Qualcomm Incorporated, which just recently acquired the team and technology of wireless charging company HaloIPT (earlier post) , announced the first Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging (WEVC) trial for London in what is a UK and industry-leading initiative. Qualcomm is collaborating with the UK Government, as well as the Mayor of London’s office and Transport for London (TfL) to deliver the trial.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

Emission reduction wedges for California in 2050. Williams et al. Click to enlarge. Technically feasible levels of energy efficiency and decarbonized energy supply alone will not be sufficient to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, according to a detailed modeling of the California economy performed by a team from Energy and Environmental Economics, the Monterey.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

The H2-DI engine was estimated to exceed 2016 CAFE targets with engine out Tier 2 Bin 2 (SULEV) emission levels. The team sees further potential for fuel economy improvement with engine downsizing. Source: Wallner 2011. Click to enlarge. A project led by Dr. Thomas Wallner from Argonne National Laboratory has optimized a spark-ignited direct injection combustion system for a hydrogen engine (H2-DI).

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 29, 2011

Volvo Car Corporation’s 1.6-liter diesel combined with the automatic Powershift gearbox now delivers the same low fuel consumption and CO 2 levels as the manual DRIVe versions. The combination of the four-cylinder, 1.6-liter diesel engine (115 hp) with the six-speed Powershift. gearbox is available in four models: Volvo S60, V60, V70 and S80. Fuel consumption in the Volvo S60 with the 1.6D engine and Powershift is 4.3 L/100km (54.7 mpg US).

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

In a paper published in the journal Science , Natalie Mahowald at Cornell University reports on a third effect of anthropogenic aerosols on the climate—their slow impact on biogeochemical cycles potentially affecting the fluxes of CO 2 into and out of the atmosphere. The net effect of aerosols is usually considered the sum of their direct radiative effect plus the indirect effect through aerosol-cloud interactions.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

Fuel cell maker Ballard Power Systems has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Delta Power Solutions (India) Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Delta Electronics (Thailand) PLC, expanding the range of clean energy applications they will focus on under an existing fuel cell system collaboration agreement. Ballard and Delta recently announced their collaboration agreement in relation to sales of fuel cell-powered backup power systems in the India telecommunications market, under which an initia

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Single-cylinder Achates research engine installed in test cell. Source: Achates Power. Click to enlarge. Achates Power, the developer of a two-stroke, compression-ignition (CI) opposed-piston (OP) engine announced that the latest test results for a 3-cylinder Achates engine configuration indicate a 20% improvement in cycle-averaged brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) when compared to a recently introduced advanced medium-duty four-stroke diesel engine: 192.6 g/kWh BSFC for the Achates engine,

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Engine San Diego Diesel Power 257

Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 6, 2011

LG Chem Ltd. will supply Li-ion battery and management systems to Swiss-based ABB under a newly signed long-term agreement. Among the projects to be undertaken will be a power system stabilization demonstration project. LG Chem did not disclose the size of the deal. In October 2010, Southern California Edison (SCE) selected LG Chem, Ltd. to provide lithium-ion battery packs for a pilot program involving energy storage systems (ESS) for residential and small commercial applications, marking LG Ch

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 29, 2011

Siemens Energy launched its new 6-megawatt (MW) direct-drive wind turbine at the European Offshore Wind Energy Conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The new SWT-6.0 will be available with rotor diameters of 120 and 154 meters and is designed for the most challenging offshore sites. Prototype of the new SWT-6.0 wind turbine. Click to enlarge. The new turbine features the Siemens direct drive design with 50% fewer parts than comparable geared wind turbines.

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