Green Car Congress

AUGUST 29, 2013

'Annual average concentrations of fine particulates from US sources of combustion emissions from (a) electric power generation; (b) industry; (c) commercial and residential sources; (d) road transportation; (e) marine transportation; (f) rail transportation; (g) sum of all combustion sources; (h) all sources. Source: MIT. Click to enlarge. Researchers from MIT’s Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment have concluded that ground-level PM 2.5 emissions from combustion sources such as industria

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Green Car Reports

AUGUST 8, 2013

'The Tesla Model S electric sedan has become the latest car to be awarded a full five star crash test rating by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. While it''s no surprise for modern cars to score highly in such tests, it''s still an impressive feat for a young automaker like Tesla Motors, which hasn''t had previous decades of safety.

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National Green Transportation

AUGUST 24, 2013

'Nissan Leaf sales are up 335 percent over 2012, thanks to the introduction of the lower priced 2013 Nissan Leaf that's manufactured in the U.S. Nissan said on Friday they're seeing demand for electric.

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Green Cars News

AUGUST 6, 2013

'A new network of electric car charging points will make it easier for electric car owners to connect to London Underground services. Benefitting from exemption to the London Congestion Charge, electric cars can be driven into the capital without paying the fee, but are still then faced with the [.].

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London Electric Cars Charging Cars 74

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Norway

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 17, 2013

'Hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric vehicle share of the California retail market. Source: California Auto Outlook. Click to enlarge. Hybrid vehicle market share (excluding plug-in hybrids) in California increased to 7% in the first half of 2013, up from 6.2% in 2012, according to the California Auto Outlook for the second quarter of 2013.

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2013 California Hybrid Market 372

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 23, 2013

'Audi''s Gen 2 3.0L TDI. Click to enlarge. Audi of America introduced four new TDI clean diesel models for the US market this year—the Audi A8, A7, A6, Q5—along with an updated Q7 TDI, all equipped with a second-generation 3.0L V6 TDI diesel engine. ( Earlier post.) This week in Washington, the company held a series of media drives (“TDI Efficiency Rally”) for the Q5, A6 and A7 diesel models to highlight their efficiency and performance, and also offered up its—as well as sever

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Diesel Audi Sale Fuel Economy 366

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 28, 2013

'Strategic Vision’s New Vehicle Experience Study (NVES), using a rapidly growing sample of Tesla buyers, finds what it calls “significant” differences between Tesla owners and the rest of the electric vehicle market. Creating complete buyer experience profiles, NVES gathers more than 400 variables to provide comprehensive views of the new vehicle driver, including the electric vehicle owner/shopper.

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Prius Tesla Volt EPA 354

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 13, 2013

'Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) has awarded the joint venture formed by Technip (50%) and DOF (50%) has eight contract covering the construction of four new pipelay support vessels (PLSVs) and operation in Brazilian waters to install flexible pipes. The combined value for Technip is approximately €1.35 billion (US$1.8 billion). The combined value for the DOF Group is approximately NOK 10 billion (US$1.7 billion).

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Water Brazil Romania 2016 340

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 26, 2013

'Top 15 LEAF market year-to-date in 2013. Source: Nissan Click to enlarge. Nissan provided a list of the top 15 markets in the US for the Nissan LEAF battery-electric vehicle. Nissan LEAF sales in the United States are up by 335% year-over-year since the launch of the enhanced 2013 model in March. ( Earlier post.) Nissan has sold 11,703 LEAFs in the US during the first 7 months of 2013—an increase of 230% from the 3,543 units for the same period in 2012.

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2013 Nissan Market San Francisco 334

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 29, 2013

'The new 4-cylinder Gen 3 1.8 EA888 TSI engine (red) delivers its peak 250 N·m of torque as early as 1,400 rpm, and maintains the strong and flat torque curve through 4,750 rpm—far outpacing the performance of the 5-cylinder 2.5-liter engine (blue) it replaces. The resulting boost in driving performance is manifest. Click to enlarge. Volkswagen of America is introducing the Group’s third-generation EA888 1.8-liter TSI four-cylinder engine in the 2014 Jetta and Passat, followed by th

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2014 Engine Exhaust Fuel Economy 331

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 18, 2013

'The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) reports that 1,275.7 m 3 (337,004 gallons US) total bitumen emulsion has been recovered from the ongoing bitumen upwelling at four sites in Canadian Natural Resources Limited’s Primrose project. The incident site locations are approximately 45 km NW of Cold Lake, Alberta. CNRL is using high pressure cyclic steam stimulation (HPCSS) operations (also called “huff and puff”) at Primrose—i.e., underground, in-situ thermal production of the bitumen.

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 13, 2013

'Drawing from a 2012 BMW patent application showing one embodiment of a proposed method to increase the efficiency of an electric motor. In addition to magnetic layers, the rotor has two magnetic flux influencing groups comprising a number of air-filled recesses. Source: BMW patent application Nº 2012/0267977. Click to enlarge. With its introduction of the eDrive motor—a proprietary hybrid synchronous motor designed to exploit both permanent magnets and the reluctance effect—in both

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 2, 2013

'Leading biofuels advocacy organizations from the United States and Brazil announced a joint trade mission to improve and enhance biofuels trade by matching businesses seeking greater trade opportunities in ethanol and other biofuels as well as green technology designed to expand and enhance biofuel production. Since January 2013, the United States has exported more than 97 million liters (25.6 million gallons US) of ethanol to Brazil, while 397 million liters (105 million gallons US) of Brazili

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Brazil United States Renewable Green 323

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 1, 2013

'One high-efficiency combustion concept under investigation is gasoline compression ignition (GCI)—the use of gasoline-like fuels to deliver very low NO x and PM emissions as well as high efficiency in a diesel compression ignition engine. ( Earlier post.) A challenge to be overcome with this approach is the higher resistance to autoignition of gasoline fuels.

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Gasoline Diesel Engine 2007 320

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 21, 2013

'Images of Li-air cathode produced by neutron-computed tomography. Source: ORNL. Click to enlarge. This begins an occasional series on “big science” tools hosted at US national laboratories that are being applied to support the development of technology innovations for clean transportation. First up is a quick look at the two advanced neutron-scattering facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee, which Green Car Congress recently had the opportunity to tour: the

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 28, 2013

'The first fully active and regenerative suspension is based on a pioneering electrohydraulic functional unit fitted to the exterior of the damper. Photo: ZF. Click to enlarge. ZF Friedrichshafen AG has entered into a partnership with Levant Power Corp. to build the first fully active suspension system with energy recovery function. GenShock technology is a fully active system for passenger cars which combines dynamics, safety and comfort characteristics with minimum energy consumption.

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 9, 2013

'E 200 Natural Gas Drive. Click to enlarge. Mercedes-Benz is introducing the latest version of the bivalent drive E 200 Natural Gas Drive (NGD) variant to the E?Class family in Europe. The E200 NGD can run on either gasoline or natural gas; benefits of running the car on natural gas include a 20% reduction in CO 2 emissions compared with comparable operation using gasoline, and much lower fuel costs.

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Mercedes Gas Gasoline MPG 311

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 8, 2013

'The OLEV bus in Gumi. Click to enlarge. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is trialing a bus application for its Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) technology, a dynamic wireless charging technology that recharges a vehicle’s battery while the vehicle is in motion. ( Earlier post.) An OLEV bus thus requires no pantographs to feed power from electric wires strung above the tram route.

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South Korea Charging Transportation Convert 307

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 12, 2013

'IBM has developed an advanced power and weather modeling technology that will help utilities increase the reliability of renewable energy resources. The solution combines weather prediction and big data analytics to forecast accurately the availability of wind power and solar energy. This will enable utilities to integrate more renewable energy into the power grid, the company says.

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Wind Solar Grid Power Grid 306

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 20, 2013

'Autonomous Vehicle Sales by Region, World Markets: 2015-2035. Source: Navigant Research. Click to enlarge. In a new report , Navigant Research forecasts that vehicles with autonomous driving modes will gradually gain traction in the market over the coming two decades, from about 4% of the global light-duty vehicle market in 2025, rising to roughly 41% in 2030 and 75% by 2035—about 95.4 million units annually by then.

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 22, 2013

'Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a new law to increase the speed limit from 65 to 70 mph (105 to 113 km/h) on rural four-lane highways, and to lower the limit by five mph for excessive speeding. A study by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory found that increasing a vehicle’s speed from 60 to 70 mph results in an average 14% decrease in fuel economy. ( Earlier post.). 36 other states have speed limits of 70 mph or higher on some portion of their roadways, including other large states

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 12, 2013

'New Civic Tourer. Click to enlarge. Honda unveiled the new UK-built Civic Tourer wagon ahead of its official debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month. The Civic Tourer will be available with the choice of two engines: the new 1.6 i-DTEC diesel engine from the Earth Dreams Technology series ( earlier post ) and the 1.8 i-VTEC gasoline engine with manual or automatic transmission.

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 16, 2013

'Redox Power’s 25 kW “Cube” sitting outside a conference room. Click to enlarge. University of Maryland researchers have partnered with Redox Power Systems LLC to commercialize low-temperature solid oxide fuel cell (LT-SOFC) technology for distributed generation—and ultimately transportation—applications at about one-tenth the cost and one-tenth the size of current commercial fuel cell systems.

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 12, 2013

'This electronically controlled eClutch closes the gap between automatic and manual transmissions. In addition, the eClutch makes the coasting function possible, which saves fuel. Click to enlarge. Bosch’s electronically controlled eClutch allows drivers of cars with a manual transmission to use first gear in stop-and-go traffic without engaging the clutch.

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 23, 2013

'Four teams of researchers in the United States and the United Kingdom recently were awarded more than $12 million to begin a program of novel research to revolutionize current farming methods by giving crops the ability to thrive without using costly, polluting artificial fertilizers. The four highly innovative projects encompass: an effort to use synthetic biology to create new useful components for plants; a global search for a mysterious lost bacterium with significant unique functions; work

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 6, 2013

'Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) launched hybrid versions of the Corolla Axio sedan and Corolla Fielder station wagon in Japan. In addition, there will be a special Corolla Fielder Hybrid G Aerotourer·WxB grade. Monthly sales target for Japan are 1,000 units of the Corolla Axio hybrid and 1,500 units of the Corolla Fielder hybrid. The vehicles are equipped with a 1.5-liter hybrid system akin to that in the Prius c ( earlier post ) and that achieves a fuel efficiency of 33.0 km/L (77.6 mpg US, 3.0

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 16, 2013

'Schematic of reactant flow within the HBLFB. During discharge, liquid bromine is reduced to hydrobromic acid along the lower solid graphite electrode, and hydrogen is oxidized at the upper porous electrode. Credit: Braff et al. Click to enlarge. MIT researchers have engineered a new rechargeable, membrane-less hydrogen bromine laminar flow battery with high power density.

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 5, 2013

'Audi A3 1.6 TDI ultra. Click to enlarge. Audi unveiled its most fuel-efficient production model, the A3 1.6 TDI ultra. With 81 kW (110 hp) of power output, the Audi A3 1.6 TDI ultra consumes 3.2 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers (73.50 US mpg). This equates to 85 grams of CO 2 emissions per kilometer (137 g/mile). This latest A3 is not only the most efficient Audi, it is also the brand’s first model designated as “ultra”.

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Audi MPG Fuel Production 291

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 27, 2013

'HYbrid FE concept. Click to enlarge. At the Frankfurt Motor Show, PEUGEOT and Total will unveil the hybrid 208 HYbrid FE concept. Based on a production 208 hatchback, the HYbrid FE accelerates from 0 to 62 mph in 8 seconds, with CO 2 emissions of 49 g/km (NEDC combined cycle). The objective of the 208 HYbrid FE is to halve the CO 2 emissions of the Peugeot 208 equipped with the 3-cylinder 1.0-liter VTi 68 hp and to provide it with acceleration comparable to a performance hatchback.

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Concept Hybrid Oil Engine 286

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 14, 2013

'Conventional separate pretreatment and saccharification of biofuel feedstock (a) entails water and waste disposal that the new one-pot system (b) eliminates. (Image courtesy of Joint BioEnergy Institute). Click to enlarge. Researchers with the US Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) report the first demonstration of a one-pot, wash-free process that combines ionic liquid (IL) pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification into a single vessel using a thermostable IL-tolera

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 2, 2013

'A University of Colorado Boulder team has developed a new solar-thermal water-splitting (STWS) system for the efficient production of hydrogen. A paper on their work is published in the journal Science. STWS cycles have long been recognized as a desirable means of generating hydrogen gas (H 2 ) from water and sunlight, the team notes. Two-step, metal oxide–based STWS cycles generate H 2 by sequential high-temperature reduction of a metal oxide catalyst (releasing oxygen atoms) and cooler condit

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Water Solar Colorado Production 285

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 7, 2013

'Prototype BMW i8 at the track. Click to enlarge. BMW i presented a prototype of its second production vehicle, the i8 ( earlier post ), at a driving event at the BMW Group’s Miramas test track in France. Following the world debut of the first production model, the battery-electric urban-focused BMW i3 ( earlier post ), the BMW Group’s next step will be to address the sports car segment with the plug-in hybrid BMW i8.

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 2, 2013

'Scientists from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the UK have developed a new lead-free, high-temperature ceramic capacitor that could improve the efficiency and reliability of electric and hybrid vehicles. Hybrid and electric vehicles rely on high efficiency power conversion and management, with automotive power electronics representing an emerging £40-billion (US$61-billion) global market, NPL noted.

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 3, 2013

'The Biofuels Center of North Carolina has begun to shut down operations over a 90-day period and will close its doors by Thursday, 31 October 2013, due to the North Carolina General Assembly’s elimination of its funding in the state budget signed recently by Gov. Pat McCrory. Based in Oxford, the statewide economic development agency will terminate its activities and grant programs; shut down its growing and development projects; truncate company relationships; convey reports and information to

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