October, 2015

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JRC report finds electric vehicles in Europe on the way to full-scale commercialization

Green Car Congress

The European Union appears to be undergoing a transition from the testing of and experimentation with electric vehicles to full-scale EV commercialization, according to a new report from the EU’s Joint Research Center (JRC). This report covers battery-electric (BEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV), range extended electric vehicles (REV), and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV).

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Super Charger for Electric Motorcycles!

Electric Cars are for Girls

Oh, this is brilliant. Level 2.5 charging for electric motorcycles like the Zero, using the j-plug we're all so familiar with. You can charge your Zero in about an hour! I *want* this for my LEAF, sigh.

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Tesla Model S Saves Woman, Child In Landslide

Green Car Reports

Carmakers like to talk enthusiastically about good crash-test results, but they can seem somewhat abstract compared to real-world crash damage. A car protecting its occupants in a crash can make a much bigger impression on them--or anyone who witnesses the destruction--than a thousand lines of ad copy. This Tesla Model S crash will likely be one.

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DigiNow's fast charger for Zero DS/S/SR electric motorcycle enables long rides

National Green Transportation

A new age of electric motorcycling has dawned thanks to a product announcement on Monday from DigiNow and Electric Motor Werks. The two companies have jointly developed the DigiNow Super Charger Charge Tank, a super-high-speed charging.

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How serious is Norway about climate change? So much that its streetlights self-dim

emissions global warming Norway climate change carbon dioxide youtube lighting

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Guest post: Honda Introduces the EV-Cub; two-wheel-drive electric motorcycle

Green Car Congress

by Alex Vanover. Honda isn’t a car company… it never really has been. When asked to define what kind of company Honda is, company representatives bill the multinational firm as an engineering company. It is a company that strives to engineer products in a variety of different sectors of the highest quality. And it is also an innovative company that looks for problems in the world and then engineers solutions to those problems.

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PSA prototype travels 580km from Paris to Bordeaux in autonomous mode

Green Car Congress

On 2 October, one of PSA Peugeot Citroën’s four autonomous vehicles drove itself 580 km (360 miles) on the highway from Paris to Bordeaux entirely in autonomous mode to take part in the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) World Congress, which runs until 9 October. The car autonomously adjusted its speed and changed lanes to overtake, taking into account other vehicles, speed limits and infrastructure.

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DuPont opening 30M gpy cellulosic ethanol facility in Iowa; largest in world

Green Car Congress

DuPont will officially open its cellulosic ethanol facility in Nevada, Iowa, on 30 October; the plant will be the largest cellulosic ethanol plant in the world. The US Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) Director, Jonathan Male, alongside senior government officials, DuPont leaders and staff, and local farmers will attend the grand opening ceremony and plant tour.

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Renault-Nissan Alliance to provide 200 EVs for UN climate conference; expecting 400,000 km of travel

Green Car Congress

As the official passenger-car provider for the United Nation’s COP21 climate conference in Paris, the Renault-Nissan Alliance will provide 200 pure electric vehicles to the annual summit which runs this year from 30 Nov. to 11 Dec. The vehicles are expected to cover more than 400,000 km (249,000 miles) in total while shuttling delegates. More than 20,000 UN participants from 195 countries are expected to attend COP21.

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Scania adds hybrid truck

Green Car Congress

Scania is introducing a diesel hybrid truck for urban distribution; the hybrid technology, developed by Scania itself, allows an 18-tonne distribution truck to operate solely on electric power for up to two kilometers. Top: Scania Hybrid P 320 4x2 with box body. Bottom: Scania hybrid power unit. Click to enlarge. Electric operation is primarily intended for situations such as city distribution at night in noise sensitive areas or driving through warehouses and car parks where one doesn’t want an

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Volvo Cars introduces new compact architecture; expects electrified vehicles to be 10% of total sales by 2020

Green Car Congress

Volvo Cars will extend its range of compact cars into new segments based on its new Compact Modular Architecture (CMA)—a smaller version of Volvo’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) ( earlier post ). The company’s first car on CMA is expected to be launched in 2017. CMA’s introduction in 2017 means that all future Volvo cars will be built on just two fully scalable and wholly modular vehicle architectures.

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Faurecia and Accenture partner on products and services for connected and autonomous vehicles

Brief

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California ARB announces $24M grant solicitation for zero-emission truck and bus pilot commercial deployment projects

Green Car Congress

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) announced a grant solicitation for Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Pilot Commercial Deployment Projects. Up to $23,658,000 is available for this project from FY 2014-15 funds. Up to an additional $60,000,000 may be available for projects under this solicitation from future funds appropriated by the California legislature on or before 30 June 2016.

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DUH charges Zafira diesel emits up to 17x more NOx than permitted under certain conditions; Opel rebuts with its own testing

Green Car Congress

German environmental NGO Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) ( earlier post ) has charged that an Opel Zafira 1.6 CDTi diesel (Euro 6b) emits up to 17 times more NO x under certain driving situations than permitted by the Euro 6 limit value. Dynamometer testing for DUH was conducted at the Bern University of Applied Sciences (Berner Fachhochschule). In three tests under the NEDC cycle with rotating rear wheels, the Zafira emitted between 2 to 4 times more NO x than allowed, according to the test report r

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Tesla v7.0 software update boosts self-driving capabilities; Autopilot arrives

Green Car Congress

Beginning in October 2014, Tesla began equipping Model S vehicles with hardware to support the incremental introduction of self-driving technology: a forward radar; a forward-looking camera; 12 long-range ultrasonic sensors positioned to sense 16 feet around the car in every direction at all speeds; and a high-precision digitally-controlled electric assist braking system. ( Earlier post.).

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Bosch battery target: 50 kWh in a 190 kg pack, 75% charge in 15 minutes

Green Car Congress

Bosch is investing €400 million (US$455 million) per year in electromobility; part of that investment is researching batteries with twice the energy density at lower costs than available today by 2020. Driving the investment is Bosch’s expectation that ten years from now, some 15% of all new vehicles worldwide will have an electrical powertrain. Dr.

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ExxonMobil announces 6th oil discovery offshore Guyana with Ranger-1; Guyana may move from non-producer to regional powerhouse

Oil

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Toyota announces aggressive environmental targets through 2050; cutting new vehicle CO2 by 90% compared to 2010

Green Car Congress

Addressing key global environmental issues such as climate change, water shortages, resource depletion, and degradation of biodiversity, the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050 aims to reduce the negative impact of manufacturing and driving vehicles as much as possible. The challenge comprises six individual challenges across three areas: Ever-better cars, quantified as reducing global average new-vehicle CO 2 emissions by 90% by 2050 compared to Toyota’s 2010 global average; ever-better manufac

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Michigan State partners with ExxonMobil to advance algae biofuels

Green Car Congress

A new $1-million relationship between Michigan State University and ExxonMobil will expand research designed to progress the fundamental science required to advance algae-based fuels. David Kramer, MSU’s John Hannah Distinguished Professor in Photosynthesis and Bioenergetics at the MSU-DOE Plant and Research Laboratory (PRL), says that the overall goal of the partnership is to improve the efficiency of photosynthesis in microalgae to produce biofuels and bioproducts.

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EPA: jatropha-based biofuels could qualify as biomass-based diesel or advanced biodiesel under RFS

Green Car Congress

Based on its analysis of the production and transport components of the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of biofuel made from jatropha oil, the US EPA anticipates that biofuels produced from jatropha oil could qualify as biomass-based diesel or advanced biofuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard program if typical fuel production process technologies or process technologies with the same or lower GHG emissions are used.

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MIT study finds carbon prices more cost-effective than fuel economy regs at reducing CO2 emissions; fuel economy regs more efficient at reducing fuel use

Green Car Congress

Researchers at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change have compared the worldwide economic, environmental, and energy impacts of currently planned fuel economy standards (extended to the year 2050) with those of region-specific carbon prices designed to yield identical CO 2 emissions reductions. Their study, which appears in the Journal of Transport Economics and Policy , finds that such stringent fuel economy standards would cost the economy 10% of global gross domesti

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Toyota developing LPG hybrid taxi for Japan market

Green Car Congress

Toyota plans to launch a new taxi for the Japanese market before April 2018, and is currently working on developing an updated version of its JPN Taxi Concept, which made its global debut at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show. The updated model will be shown at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show through a promotional video. The taxi will feature a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) hybrid system―currently under development―which is highly economical and offers excellent environmental performance optimized for taxi dri

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Mercedes-Benz to begin equipping top models with CO2 air conditioning systems starting in 2017; adapting other models for R1234yf

Green Car Congress

From 2017, Mercedes-Benz will offer in Europe the S- and E-Class as the first production passenger cars equipped with CO 2 air conditioning systems. These completely newly developed systems are based on the DIN specifications defined by the automotive standards committee of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). Due to especially quickly available and high cooling performance, CO 2 air conditioning systems swiftly provide for a pleasant feel-good climate inside vehicles even in

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Nissan begins testing piloted driving on both city roads and highway

Green Car Congress

Nissan has begun testing its first prototype vehicle that demonstrates piloted drive on both highway and city/urban roads. Nissan’s “Intelligent Driving” comprises features that will be introduced in stages, all toward achieving Nissan’s “Zero Fatality” goal of eliminating virtually all fatalities stemming from traffic accidents. For Stage One, Nissan will offer “Piloted Drive 1.0” by the end of 2016 in Japan.

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IBM Research paves way for post-silicon future with carbon nanotube electronics

Green Car Congress

IBM Research announced an engineering breakthrough that could accelerate the replacement of silicon transistors by carbon nanotubes to power future computing technologies. IBM scientists demonstrated a new way to shrink transistor contacts without reducing performance of carbon nanotube devices, opening a pathway to faster, smaller and more powerful computer chips beyond the capabilities of traditional semiconductors.

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EV charging companies form new trade association

Green Car Congress

Leaders from the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, technology and services industry have formed the Electric Vehicle Charging Association ( EVCA ), a not-for-profit trade association created to advance the EV charging industry. EVCA concurrently released The State of the Charge , a report documenting the charging industry’s rapid growth in California and the significant economic opportunity it presents for the state.

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Dyson buying Li-ion solid-state battery company Sakti3 for $90M

Green Car Congress

USA Today has confirmed an earlier unconfirmed report by Quartz that UK-based Dyson will acquire solid-state Li-ion battery startup Sakti3 ( earlier post ) for $90 million. Dyson invested $15 million in Sakti3 earlier this year. James Dyson, founder and chief engineer of the eponymous manufacturing and technology company, told USA Today in an interview that Dyson plans to build a major battery factory and also plans to use Sakti3’s technology to improve the battery life on its cordless vacuums a

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VW says complete investigation of emissions scandal will take several months; suspending General Meeting in November; report on solutions next week

Green Car Congress

In a statement issued following its meeting on 30 September the Executive Committee of Volkswagen AG’s Supervisory Board said that it has concluded that the completion of investigations into the emissions testing scandal will take at least several months. For this reason, the Executive Committee will propose to the Supervisory Board that the Extraordinary General Meeting scheduled for 9 November should not be held.

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Aeristech developing turbomachine-type electric air compressors for fuel cells; claims potential doubling of output

Green Car Congress

UK-based Aeristech, a provider of electrically driven pressure charging solutions ( earlier post ), is developing electric air compressor technology that the company says could double the output from a hydrogen fuel cell. The electric compressor would enable vehicle manufacturers to increase performance or to specify a considerably more compact fuel cell, improving packaging and weight.

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Nissan and Ecotricity call for official EV charging point road signage in UK

Green Car Congress

Nissan and Ecotricity, which operates Europe’s biggest and most comprehensive rapid charging network, the Electric Highway, called on the UK government to introduce official road signage for the UK’s growing number of standard and rapid EV charging points. Despite there being more than 9,000 EV charging points nationwide, there is still no official, recognizable signage available to direct motorists to them—even though there are official signs for “migratory toad crossings”, of which there

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Audi using Alstom H3 plug-in hybrid shunting locomotive at Ingolstadt

Green Car Congress

Audi has begun using a new 1,000 horsepower plug-in hybrid shunting locomotive manufactured by Alstom in daily operations at the Audi plant in Ingolstadt, Germany. The new locomotive runs without any emissions inside the plant buildings and can operate for up to two hours at a time in purely electric mode. Its battery is plugged in during breaks for recharging with CO 2 ‑free electricity, or is supported while in motion by a diesel engine.

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Cybersecurity survey finds automakers and suppliers ill-prepared for in-vehicle software security

Green Car Congress

Results of a recent survey by Ponemon Institute , a leading independent security research organization, suggest that automotive software developers are ill-equipped and often overwhelmed when it comes to building security into their processes and tools. Source: Rogue Wave Software. Click to enlarge. The cybersecurity survey, sponsored by software development tools company Rogue Wave Software and application security company Security Innovation, polled more than 500 automotive developers, enginee

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Public Prosecutor: More than 2 but well below 10 suspects in VW exhaust test rigging

Green Car Congress

Countering a report published in Der Spiegel positing that some 30 managers were involved in the software defeat device on the EA 189 diesel engines, the public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig (Staatsanwaltschaft Braunschweig), which is handling the investigation, told German media than “more than two but well below 10” employees are currently suspects in the investigation.

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Tesla delivered 11,580 vehicles in Q3 of 2015

Green Car Congress

Tesla Motors reported delivering 11,580 vehicles in the third quarter of 2015, including the first few units of Model X. Despite one week of planned production shutdown, this delivery level represents a 49% increase over Q3 last year as well as the sixth consecutive quarter of growth. Tesla noted that there may be small changes to this delivery count (usually well under 1%), as Tesla only counts a delivery if it is transferred to the end customer and all paperwork is correct.

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Volkswagen: reorienting diesel strategy, new Modular Electric Toolkit, MQB push on PHEVs, electric Phaeton

Green Car Congress

The newly-formed Volkswagen Brand Board of Management has made a number of major strategic product decisions , including a reorientation of the diesel strategy to use the most advanced emission aftertreatment technologies; the development of a standardized electric architecture (Modular Electric Toolkit, MEB) for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles; and an electric next-generation Phaeton.

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INL analysis of 5 large-scale PEV and charging projects finds public charging infrastructure not needed everywhere to enable PEV adoption

Green Car Congress

Idaho National Laboratory has released the voluminous findings from its analysis of five large-scale PEV and charging infrastructure projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Collectively, these projects represent the largest-ever deployment, data collection and analysis, and reporting of PEV and charging infrastructure petroleum reduction benefits.

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Nissan partners with Scoot Networks mobility service with 10 Nissan New Mobility Concept EVs

Green Car Congress

Nissan has provided 10 all-electric Nissan New Mobility Concept vehicles to the Scoot Networks mobility service in San Francisco. The Nissan New Mobility Concept, also known as a Scoot Quad, is a battery-electric, two-seater compact vehicle with a range of 40 miles (64 km) and top speed of 25 mph (40 km/h), based on Renault’s Twizy. Nissan is also testing the EV in car sharing services in Japan. ( Earlier post.).

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