Green Car Congress

JUNE 4, 2013

'Scientists at the Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) (Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg) have developed Li-ion batteries that have already demonstrated a very high cycle life of more than 10,000 full cycles with retention of more than 85% of original capacity. The cells have a power density of 1,100 W/kg.

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Li-ion Lithium Ion Honolulu Battery 347

Green Car Reports

JUNE 21, 2013

'Well, this is a new tactic we haven''t seen before in the fight between franchised auto dealers and Tesla Motors, the Silicon Valley electric-car startup. A pair of bills in the New York State Legislature, backed by New York state auto dealers, would make it illegal to license or renew licenses for Tesla stores within the state. The bills, now.

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New York Dealers Store Auto 167

National Green Transportation

JUNE 29, 2013

'On Thursday, the largest municipal fleet deployment of electric cars in the U.S. took place when Mitsubishi Motors deployed 50 i-MiEV's to four Bay Area local government fleets – San Jose, Los Gatos, Campbell and Mill.

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San Jose i-MiEV Fleet Electric Cars 104

Green Cars News

JUNE 14, 2013

'Ford has cut CO2 emissions by more than a third (37 per cent) per vehicle across its global operations between 2000 and 2012, the carmaker has revealed, as it releases its 14th annual Sustainability Report. Bu the car giant isn''t stopping there, now targeting a cut of 30 per cent in CO2 emissions [.].

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CO2 Ford Emissions 2000 63

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 17, 2013

'E-Thrust is a “series hybrid” electrical distributed propulsion system concept using one gas power unit providing the electrical power for six fans for lower fuel consumption, fewer emissions and less noise. Click to enlarge. The EADS Group—comprising Airbus, Astrium, Cassidian and Eurocopter—is demonstrating at the Paris Air Show 2013 a number of initiatives in the field of electric and hybrid propulsion, which it calls its “E-aircraft projects”.

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Hybrid Re-Charge Electrical Electric 334

Green Car Congress

JUNE 2, 2013

'Project Volt Gas Volt is based on a long-term financing plan and the use of existing technologies for the large-scale conversion of surplus renewable electricity to methane, with subsequent reuse. Diagram: Isabelle Plat. Click to enlarge. Corinne Lepage, Member of the European Parliament (and former French Minister of the Environment) and Professor Robert Bell, Brooklyn University, City University of New York, are proposing Project Volt Gas Volt (VGV) as a technology pathway for using renewable

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Volt Financing Gas Powered 334

Green Car Congress

JUNE 27, 2013

'FlowCath PEM fuel cell. Click to enlarge. UK-based ACAL Energy Ltd announced that its FlowCath platinum-free liquid cathode system has enabled a PEM hydrogen fuel cell to reach 10,000 hours’ runtime on a third-party automotive industry durability test without any significant signs of degradation. ACAL Energy’s approach is also significantly cheaper than conventional fuel cell technology. ( Earlier post.). 10,000 hours, the equivalent of 300,000 driven miles, is the point at which hydrogen fuel

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Fuel Energy 2017 Hydrogen 321

Green Car Congress

JUNE 20, 2013

'Cumulative natural gas vehicles in use by segment, world markets: 2013-2020. Source: Navigant Research. Click to enlarge. In a new report , Navigant Research forecasts that the number of natural gas vehicles (NGVs) on roads worldwide will reach 34.9 million by 2020. The increase is largely driven due to a combination of low-cost natural gas and sustained higher prices for gasoline and diesel in many countries, Navigant suggests.

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2020 Gas Fleet North America 321

Green Car Congress

JUNE 13, 2013

'Virginia Clean Cities announced that 1,000 vehicles have been successfully converted to run on propane autogas through the Southeast Propane Autogas Development Program (SPADP). The Program is supported by funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the US Department of Energy’s Clean Cities Program. Program fleets significantly save on fuel costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by running vehicles on American-made propane autogas.

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Virginia Conversion Cleaning Clean 319

Green Car Congress

JUNE 5, 2013

'1.4 TSI with ACT. Click to enlarge. Volkswagen’s 1.4 TSI with automatic cylinder deactivation (ACT) ( earlier post ) received the “Best New Engine Award” at the 2013 International Engine of the Year Awards 2013 at Engine Expo in Stuttgart, Germany. This award recognizes the best engine development of the past 12 months. The 1.4-liter TSI gasoline engine from Volkswagen also won the “Engine of the Year Award” for seventh consecutive time in the 1.0 to 1.4 liter displacement category.

Engine 319

Engine 2013 MPG Exhaust 319

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 7, 2013

'2014 Toyota Corolla LE Eco. Click to enlarge. Toyota unveiled the 2014 Toyota Corolla—the 11 th generation of the car. With nearly 40 million units sold, the Toyota Corolla is the world’s best-selling car nameplate; this year marks its 47 th year on the market. The 2014 Corolla is available in four distinct grades: L, LE, S, and the new LE Eco grade.

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North America 2014 Toyota MPG 313

Green Car Congress

JUNE 25, 2013

'A study by a team at Texas A&M University found that cylinder-to-cylinder variation in a multi-cylinder diesel engine increased substantially when transitioning to a low-temperature combustion (LTC) mode. LTC regimes are seen as a promising low-emissions, fuel-efficient alternatives to conventional diesel combustion. The researchers started the study, reported in the International Journal of Engine Research , to investigate the potential influence this effect could have on the emissions levels.

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Texas Diesel Exhaust Emissions 311

Green Car Congress

JUNE 21, 2013

'Renault’s hybrid power unit for F1 in 2014 includes a turbocharged, direct-injected 1.6L engine plus two motor generator units for energy recovery and use: the MGU-H (heat) and MGU-K (kinetic). Click to enlarge. At the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, Renault presented its new power unit designed to the new technical regulations to be used in the FIA Formula One world champion ship from 2014 onwards: the Energy F1-2014.

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2014 Powered Power Hybrid 310

Green Car Congress

JUNE 21, 2013

'A team of researchers in South Korea found that Li?air battery performance is significantly altered by the presence of CO 2. In particular, they reported in a paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society , they showed that Li 2 CO 3 can be selectively produced as a final discharge product depending on the dielectric properties of the electrolyte and demonstrated for the first time that Li 2 CO 3 can undergo reversible reactions during the Li?

Li-ion 305

Li-ion CO2 Battery Batteries 305

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Guyana

Green Car Congress

JUNE 25, 2013

'Boulder Electric Vehicle and Coritech Services have demonstrated bi-directional DC fast charging, making Boulder Electric Vehicle the first electric truck company to implement Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) charging. At the Alternative Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in Washington DC, this week, the companies demonstrating their turnkey solution to V2G charging utilizing Boulder EV’s Electric Flatbed Utility Truck equipped with a 72 kWh battery pack and a Coritech 60kW DC Fast Charger System.

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Grid Electric Vehicles Vehicles Charging 301

Green Car Congress

JUNE 19, 2013

'Siemens Metals Technologies and LanzaTech, a producer of low-carbon fuels and chemicals from waste gases, have signed a ten-year co-operation agreement to develop and market integrated environmental solutions for the steel industry worldwide. The collaboration will utilize the fermentation technology developed by LanzaTech transforming carbon-rich off-gases generated by the steel industry into low carbon bioethanol and other platform chemicals. ( Earlier post.).

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New Zealand Convert Carbon Gas-Electric 300

Green Car Congress

JUNE 25, 2013

'Audi’s e-gas plant. Click to enlarge. Audi has opened its e-gas plant in Werlte, making it the first automobile manufacturer to develop a chain of sustainable energy carriers. ( Earlier post.). The Audi e-gas plant, which can convert 6MW of input power, utilizes renewable electricity for electrolysis to produce oxygen and hydrogen. Because there is not yet a widespread hydrogen infrastructure, the hydrogen is reacted with CO 2 in a methanation unit to generate renewable synthetic methane, or Au

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Gas-Electric Gas Audi Water 296

Green Car Congress

JUNE 12, 2013

'Ford Motor Company has begun production of the Focus Electric—the first full-electric vehicle to be built by Ford in Europe—in Saarlouis, Germany. Focus Electric has been manufactured in North America since December 2011 and the Saarlouis-built Focus Electric will reach European customers from August this year. Ford invested €16 million (US$21 million) to integrate Focus Electric production directly into the established Focus production line at Saarlouis, delivering the flexibility

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Europe Ford Production North America 296

Green Car Congress

JUNE 18, 2013

'Powertrain technologies outlook up to 2020. Click to enlarge. At the company’s 61 st Automotive Press Briefing in Boxberg, Germany, Bosch senior executives outlined the company’s view on the general future of automotive technology—“ efficient and increasingly electrical ”, and provided a thumbnail of the way they see—and thus are developing products for—sector-specific technology trends.

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Future Gasoline-Electric Vehicles Gasoline 291

Green Car Congress

JUNE 18, 2013

'The iBooster. Click to enlarge. Bosch has developed the iBooster, an electromechanical brake booster that provides situation-dependent support when the driver initiates braking. The iBooster makes hybrid and electric vehicles even more efficient, while enhancing safety through shorter braking distances, says Gerhard Steiger, president of the Bosch Chassis Systems Control division.

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Hybrid Energy Installation Motors 290

Green Car Congress

JUNE 28, 2013

'Electrochemical and electrochemistry-associated behaviors of pouch-type LIB full cells using the organogel electrolyte (gel.ELF 1 PVA-CN). Two liquid electrolytes (liq.ELF and liq.ELF 1 Pullulan-CN) are included for comparison. Source: Kim et al. Click to enlarge. A research team at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), S. Korea, has found a new physical organogel polymer electrolyte for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with two novel characteristics: an irreversible thermal g

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Li-ion Battery Batteries South Korea 281

Green Car Congress

JUNE 11, 2013

'The United States Senate passed a five-year farm bill—the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013 (S.954)—containing more than $800 million in mandatory funding for energy programs. The bill also contains funding to grow the renewable chemicals industry. The Congressional Budget Office CBO estimates that direct spending stemming from the program authorization under the 12 titles in S. 954 would total $955 billion over the 2014-2023 period.

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Renewable 2013 Energy United States 278

Green Car Congress

JUNE 4, 2013

'The French website moteurnature reports that sales of the Renault ZOE EV dropped to 483 units in May, down from 748 units in April. For the first five months of 2013, ZOE posted a combined 2,830 registrations, making it the best-selling electric vehicle in France, accounting for 73% of the electric passenger car market. ZOE goes on sale in Germany on Saturday.

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France Sale Automobile 2013 277

Green Car Congress

JUNE 20, 2013

'Engine compartment of the CrossBlue Coupé plug-in hybrid shows the transverse-mounted 3.0L V6; DSG is to the right, with the power electronics unit mounted above it. Click to enlarge. Volkswagen brought the new CrossBlue Coupé plug-in hybrid sporty mid-size SUV show car, introduced in April at Auto Shanghai 2013 ( earlier post ), to a media event in Berlin for its European premiere.

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Plug-in Plug Kits Gasoline-Electric 275

Green Car Congress

JUNE 6, 2013

'Neste Oil, the world’s largest producer of renewable diesel (NExBTL), has signed a contingent commercial off-take agreement with Cellana, an algae biomass developer based in the United States. The agreement will enable Neste Oil to purchase Cellana’s algae oil for use as a feedstock in the future for producing renewable fuel. The agreement is contingent on Cellana’s future production capacity and on compliance with future biofuel legislation in the EU and US, among other factors.

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Oil Renewable Hawaii Fuel 275

Green Car Congress

JUNE 7, 2013

'Volvo VNL D13 with DME. Click to enlarge. At an event in Sacramento, California, Volvo Trucks announced that it will commercialize dimethyl ether (DME)-powered heavy-duty commercial vehicles in North America, with limited production beginning in 2015. Volvo also revealed ongoing customer field testing of DME trucks in the US (with Safeway and Martin Transportation), as well as its partnership in the customer trials with startup DME producer Oberon Fuels.

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Volvo 2015 Production North America 270

Green Car Congress

JUNE 28, 2013

'3.0L EcoDiesel. Click to enlarge. Chrysler’s 2014 Ram 1500 will offer a new, 3.0-liter EcoDiesel engine, mated with the TorqueFlite eight-speed automatic transmission. Ram is now the only brand to offer a small-displacement diesel for its half-ton line of trucks. Branded EcoDiesel, the new 3.0-liter powerplant is a turbocharged 60-degree, dual overhead camshaft (DOHC) 24-valve V-6 that produces 240 hp (179 kW) at 3600 rpm and 420 lb-ft (569 N·m) of torque at 2000 rpm.

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Chrysler 2014 Diesel Exhaust 268

Green Car Congress

JUNE 14, 2013

'California’s air quality programs have forced a reduction in black carbon despite a significant increase in diesel fuel consumption. Click to enlarge. In California, reductions in emissions of black carbon since the late 1980s—mostly from diesel engines as a result of air quality programs—have resulted in a measurable reduction of concentrations of global warming pollutants in the atmosphere, according to a study examining the impact of black carbon on California’s climate.

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Carbon Diesel California Global 268

Green Car Congress

JUNE 28, 2013

'TCO for selected gas and diesel vehicles over a 3 year timeframe. Source: UMTRI. Click to enlarge. Diesel vehicles generally saved owners between $2,000 to $6,000 in total ownership costs during a three to five year period when compared to similar gasoline vehicles, according to data compiled by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI).

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Diesel Cost Of Gasoline Vehicles 262

Green Car Congress

JUNE 27, 2013

'The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Board of Directors approved a contract with BYD Motors for the manufacture and delivery of up to 25 new all-electric buses as part of a $30-million clean air bus technology pilot project. This marks the first time that all-electric transit buses will be purchased and placed into Metro revenue service.

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Los Angeles Purchase BYD Parts 262

Green Car Congress

JUNE 11, 2013

'Consumers who purchase an electric vehicle will find that lifetime costs to own the vehicle are competitive with conventional and hybrid vehicles, according to an analysis conducted by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). The study is based on pricing for the automotive products for the 2013 model year. The baseline analysis relies on a cost-of-ownership model that examines only current vehicles; current fuel prices; and a relatively conservative set of customer values.

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EPRI Plug-in Cost Of Plug 261

Green Car Congress

JUNE 26, 2013

'New Golf TDI BlueMotion. Click to enlarge. Volkswagen’s third-generation Golf TDI BlueMotion, introduced as a concept at the Mondial de l’Automobile in Paris last September( earlier post ), is rated with fuel consumption of 3.2 l/100 km (73.5 mpg US) on the NEDC—equivalent to 85 g/km CO 2. This represents a 15% improvement in fuel consumption compared to the previous model.

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MPG Fuel Diesel Water 249

Green Car Congress

JUNE 25, 2013

'Among the transportation-related elements of US President Barack Obama’s new climate action plan, which he is outlining today in a speech at Georgetown University, is the development of new fuel economy standards for heavy-duty vehicles post-2018. In 2011, the Obama Administration finalized the first fuel economy standards for Model Year 2014-2018 for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, buses, and vans. ( Earlier post.).

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Obama Cleaner Fuel Economy Climate 249

Green Car Congress

JUNE 21, 2013

'Nissan ZEOD RC. Click to enlarge. Nissan unveiled the ZEOD RC (Zero Emission On Demand Racing Car)—an electric Le Mans prototype racing car intended to reach speeds of more than 300 km/h (186 mph) at the Le Mans 24 Hours race in 2014, where it will makes its debut. Nissan will use the same core lithium-ion battery technology as in the LEAF and will test out variants of new electric drive train technologies as part of its intended future return to LM P1 competition.

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Nissan 2014 Electrical Electric 249