Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

At the American Public Transit Association (APTA) Annual Meeting, Proterra unveiled the newest addition to its fleet of electric buses: the Catalyst E2 series, named for its Efficient Energy (E2) storage capacity of 440 - 660 kWh. Last month, an E2 series vehicle achieved a new milestone at Michelin’s Laurens Proving Grounds where it logged more than 600 miles (966 km) on a single charge under test conditions.

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Green Car Reports

SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

There will be a lot riding on the tall, square shoulders of the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV when it reaches the first Chevy dealers late this year. It will be the first mass-priced electric car with a range of 200 miles or more, and it will go on sale a year before the much-vaunted Tesla Model 3. Now Chevrolet has released the EPA estimated range.

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EPA 2017 Miles Range 131

Green Fleet Magazine

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

There are numerous considerations to be made the next time you choose between a cutaway or cab chassis. Cab configuration, maneuverability, vehicle class, desired body, off-road frequency, and cost should all play a role in the selection process.

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Vehicles 52

Green Cars News

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

Land Rover has revealed pictures of its eagerly awaited Discovery ahead of its Paris unveil at the end of the month. Until now this new, fifth generat.

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Land Rover SUV 49

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

At the Paris Motor Show, Renault introduced its enhanced-range ZOE electric vehicle. Equipped with the new 41 kWh Z.E. 40 battery, ZOE now has a range of up to 400 km (249 miles) NEDC—twice the distance of the original launch version of the ZOE. At the same, ZOE owners can benefit from a range of new connected services and equipment upgrades. Order books for the new ZOE line-up are open.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

At the inaugural GPU Technology Conference Europe, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang unveiled Xavier, an all-new AI supercomputer designed for use in self-driving cars. Xavier is a complete system-on-chip (SoC), integrating a new GPU architecture called Volta, a custom 8-core CPU architecture, and a new computer vision accelerator. The processor will deliver 20 TOPS (trillion operations per second) of performance while consuming only 20 watts of power.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

At the LCV 2016 event in the UK last week, Delta Motorsport unveiled a new low-cost micro-turbine applied as a range-extended in an electric car. The company developed the E-4 Coupe extended-range electric electric vehicle in a £3.1-million (US$4-million) collaborative R&D project. The Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and Innovate UK co-funded the project.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

Major automotive suppliers see national fuel economy standards as important for long-term planning and investment and don’t want to see them altered by US policymakers, according to a first-of-its-kind industry survey commissioned by CALSTART and conducted by Ricardo Energy & Environment. The firm polled and interviewed 23 suppliers, almost all of them global Tier 1 suppliers that sell parts directly to automakers.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

A new study by Transport & Environment (T&E) shows that Volkswagen is currently selling the least polluting (Euro 6) diesel vehicles. However, the report “ Dieselgate: Who? What? How? ” also found that no brand in Europe complies with the latest Euro 6 air pollution limits for diesel cars and vans in real-world driving. For the in-house analysis, T&E analyzed emissions test data from around 230 diesel car models.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

A technical brief by Dr. John DeCicco at the University of Michigan Energy Institute shows that transportation is overtaking electricity generation as the largest source of US CO 2. The average rate at which CO 2 is emitted from vehicle tailpipes and other mobile sources has exceeded the rate of CO 2 emissions from electric power plants over seven of the past eight months.

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Transportation Emissions CO2 2007 249

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 28, 2016

At the Paris Motor Show, Volkswagen staged the world premiere of the I.D., a concept vehicle presaging the first of a new fleet of Volkswagen electric cars and highlighting Volkswagen’s vision for the future in a number of areas, including autonomous driving and a new Open Space concept for the interior. The compact I.D. is driven by a 125 kW electric motor powered by a battery pack, and has a range of 400 - 600 km (249 - 373 miles) under European test conditions.

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Concept 2020 Miles Vehicles 237

Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) has developed a DNA analysis technology it calls Genotyping by Random Amplicon Sequencing (GRAS). This technology is capable of significantly improving the efficiency of identifying and selecting useful genetic information for agricultural plant improvement. This newly developed technology could thus lead to substantial time and cost savings in the agricultural plant improvement process.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

General Motors plans to generate or source all electrical power for its 350 operations in 59 countries with 100% renewable energy—such as wind, sun and landfill gas—by 2050. This new renewable energy goal, along with the pursuit of electrified vehicles and efficient manufacturing, is part of the company’s overall approach to strengthening its business, improving communities and addressing climate change.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 28, 2016

A team at Sun Yat-sen University in China has developed new high-performance, stable cathode for Li-S batteries consisting of a 3D activated carbon fiber matrix (ACFC) and sulfur. The structured 3D foldable sulfur cathode (ACFC-S) delivers a reversible capacity of about 979 mAh g −1 at 0.2C; a capacity retention of 98% after 100 cycles; and 0.02% capacity attenuation per cycle.

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Carbon Fiber Carbon Li-ion Battery 230

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

Vattenfall, BMW and Bosch are testing the use of second-life EV batteries in a 2 MW, 2,800 kWh energy storage system in Hamburg, Germany, to keep the electricity grid stable. The electricity storage facility comprises 2,600 battery modules from more than 100 electric vehicles. It could supply electricity to an average two-person household for seven months.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

Hyundai Motor is introducing a hydrogen fuel cell concept version of its H350 light commercial van at the 2016 IAA Commercial Vehicle Show in Hannover. The powertrain study shows the potential for the company’s advanced hydrogen fuel cell technology in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) segment. Unlike a conventional electric vehicle, which requires a number of hours to recharge, the 175-liter hydrogen tank system can be filled in less than four minutes—similar to the time it takes to refi

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 30, 2016

Ballard Power Systems announced the commissioning and deployment of an initial 12 fuel cell-powered buses in the District of Sanshui, in the City of Foshan, in the Province of Guangdong, China. The buses will be operated by Foshan Sanshui Guohong Public Transit Co. Ltd., on demonstration route #682 from Gaofeng Park Station to Shuidu Industrial Park Station.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 16, 2016

At Mondial de l’Automobile Paris, Volkswagen will present a new EV concept; the production vehicle which follows will be the first Volkswagen to hit the market based on the new modular electrification kit (MEB) being developed by the brand. Volkswagen says that the new concept car signals the brand’s entry into a new era, and intends for it to be as revolutionary as the Beetle was seven decades ago before it evolved into the world's best-selling car of the century.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Toyota Motor Europe (TME) reported that sales of hybrids have increased 45% so far this year compared with the same period in 2015—which was already a record year. The company is tracking to sell close to 300,000 hybrids this year, said Karl Schlicht, Executive Vice President of TME. 31% of Toyota Motor Europe’s customers have opted for a hybrid powertrain in 2016; 41% in Western Europe alone.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

At the IAA Show in Germany, Cummins Inc. revealed the next generation X Series for heavy-duty truck applications with 15-liter and 12-liter displacements to meet Euro 6 (VI) and equivalent emissions standards as they become globally adopted from 2019 onward. Across a broad 350 hp to 605 hp (260-451 kW) range, the X Series introduces an innovative approach to duty-cycle optimization with a medium-bore X12 engine and two big-bore configurations, available as the X15 Efficiency Series and the X15 P

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Researchers at the University of Witwatersrand and the University of South Africa are proposing replacing the final purification steps of conventional bio-ethanol production with a simple gasoline-blending step. In a paper published in the ACS journal Energy & Fuels , they show that gasoline pre-blending results in a spontaneous liquid phase split which produces a viable fuel with desirable ethanol content and high recovery of ethanol; reduces the energy requirements of separation by between 17

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 16, 2016

As part of its new IONICS (Integration and Optimization of Novel Ion Conducting Solids) program awards ( earlier post ), the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) awarded $3.5 million in funding to a team that includes 24M, Sepion Technologies , Berkeley Lab, and Carnegie Mellon University. The funds will be used to develop novel membranes and lithium-metal anodes for the next generation of high-energy-density, low-cost batteries. 24M’s core technology is se

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 16, 2016

Cellulosic sugars company Renmatix has raised $14 million. The investment, intended to support the commercializing of the company’s Plantrose process, was led by Bill Gates. Gates is joined in the round by Total, the global energy major which, after an initial investment in 2015, has expanded its investment and has additionally signed a licensing agreement with Renmatix for 1M tons of annual cellulosic sugar production capacity, at Total’s discretion to build corresponding facilities.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

Renewable fuels and chemicals company Virent has established a strategic consortium with Tesoro, Toray, Johnson Matthey and The Coca-Cola Company focused on completing the development and scale up of Virent’s BioForming technology to produce low carbon bio-based fuels and bio-paraxylene (a key raw material for the production of 100% bio-polyester). The consortium members will work together to finalize technical developments and commercial arrangements, with the objective of delivering a commerci

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

Electric vehicle (EV) drivers can now travel the most heavily-trafficked corridors on the East and West Coasts of the United States with the installation of 95 new DC Fast charging stations as part of the Express Charging Corridors Initiative—a collaboration of BMW of North America, Volkswagen of America, Inc. and ChargePoint, the world’s largest EV charging network.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 30, 2016

On 29 September 2016, the HY4 aircraft took off on its first official flight from Stuttgart Airport. The HY4 is the world’s first four-seat passenger aircraft powered solely by a hydrogen fuel cell system. Researchers from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) developed the aircraft’s powertrain and worked on the project with industry and research partners.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

Despite drastically more stringent emission standards for nitrogen oxides and particulates, the fuel consumption of Mercedes-Benz heavy trucks has been reduced by 22% over the last 20 years, according to the results of a comparative test drive certified by the test organization DEKRA. The August 2016 testing by commercial vehicle magazine Lastauto Omnibus (LaO) compared the latest generation of the Mercedes-Benz Actros long-distance truck compared to the basic model of 1996—a Mercedes-Benz

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 16, 2016

With the arrival of the new Golf Alltrack, the all-wheel-drive derivative of the Golf SportWagen, in US dealer showrooms in October, Volkswagen of America is offering an affordable, upscale and very fun-to-drive (more on this below) entry into an underserved market segment: all-wheel-drive wagons. More specifically, Volkswagen is directly targeting the Subaru Outback.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

NVIDIA unveiled a single-processor configuration of the NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 AI computing platform ( earlier post ) that automakers can use to power automated and autonomous vehicles for driving and mapping. The new computing platform for AutoCruise functions—which include highway automated driving and HD mapping—consumes just 10 watts of power and enables vehicles to use deep neural networks to process data from multiple cameras and sensors.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 30, 2016

United Parcel Service, Inc., the world’s largest package delivery company and a provider of supply chain management solutions, placed 50 Lightning Hybrids hydraulic hybrid delivery trucks in the Chicago metro area. The hybrid systems were partially funded by Drive Clean Chicago, a program that aims to accelerate the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles and infrastructure in Chicago.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 18, 2016

Google Maps has acquired mapping analytics startup Urban Engines. Urban Engines, two of whose four co-founders were originally at Google, has developed a mapping, visualization, analytics, and optimization platform that uses the information from the billions of movement data points each day to provide a better understanding of how traffic flows change throughout the day and over time.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

Peugeot is introducing the eU01s, a 45 km/h (28 mph) electric bicycle. Bridging the gap between traditional 25 km/h electric bicycles and scooters, the eU01s offers the rider an agile and rapid cross-town journey. The eU01s will be presented at the Paris Motor Show and launched at the end of 2016. Copyright Mikael PENNEC. Peugeot has made urban mobility a core priority with several new innovations being introduced this year: the eC01 electrically-assisted bicycle with automatic transmission, the

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Lithium Ion 2016 Electrical Electric 212

Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

Toyota Research Institute (TRI) will partner with the Open Source Robotics Foundation ( OSRF ) and its newly-formed for profit subsidiary Open Source Robotics Corporation (OSRC) to expand the development of both open source and proprietary tools for Toyota’s fast-growing robotics and automated vehicle research initiatives. This move to significantly expand TRI’s research and engineering capabilities reflects Toyota’s ongoing evolution beyond the boundaries of the conventional automotive industry

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

A large scale roll-out of electric cars on European roads would result in significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions and lower levels of certain air pollutants, according to a new European Environment Agency (EEA) assessment. However, widespread use of such vehicles would pose challenges for Europe’s power grid in meeting increased electricity demand.

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