November, 2016

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Nissan introduces series-hybrid powertrain with Note e-POWER in Japan; small pack, small engine, LEAF motor, low price

Green Car Congress

In Japan, Nissan Motor introduced its new series-hybrid drive system called e-POWER along with its application in the Note. This marks the first availability of e-POWER technology for consumers, marking a milestone in the electrification strategy under Nissan Intelligent Mobility. e-POWER borrows from the EV technology in the Nissan LEAF. Unlike the all-battery-electric powertrain of the LEAF, e-POWER adds a small gasoline engine to charge the high-output battery when necessary, eliminating the

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Chevrolet Bolt EV: Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy 2017

Green Car Reports

Each year, Green Car Reports chooses a new car, or a family of cars, as the best green car introduced in that model year. In 2011, our very first award, we picked the first-ever modern electric car to be sold in high volumes. Six years later, we've picked the spiritual successor to that car, one that provides radically higher range at an.

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Vauxhall to launch five new models in 2017, with Insignia taking lead

Green Cars News

Vauxhall has announced it’s going all out in 2017, with five new models expected to launch by the end of next year. Hot on the heels of the recently.

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Heliox to fast charge Volvo electric buses in Luxembourg

Green Car Congress

Sales-Lentz, one of the public transport operators in Luxembourg, has ordered three Heliox Fast Charge Systems with OppCharge open interface to provide fast charging services for its four Volvo 7900 electric buses. End of route stations will be delivered Q2 2017, with one of the systems to be located at Sales-Lentz’ depot. The buses will be charged with opportunity charging (fast charging at end stops).

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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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ORNL team shows 3D-printed permanent magnets outperform conventional versions, conserve rare materials

Green Car Congress

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and colleagues have demonstrated that permanent magnets produced by additive manufacturing can outperform bonded magnets made using traditional techniques while conserving critical materials. NdFeB magnets are used in a range of applications from computer hard drives and headphones to clean energy technologies such as electric vehicles and wind turbines.

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Update on DOE Co-Optima project to co-optimize fuels & engines; goal of 30% per vehicle reduction in petroleum

Green Car Congress

In October 2015, the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) launched a broad, joint effort to co-optimize the development of efficient engines and low greenhouse-gas fuels for on-road vehicles with the goal of reducing petroleum consumption by 30% by 2030 beyond what is already targeted. ( Earlier post.) The intended application is light-, medium-, and heavy-duty markets including hybrid architectures.

Engine 270

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BMW has sold more than 100,000 EVs and PHEVs worldwide over three years

Green Car Congress

The BMW Group has now delivered more than 100,000 purely electric-powered cars and plug-in hybrids to customers worldwide since the launch of BMW i in November 2013. The BMW i3 alone has reached a figure of more than 60,000 units, making it the most successful electric vehicle in the premium compact segment. More than 80% of BMW i3 customers worldwide are new to BMW.

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Gevo enters on-road automobile gasoline market in Houston with 12.5% isobutanol blend

Green Car Congress

Gevo, Inc. announced that a 12.5% blend of its bio-isobutanol with gasoline marketed for use in automobiles has begun to be sold in the Houston area. This marks the first time that Gevo’s isobutanol has been specifically targeted towards on-road vehicles. Previously, Gevo and its partners have focused on specialty markets such as marinas and off-road engines. ( Earlier post.).

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DOE: US average EV CO2e/year is 4,815 lbs, vs. 11,435 lbs for average gasoline car

Green Car Congress

Although all-electric vehicles (EVs) produce zero tailpipe emissions, there are upstream emissions of greenhouse gases from electricity production. Using electricity production data by source and state, the DOE’s Alternative Fuels Data Center has estimated the annual carbon dioxide (CO 2 e)-equivalent emissions of a typical EV. The national average is 4,815 pounds (2,184 kg) of CO 2 -equivalent emissions for a typical EV per year as compared to the average gasoline-powered car which produces 11,

Gasoline 313
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Infineon introduces new switch family supporting trend towards decentralized intelligent vehicle power net

Green Car Congress

Infineon Technologies AG is supporting the trend towards decentralized, intelligent and cost-effective vehicle power net architectures. Infineon now launched Power PROFET, a new ultra-low ohmic smart high-side switch family. These protected switches offer the lowest on-resistance and the highest energy capability on the market. They enable the replacement of electromechanical relays and fuses in power distribution and junction boxes up to 40A DC.

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

Brief

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VW debuts 2017 e-Golf; more range, more technology; Q2 2017; Transparent Factory

Green Car Congress

Volkswagen of America presented the latest generation of the e-Golf in a world premiere at AutoMobility LA. Compared to its predecessor, the 2017 e-Golf offers almost 50% more range, more power and new features. The 2017 e-Golf, which should be onsale in the US in Q2 2017, should be priced comparably to its predecessor, Volkswagen said. For 2017, Volkswagen equipped the e-Golf with a new lithium-ion battery the energy capacity of which has been increased 48% from 24.2 kWh to 35.8 kWh.

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Aqua Metals produces first AquaRefined lead at first AquaRefinery; tests 99.99% pure

Green Car Congress

Aqua Metals has produced the first AquaRefined lead at its AquaRefinery in McCarran, Nevada. AquaRefining is a water-based, room-temperature process that is the only clean lead recycling method for lead-acid batteries (LAB). ( Earlier post.). Through its own on-site assay, Aqua Metals has verified that the lead produced in the AquaRefining module is more than 99.99% pure.

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ICCT/TNO study: Real-world vehicle fuel consumption discrepancy widens to 42% in Europe

Green Car Congress

The average gap between official fuel consumption figures and actual fuel use for new cars in the EU has reached 42%, according to the latest update by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) to its on-going research into vehicle fuel consumption and CO 2 emissions. Since 2001, the discrepancy between official measurements of vehicle efficiency and actual performance of new cars in everyday driving has more than quadrupled—a discrepancy that translates into €450 per year i

Europe 253
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Lux Research: recycling, not reuse, is better choice for batteries from retired electric vehicles

Green Car Congress

Recycling, rather than reuse, is likely to be the more attractive option for up to 65 GWh of second-life batteries poised to enter the market in 2035 with the retirement of the first generation of plug-in vehicles, according to a new report from Lux Research, “ Reuse or Recycle: The Billion-Dollar Battery Question.”. Reuse of batteries from electric vehicles will deliver questionable returns due to reduced performance, limiting them to application with less frequent and shallower depth of discha

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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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nuTonomy to test its self-driving cars on specific public roads in Boston

Green Car Congress

nuTonomy , developer of software for self-driving cars, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the City of Boston and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation that authorizes nuTonomy to begin testing its growing fleet of self-driving cars on specific public streets in a designated area of Boston. nuTonomy will begin testing its self-driving Renault Zoe electric vehicle before the end of the year in the Raymond L.

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Big Blue Bus receives nearly $900K to purchase 58 new Cummins-Westport Near-Zero NOx engines

Green Car Congress

In California, Big Blue Bus (BBB) will receive $870,000 from the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee’s (MSRC) Near Zero Engine Incentive Program. Big Blue Bus will use the grant approved by the MSRC partially to fund the purchase of 58 new Cummins-Westport 8.9L ISL G Near-Zero (NZ) 0.02 NO x engines. The NZ engine is the first mid-range engine in North America to receive emission certifications from both the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources

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Volvo launches the world’s largest bus; 30m, 300 passengers

Green Car Congress

Volvo launched the world’s largest bus chassis at the FetransRio exhibition in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Volvo is a leading supplier of buses for high passenger capacity transport systems, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The new biarticulated chassis, Gran Artic 300, is 30 meters in length and can carry up to 300 passengers. The new Gran Artic 300 has been developed in Brazil especially for BRT systems—high demand transportation systems where buses run on dedicated lanes.

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Berkeley study finds clean vehicle rebates have predominantly benefited wealthy, white Californians

Green Car Congress

The distribution of California’s clean vehicle rebates across different socioeconomic groups has been uneven, with higher income groups more likely to receive rebates, according to a new study by a team from the University of California, Berkeley. The analysis, published in the journal Transportation Research Record further suggests that census tracts where the majority of the population is Hispanic or African-American are less likely to receive rebates, even when income is accounted for.

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ICCT: 2025 target average of 70 g/km CO2 for new cars in EU feasible and economical; more so with electric drive

Green Car Congress

A 2025 CO 2 target of an average 70 g/km for new cars in the EU could be met with very little electrification and with an average payback period of less than 4 years, according to a new study by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). However, transitioning soon to electric drive could lower manufacturers’ compliance costs by as much as €500 (US$532) per vehicle in 2025.

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Intel to invest more than $250M over next two years in autonomous driving; “Data is the new oil”

Green Car Congress

In a keynote address at the AutoMobility LA conference, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced that Intel Capital is targeting more than $250 million of additional new investments over the next two years to make fully autonomous driving a reality. This is the first time Intel is keynoting at an automotive conference, signifying how critical the automotive market has become for the company.

Oil 240
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Volkswagen investing €3.5B in German plants for e-mobility and digitalization; MEB production, pilot plant for batteries and modules

Green Car Congress

Volkswagen will invest €3.5-billion (US$3.7-billion) investment in the future-oriented areas of e-mobility and digitalization for its German plants. As part of an agreement with its General Works Council (i.e., labor), the Board of Management announced that the Volkswagen brand’s German plants will develop and produce electric vehicles and components based on the Modular Electric Drive Kit (MEB). ( Earlier post.).

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California to top a quarter-million electric vehicles sold sometime this month

Green Car Congress

The California Plug-In Electric Vehicle Collaborative (PEVC) announced that according to projections, California will this month top 250,000 plug-in electric cars sold since they became available on the market in 2010. Just a few years ago, you could count the number of plug-in models on one hand. Times have changed. Today, anyone thinking about buying a car can check out more than 30 electric models.

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Test deployment of new on-demand hub & shuttle mobility system at U Michigan; connected & automated vehicles & big data

Green Car Congress

A test deployment of a new hub-and-shuttle urban mobility system will take place on the University of Michigan’s North Campus. Its creators say the proposed system could deliver riders to their destinations in as little as half the time of the existing bus system at a lower cost, eventually using a fleet of autonomous shared vehicles. The limited test deployment would likely mark the world’s first on-the-ground implementation of such a system.

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Cummins working on two medium- and heavy-duty PHEV projects; Class 6 truck, Class 7 and 8 buses

Green Car Congress

At the SAE 2016 Range Extenders for Electric Vehicles Symposium this week in Knoxville, Gary Parker, Director of Electromobility programs for Cummins, Inc. outlined two of the plug-in hybrid projects in which the engine manufacturer is currently involved. The first project, in partnership with the Ohio State University, PACCAR, NREL and Argonne National Laboratory and funded with $4.5 million from the DOE, is to develop a Class 6 commercial plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that can reduce fuel co

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Consumers’ attitudes toward plug-in vehicles: control over convenience

Green Car Congress

A national survey of consumer attitudes towards plug-in electric vehicles suggests that people would prefer control to convenience in many charging scenarios, and also that renewable energy sources are an important component. The survey, released by researchers Brandon Schoettle and Dr. Michael Sivak of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), includes responses from 542 people.

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Peloton in ARPA-E NEXTCAR project to cut HD truck fuel use by 20% with smart powertrains and platooning

Green Car Congress

Peloton Technology , a connected and automated vehicle technology company developing platooning technology for heavy-duty trucks ( earlier post ), is participating in the Next-Generation Energy Technologies for Connected and Autonomous On-Road Vehicles (NEXTCAR) program sponsored by the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). ( Earlier post.).

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BMW Digital Charging Service optimizes charging and integrates electric vehicles into the energy market

Green Car Congress

BMW i is expanding its engagement in electric mobility with the new BMW Digital Charging Service (DCS)—an intelligent service for predictive, convenient, cost-effective and green power-optimized charging. The Digital Charging Service optimizes charging technology for BMW i and BMW iPerformance vehicles and will be extended in a later phase to other brands.

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Global Carbon Project: Low growth in global carbon emissions continues for third successive year

Green Car Congress

Global carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels did not grow in 2015 and are projected to rise only slightly in 2016, marking three years of almost no growth, according to researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the Global Carbon Project. Decreased use of coal in China is the main reason behind the 3-year slowdown. The projected rise of only 0.2% for 2016 marks a clear break from the rapid emissions growth of 2.3% per year in the decade to 2013, with just 0.7% growth seen in 201

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Mobileye adopts Synopsys functional safety verification to enable ISO 26262 compliance of next-gen ADAS SoCs

Green Car Congress

Mobileye N.V. has selected Synopsys’ Z01X functional safety verification solution to meet ISO 26262 automotive safety compliance for Mobileye’s next generation of Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) SoCs. Z01X’s high-performance fault simulation enables Mobileye quickly to perform practical fault injection flows. ISO 26262 is an international standard for functional safety of electrical and/or electronic systems in production automobiles.

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Intel creates new organization solely focused on ADAS and autonomous driving

Green Car Congress

Intel has created a new organization called the Automated Driving Group (ADG), which will be solely dedicated to innovating the future of driving and designing the next generation of advanced driver assist systems and autonomous driving solutions. Intel’s ADG builds upon CEO Brian Krzanich’s vision for the future of automated cars – a vision he recently shared at AutoMobility LA. ( Earlier post.).

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Wolfspeed wins 2016 R&D 100 Award for wide bandgap underhood inverter for HEVs/EVs

Green Car Congress

Wolfspeed, A Cree Company, a leading global supplier of silicon carbide (SiC) power products, won a 2016 R&D 100 Award for its high-temperature, wide-bandgap (WBG) underhood inverter for hybrid and electric vehicles. Wolfspeed’s high-temperature, WBG underhood inverter was developed in response to the need for smaller, lighter, and more efficient systems with higher power density in the electric vehicle market, and in collaboration with the Toyota Research Institute of North America (TRINA); the

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Mazda unveils new CX-5 crossover; diesel engine version coming to NA in 2H 2017

Green Car Congress

Mazda Motor Corporation unveiled the all-new Mazda CX-5 crossover SUV. The fully redesigned model, on display at AutoMobility LA, will be launched in Japan in February before being rolled out to global markets. The global powertrain lineup comprises the SKYACTIV-G 2.0 and 2.5 gasoline, and SKYACTIV-D 2.2 diesel engines. Mazda announced it will offer the SKYACTIV-D diesel in North America from the second half of 2017.

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Wrightspeed and the Ratto Group introduce range-extended electric refuse truck; 15 trucks over next 12 months

Green Car Congress

Wrightspeed, the leading manufacturer of range-extended electric vehicle (REV) powertrains for heavy-duty applications, and The Ratto Group, a Santa Rosa, California-based refuse, yard waste and recycling collection and processing company, unveiled the first commercial application of a range-extended electric refuse truck. Ratto and Wrightspeed will roll out 15 Route-equipped trucks—retrofits of trucks in Ratto’s fleet—over the next 12 months to meet community needs.

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GKN expands electric all-wheel drive program with BMW; eAxle for PHEV X1 in China

Green Car Congress

GKN Driveline is expanding its global electric axle (eAxle) drive partnership with the BMW Group, supplying eAxle technology for a plug-in hybrid version of the BMW X1 for the Chinese market. The system is part of the same scalable family of eAxles used in the plug-in hybrid BMW 2 Series Active Tourer 225xe ( earlier post ). Early adopters of GKN’s electric axle drive used the technology to create plug-in hybrid sports cars with electric all-wheel drive that enhanced performance and efficiency.

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