Green Car Congress

JANUARY 22, 2013

Elements of the “Hybrid Air” hydraulic hybrid powertrain under development for B, C, and D vehicles. Click to enlarge. Following the introduction of the Bosch electric axle-split hybrid in PSA Peugeot Citroën diesel vehicles ( earlier post ), the two companies are now planning to develop a hydraulic hybrid powertrain for passenger cars. The hydraulic system, which uses compressed air for energy storage, basically comprises two hydraulic units and their pressure accumulators.

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Creative Greenius

OCTOBER 18, 2013

'Why would your Creative Greenius walk away from his high-paying, highly rewarding executive role at CBS EcoMedia where I was working to fund environmental, education, and wellness projects all across the USA, just as the company hit more growth milestones and was likely to pay generous bonuses? The answer is simple and direct – because I have done The Math. .

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Electric Cars are for Girls

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

'National Plug In Day is a nationwide celebration to heighten awareness of today''s widespread availability of plug-in vehicles and highlight the benefits of all-electric and plug-in hybrid-electric cars, trucks, motorcycles, and more. They are fun to drive, are less expensive and more convenient to fuel than gasoline vehicles, are better for the environment, promote local jobs, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

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Green Car Reports

DECEMBER 26, 2013

'Many people like to think they can predict the future, but only futurists (and psychics) get paid to do it. And futurist Lars Thomsen thinks that electric cars are such a disruptive technology that they will make gasoline cars obsolete--starting in 2016, or much earlier than most other analysts suggest. Thomsen delivered a speech this past.

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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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Green Cars News

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

'For the first time in its history, Volkswagen has been declared as the most sustainable carmaker in the world, as part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. As part of a 2013 review, the analysis looked at the environmental, economic and social sustainability performance of 31 automotive compani[.].

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

'The 9.5 MW solar park at Chattanooga is owned and operated by Silicon Ranch; VW has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement. Click to enlarge. Volkswagen Chattanooga has received a 2013 Green Power Leadership Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—the only automaker to be so recognized. The annual awards recognize the country’s leading green power users for their commitment and contribution to helping advance the development of the nation’s voluntary green power market.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 27, 2013

'Innovators at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have developed an automated pulse-and-glide technique using a flywheel energy storage system for on-road vehicles; the technology, which NASA Glenn says can improve fuel economy over existing internal combustion or battery hybrid systems by 40-100%, is available for licensing. Drivers can use a manual “pulse-and-glide” (PnG) driving technique—accelerating and decelerating an automobile in cycles of approximately 10-30 seconds—as a way to im

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Green Car Congress

MARCH 9, 2013

Transportation fuel mix in millions of oil-equivalent barrels through 2020. Source: ExxonMobil Outlook. Click to enlarge. Diesel will surpass gasoline as the number one transportation fuel worldwide by 2020 and continue to increase its share through 2040, according to ExxonMobil’s recently published Outlook For Energy: A View To 2040. The relative shift away from motor gasoline to diesel is driven by improving light-duty vehicle fuel economy and the growth in commercial transportation activity.

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Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 4, 2013

'Ford’s changing share of the hybrid-electric, plug-in hybrid electric, battery-electric vehicle segments and total ED market in the US in 2012 and YTD 2013. Data: EDTA, Ford Motor. Click to enlarge. Ford Motor Company’s C-platform electric drive strategy has driven an increase in Ford’s overall electric drive market share (hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery-electric) from 7.3% in calendar year 2012 to 14.7% for the first nine months of 2013.

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Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 21, 2013

The XL1. Click to enlarge. Volkswagen has confirmed that its XL1 Super Efficient Vehicle, featuring fuel consumption of 0.9 l/100 km (approx. 261 mpg US), will go into limited production at the company’s Osnabrück factory in Germany. The plug-in diesel-electric hybrid, which Volkswagen will showcase at the Geneva show, can cover a distance of up to 50 km (31 miles) in all-electric mode.

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Green Car Congress

JULY 28, 2013

'Alabama and Mississippi are forming a partnership to further study the oil sands resources in the two states, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley and Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant announced on Saturday while speaking to the Southern States Energy Board. The State of Alabama has the third largest oil sands resource in the United States, which may extend into the State of Mississippi.

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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 Congress

JULY 14, 2013

'Capacity of Tesla Roadster batteries versus miles driven using the three types of capacity measurement: range mode (blue diamonds), standard mode (red squares), and calculated Ah capacity (green triangles). n=122. Source: PIA. Click to enlarge. A study of Tesla Roadster user data published by plug-in vehicle advocacy organization Plug In America (PIA) projects that the battery packs in the Roadsters will retain 80-85% of capacity after 100,000 miles (160,934 km) driven.

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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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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 3, 2013

The US Department of Energy announced more than $10 million in funding to five new projects that will develop new synthetic biological and chemical techniques to convert biomass into advanced biofuels and bioproducts such as plastics and chemical intermediates. Two of these projects will develop cost-effective ways to produce intermediates from the deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass, while three projects will propose new conversion techniques to transform biomass intermediates into advanc

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 30, 2013

'A team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and General Motors, led by ORNL researcher Dr. Jun Qu, has developed a new group of ionic liquids as lubricant additives that could help improve the energy efficiency of cars and trucks. Prototype low-viscosity ionic liquid-additized engine oil demonstrated a 2% improved fuel economy compared to Mobil 1 5W-30 engine oil (3.93% over the 20W-30 baseline oil) in standard fuel efficiency engine dynamometer tests.

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Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 17, 2013

'A composite blend of carbon fibers and polymer resin is being developed that can store and charge more energy faster than conventional batteries can. Volvo Cars is the only car manufacturer participating in the EU-funded project, which started in early 2010. Click to enlarge. Volvo Car Group—the only automaker participating in a 3.5-year EU-funded project developing a prototype material which can store and discharge electrical energy and which is also strong and lightweight enough to be u

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Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 21, 2013

Total US petroleum deliveries (a measure of demand) were down 1.7% for January against the same month a year ago to just under 18 million barrels per day—the lowest level for the month in 18 years, according to figures from the American Petroleum Institute (API). The January numbers reprise last year’s theme of weak demand. This isn’t surprising given an economy that’s still treading water.

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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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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 2, 2013

'An evaluation of different fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle (FCHEV) powertrain designs—such as fuel cell/supercapacitor (FC/SC), fuel cell/battery (FC/B), and a combination of supercapacitors and batteries (FC/SC/B)—and different control strategies by researchers in Belgium concluded that the FC/SC HEV has slightly higher fuel economy than the FC/B HEV and FC/B/SC HEV powertrains.

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Green Car Congress

JULY 11, 2013

'Renault’s comparison of the carbon footprint of EV and ICE vehicles over production, operation and end of life. The EV footprint (Fluence Z.E.) is shown with both UK and French grid mixes. Click to enlarge. Renault recently made public the findings of an internal study, published first in October 2011, detailing and comparing the lifecycle assessments (LCAs) of the battery-electric and two internal combustion engined versions (gasoline and diesel) of the Renault Fluence.

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Green Car Congress

APRIL 20, 2013

'Ragone plot showing the performance of the new microbattery cells (A-H) and conventional power technologies. The energy and power density of our microbattery cells (A–H) at low to high C rates, along with previous microbattery cells having 3D electrodes (MB1 through MB3). The plot also includes the performance range of conventional power technologies and commercial batteries from A123 (high power) and Sony (high energy).

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Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

UPS announced the deployment of 100 fully electric commercial vehicles that will be delivering packages around the state. The vehicles were manufactured in Stockton, California by Electric Vehicles International ( EVI ). ( Earlier post.). These UPS electric trucks will reduce the consumption of conventional motor fuel by approximately 126,000 gallons per year.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 14, 2013

'Volvo Bus’ plug-in hybrid. The pantograph for rapid charging can be seen on the roof. Click to enlarge. Field tests being conducted in Gothenburg show that Volvo Buses’ plug-in hybrid reduces fuel consumption by 81% and total energy consumption (diesel plus electricity) by 61% compared to a comparable Euro 5 diesel bus. ( Earlier post.). The field test in Gothenburg began in June 2013 and includes three plug-in hybrid buses, the batteries of which are rapidly recharged at the terminals.

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Green Car Congress

JULY 6, 2013

'Life-cycle energy use and GHG emissions normalized with NYCC diesel case (8.06 MJ/t·km and 0.63 kgCO 2 e/t·km) at 100%. Numbers in red are net total including recycling effect. Credit: ACS, Lee et al. Click to enlarge. Comparing life-cycle energy consumption, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and total cost of ownership (TCO) of medium-duty electric and diesel urban delivery trucks for a range of drive cycles and electricity generation scenarios, a team from Georgia Tech found that all in all, th

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 22, 2013

'The US Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) will award approximately $36 million to 22 projects to develop transformational electric vehicle (EV) energy storage systems using innovative chemistries, architectures and designs. ARPA-E’s new program, Robust Affordable Next Generation Energy Storage Systems (RANGE) ( earlier post ), aims to accelerate widespread EV adoption by dramatically improving driving range and reliability, and by providing low-cost,

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Green Car Congress

MAY 28, 2013

'At a panel discussion on the topic of “research and development perspectives in electromobility” in Berlin, Dr. Volkmar Denner, the chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH said that he expected that by 2020, electric cars will have a range of at least 300 kilometers (186 miles). Electromobility is currently still a niche business, but after 2020 it could very well become a mass market.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

'Long-term cycling test results of the Li/S cell with CTAB-modified S?GO composite cathodes. This result represents the longest cycle life (exceeding 1,500 cycles) with an extremely low decay rate (0.039% per cycle) demonstrated so far for a Li/S cell. Credit: ACS, Song et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have demonstrated in the laboratory a lithium-sulfur (Li/S) battery that has more than twice the specific energy of lithi

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Green Car Congress

JANUARY 15, 2013

Nissan announced that US pricing for the updated 2013 Nissan LEAF electric vehicle ( earlier post ) will start at an MSRP of $28,800 for the newly-added entry-level S grade—an 18% reduction from the $35,200 MSRP of the 2012 LEAF entry model, the SV. The entry-level 2013 LEAF S becomes the lowest priced five-passenger electric vehicle sold in the United States.

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Electric Cars are for Girls

MAY 28, 2013

'I''m happy to announce the release of our new book, called "Let''s Talk about Electric Cars: 8 Most Inspiring Interviews". This book is a collection of real conversations with real people about the electric cars that they drive every day: Volt and LEAF drivers, beer budget EV converters, high-end EV converters, electric drag racers, Prius plug-in converters.well, you get the idea: ) I hope this helps you decide which electric car might fit your life best - before you make the leap and invest yo

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Electric Cars are for Girls

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

'Compare all the electric cars that are available for sale right now with this handy guide from the Sierra Club! The Tesla S looks pretty good.

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Green Car Reports

OCTOBER 1, 2013

'Well, here''s a first: The best-selling car in Norway is the Tesla Model S. Not the best-selling electric car. Not the best-selling car with a plug. For the month of September, the Tesla Model S was the best-selling car, period. Silicon Valley startup electric-car maker Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] sold 616 Tesla Model S cars in Norway last month.

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Green Car Reports

DECEMBER 3, 2013

'Once more into the fray: Another state''s car dealers are pushing for legislation to ban Tesla Motors from selling its electric cars directly to buyers. This time it''s Ohio. And legislators have unexpectedly moved up a hearing on the new law to today, according to a letter from Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA]. The hearing takes place early this.

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