Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 11, 2020

Toyota’s next generation fuel cell electric technology is now powering a new set of Class 8 heavy-duty trucks. Using the same fuel cell system as the all-new 2021 Mirai sedan that goes on sale this month, the engineers at Toyota Motor North America Research and Development have developed a set of production-intent prototype trucks that are being prepared to run drayage routes at the ports of LA and Long Beach to validate their performance, efficiency and drivability.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 15, 2020

A multi-institutional research team led by materials scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has designed a highly active and durable catalyst that doesn’t rely on costly platinum group metals (PGM) to spur the necessary chemical reaction. The new catalyst contains cobalt interspersed with nitrogen and carbon. When compared to a similarly structured catalyst made from iron—another promising, well-studied platinum substitute—the team found that the cobalt catalyst

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Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 22, 2020

SAE International has published the first global standard that specifies, in a single document, both the electric vehicle and supply equipment (EVSE) ground-system requirements for wireless charging of electric vehicles (EV). The new standard, SAE J2954 , helps pave the way for charging without the need for plugging in—widely considered to be a key enabler for accelerating the adoption of EVs and autonomous vehicles.

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Green Car Congress

MAY 27, 2020

Southwest Research Institute engineers have developed the next generation of clean diesel engine technology to reduce hazardous nitrogen oxides (NO x ) and carbon dioxide emissions while minimizing fuel consumption. Working with regulatory agencies, vehicle manufacturers and suppliers, SwRI combined engine modifications with integrated aftertreatment technology and control strategies to reach near-zero emissions levels (0.02 g/hp-hr NO x emissions).

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Climate Change

Green Car Congress

MAY 15, 2020

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are evaluating the use of blockchain for transactive energy using hardware in the laboratory’s Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF). Distributing grid operational decision-making is revolutionary. It’s really like somebody in the 1980s expounding on the economic opportunity of the Internet.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 13, 2020

On 4 December 2020, the LME cash price hit its highest level since March 2013, closing at US$7,742/t. (By 10 December, that dropped back to $7,712/t.) Copper has charted an unlikely trajectory through 2020, notes Roskill. Copper prices plunged 27% to a low of US$4,617/t in late March as the global impact of COVID-19 became apparent, but copper stabilized and then began to rise, completing a full recovery to its January starting point by the end of July.

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Green Car Congress

MARCH 11, 2020

The Intermountain Power Agency (IPA) has awarded Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) a contract for two M501JAC power trains for the Intermountain Power Plant (IPP) in Delta, Utah. ( Earlier post.). This award marks the first Advanced Class Gas Turbines in the industry specifically designed and purchased as part of a comprehensive plan to sequentially transition from coal, to natural gas and finally to renewable hydrogen fuel, and creates a roadmap for the global industry to follow.

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Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

A new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) finds that the rising use of ride-hailing services is increasing carbon emissions, with ride-hailing trips producing nearly 70% greater emissions compared to the trips they are replacing. This significant increase in emissions comes in part from “deadheading”—the miles a driver travels waiting for a ride request or picking up a passenger.

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Green Car Congress

MARCH 8, 2020

Pollution from tire wear can be 1,000 times worse than a car’s exhaust emissions, Emissions Analytics has found. Emissions Analytics is an independent global testing and data specialist for the scientific measurement of real-world emissions and fuel efficiency for passenger and commercial vehicles and non-road mobile machinery. Harmful particulate matter from tires—and also brakes—is a growing environmental problem, and is being exacerbated by the increasing popularity of large, heav

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Green Car Congress

MARCH 11, 2020

CASE Construction Equipment introduced “Project Zeus”: the 580 EV, the construction industry’s first fully electric backhoe loader. The power and performance of the 580 EV is equivalent to other diesel-powered backhoes in the CASE product line and provides considerably lower daily operating costs while also producing zero emissions—a motivating factor for utility and government contractors incentivized to work with equipment that leverages alternative fuels and lowers emissions.

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Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 4, 2020

Toyota, official partner of Energy Observer and an avid supporter of their project from the start, has developed a fuel cell system for maritime applications, with its first delivery destined for Energy Observer. Embarking in June 2017 from Saint-Malo Port in France, Energy Observer is an electrically propelled vessel of the future that is operated using a mix of renewable energies and an on-board system that produces carbon-free hydrogen from seawater.

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Green Car Congress

MAY 2, 2020

Airbus and Rolls Royce jointly have decided to end the E-Fan X demonstrator program. ( Earlier post.) Launched in 2017, the E-Fan X project sought to develop a near-term hybrid-electric flight demonstrator for commercial aircraft. … decarbonizing the aviation industry is no small feat. To achieve this, we need to re-focus all of our efforts on technology bricks that will take us there.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 19, 2020

Transdev Canada is investing close to CAD$4.5 million in its fleet of electric school buses with the Québec company Lion, thus becoming, with a total of 31 vehicles, the largest private operator of electric school buses in North America to date. This major investment is made possible by the Québec government’s proactive support policy. The entire new fleet will be gradually introduced on the school transport networks operated by Transdev from the start of the school year in September 2020, in th

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Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 7, 2020

Alstom will manufacture , deliver and maintain until 2032 eleven Coradia Continental battery-electric trains for regional traffic on the Leipzig-Chemnitz route on behalf of VMS (Verkehrsverbund Mittelsachsen) and with the support of ZVNL (Zweckverband für den Nahverkehrsraum Leipzig), the two authorities responsible for this line. The contract is worth approximately €100 million.

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Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 4, 2020

BYD has entered the Finnish market for the first time after securing an order for 106 buses with Nobina, one of Finland’s and Scandinavia’s largest Public Transport Operators (PTOs). The order, the largest ever for eBuses in Finland, includes 64 units for Nobina services in Helsinki and 42 units for Nobina’s operation in Turku. The announcement also signals a triple landmark, with Nobina becoming the first PTO in Europe to order BYD’s latest 50-foot, three-axle low-floor eBus model.

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Green Car Congress

MARCH 5, 2020

Volvo Cars formally inaugurated a new battery assembly line at its Belgian manufacturing plant in Ghent, where it will start building its first fully electric car, the XC40 Recharge P8, later this year. Volvo XC40 Recharge powertrain. The XC40 Recharge P8 is the first of a family of fully electric Volvos. It is the company’s first fully electric car and the first Volvo with a brand new infotainment system powered by Google’s Android operating system.

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Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 2, 2020

Norwegian wholesaler Asko is among the first to operate a goods vehicle that runs on hydrogen, thanks to a collaborative effort by research scientists and industry. SINTEF, one of Europe’s largest independent research organizations, has been working with Asko and hydrogen fuel for almost ten years with the aim of reducing goods vehicle emissions. Electricity generated by solar panels installed across nine thousand square metres of roofing at Asko’s regional warehouse is being used to split water

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Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 23, 2020

Researchers at the US Geological Survey (USGS) and its partners have developed a new methodology to identify which mineral commodities important to US manufacturing are at greatest risk to supply disruption. The risk tool identified 23 mineral commodities posing the greatest risk. The methodology evaluated the global supply of and US demand for 52 mineral commodities for the years 2007 to 2016.

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 19, 2020

Hamburger Hochbahn AG has launched a tender for the delivery of up to 50 fuel cell buses for the years 2021 to 2025. The invitation to tender consists of four lots. Hochbahn will purchase both pure fuel cell hybrid buses and battery-electric buses in which the fuel cell serves as a range extender. Both solo and articulated buses are tendered for both technical solutions.

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Green Car Congress

JULY 21, 2020

Baker Hughes and Snam have successfully completed testing of the world’s first “hybrid” hydrogen turbine designed for a gas network. The test paves the way to implement adoption of hydrogen blended with natural gas in Snam’s current transmission network infrastructure. The test took place at Baker Hughes’ facility in Florence, Italy with a Baker Hughes’ NovaLT12 gas turbine.

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Hydrogen Gas Italy Maintenance 524

Green Car Congress

MAY 6, 2020

A team of researchers at the Institute of Technological Sciences at Wuhan University has demonstrated a prototype design of a propulsion thruster that utilizes air plasma induced by microwave ionization. Such a jet engine simply uses only air and electricity to produce high temperature and pressurized plasma for jet propulsion. An open-access paper on their work is published in the journal AIP Advances.

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 29, 2020

Mercedes-Benz Vans and Amazon announced the largest order for Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles to date: more than 1,800 battery-electric eVito and eSprinter from Mercedes-Benz Vans will be delivered to Amazon starting this year to be used across Europe. The order includes around 600 medium-sized eVito and more than 1,200 vehicles of the large-size van eSprinter.

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Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 14, 2020

Moscow, Russia has launched its 500 th electric bus—a KAMAZ 6282 electric bus. The KAMAZ 6282 uses lithium-titanate batteries, and has a range of 70 km on one charge. The electric bus is charged in 6-12 minutes with ultrafast charging stations using a half-pantograph. In addition, an on-board charger allows charging the drive from a three-phase 380 V alternating current (“night charge”).

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Green Car Congress

MARCH 13, 2020

Commercial fast-charging stations subject electric car batteries to high temperatures and high resistance that can cause them to crack, leak, and lose their storage capacity, according to researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in a new open-access study published in the journal Energy Storage. To remedy this, the researchers have developed a method for charging at lower temperatures with less risk of catastrophic damage and loss of storage capacity.

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Green Car Congress

JULY 7, 2020

The Fountain Valley, California hydrogen station has opened. The Fountain Valley True Zero station, located in Orange County, was developed by FirstElement Fuel. It will be open 24 hours a day and is located at 18480 Brookhurst Street, Fountain Valley, CA 92708. The Fountain Valley hydrogen station capacity is 1200 kilograms; it has four fueling positions with a total of five nozzles (four H70 nozzles and one H35 nozzle).

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Green Car Congress

JULY 17, 2020

Lightning Systems has introduced an all-electric powertrain for the popular Ford F-550 Chassis Cab. The new Lightning Electric Ford F-550 will be available in gross vehicle weight ratings (GVWR) of 17,500 to 19,500 pounds. Orders from fleets are being accepted immediately. The new Lightning Electric Ford F-550 model will offer peak power of 180 kW (241 hp).

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Green Car Congress

MAY 29, 2020

magniX, a company developing electric propulsion systems for aircraft, and AeroTEC, a leading independent company focused on aerospace testing, engineering and certification, announced the successful flight of an all-electric Cessna Grand Caravan 208B. The successful flight of the eCaravan, enabled by a 750-horsepower (560 kW) magni500 propulsion system, took place at the AeroTEC Flight Test Center at the Grant County International Airport (KMWH) in Moses Lake, Washington on Thursday.

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Green Car Congress

MARCH 22, 2020

A coalition of major oil & gas, power, automotive, fuel cell, and hydrogen companies have developed and released the full new report, a “ Road Map to a US Hydrogen Economy. ” The Road Map stresses the versatility of hydrogen as an enabler of the renewable energy system; an energy vector that can be transported and stored; and a fuel for the transportation sector, heating of buildings and providing heat and feedstock to industry.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 30, 2020

Solaris has completed the delivery of 90 Urbino 12 electric buses for Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG). This was one of the biggest contracts for battery-powered buses in Europe and the largest one for the manufacturer in Germany so far. Berlin now has a total of 123 electric Solaris buses in its fleet. In June 2019, the public transport operator from Berlin ordered 90 12-meter Urbino 12 buses.

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Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 1, 2020

Volvo Cars successfully placed its first green bond, raising €500 million from a diverse group of institutional investors and further increasing the company’s financial flexibility. A green bond is a type of fixed-income instrument that is specifically earmarked to raise money for climate and environmental projects. The proceeds of the bond will be used to fund the design, development and manufacturing of fully electric cars in line with the company’s recently established Green Finance Framework

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 19, 2020

The technology group Wärtsilä and Grieg Edge, the innovation hub of Norwegian shipping group Grieg Star, are jointly running a project to launch an ammonia-fueled tanker producing no greenhouse gas emissions by 2024. The MS Green Ammonia project is the result of a Nordic industrial collaboration group founded from the Zeeds (Zero Emissions Energy Distribution at Sea) initiative.

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Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 18, 2020

Achates Power’s innovative 3-cylinder, 10.6L opposed-piston heavy-duty diesel engine has achieved performance results that comply with pending 2027 requirements of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California to reduce sharply emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO x ). Engine and aftertreatment system development and performance assessments were conducted at the Achates Power facility in San Diego and the Aramco Research Center-Detroit.

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Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 24, 2020

Inmotive, a Canadian-based automotive supplier, has launched its patented Ingear two-speed transmission. Invented and designed for the next generation of electric vehicles, the Ingear features a simple and durable design that enables a more efficient powertrain, with extended range, at lower cost. Inmotive recently completed its extensive pre-production testing of the Ingear, has integrated it into a demonstration vehicle and is ready for full market implementation.

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Green Car Congress

AUGUST 21, 2020

Premium EV manufacturer NIO has launched Battery as a Service (BaaS) for customers in China. NIO BaaS users can purchase a car without the battery, making EVs more price competitive against existing powertrains, while also providing the flexibility to change battery capacity depending on their needs and pay accordingly. In addition, BaaS also represents a systematic solution to the long-existing challenges for EV penetration, including battery degradation, battery upgradability, and lower resale

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