Enel X, the Enel Group’s advanced energy services business line, has been awarded two grants by the Accelerating Clean Transportation Now (ACTNow) program through the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC). The grants will support the development of public transportation electrification in the Commonwealth and coincide with the company’s entrance into... Read more →

BYD has introduced the Song PLUS mid-size SUV at a launch event in Chengdu. The announced ICE versions of the SUV comes in four configurations, ranging from 115,800 to 143,800 CNY (US$17,133 to 21,263). BYD intends for the Song PLUS to attack the mainstream SUV market in China synergistically with... Read more →

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines has paid $253,300 in penalties to the California Air Resources Board for violating the Ocean-Going Vessel At-Berth Regulation. The rule requires container, passenger and refrigerated cargo ships to reduce emissions while docked at California’s busiest ports, including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Hueneme, San Francisco and San... Read more →

LiquidPiston, Inc., a developer of advanced rotary internal combustion engines for diesel and jet fuels (earlier post), received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant from the US Army for the development of its X-Engine as a hybrid-electric propulsion platform for UAVs. The company showcased its X-Engine powered... Read more →

As of September 2022, new cars must meet EU limits on NOx emissions under real driving conditions to comply with air pollution limits, the European Parliament has voted. Data on car emissions such as NOx had been obtained through laboratory tests. The EU is the first region in the world... Read more →

Suburban Propane Partners, L.P., a nationwide distributor of propane, fuel oil and related products and services, as well as a marketer of natural gas and electricity, is purchasing a 39% stake in Oberon Fuels, a San Diego, CA-based development-stage producer of low-carbon, renewable dimethyl ether (rDME) transportation fuel. Oberon has... Read more →

Denyo Co., Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corporation have jointly developed a fuel cell power supply vehicle that uses hydrogen to generate electricity. As a leading manufacturer of mobile (portable) generators, Denyo will work with Toyota to start verification tests with the aim of commercializing it. The project has been selected... Read more →

Ford celebrated the production start of the all-new F-150 at the Ford Rouge Center and confirmed construction of the new Rouge Electric Vehicle Center where it will build the all-electric F-150 by mid-2022. Rendering of the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center. The new manufacturing center at the Dearborn-based Rouge Center, once... Read more →

6K, a leading developer of microwave plasma technology for the production of advanced materials through its recently launched 6K Energy division, has developed NMC 811 at 1-3 microns as well as the capability to produce single crystal NMC. 6K Energy has developed NMC 811 at 1-3 microns, the smaller size... Read more →

Li-Cycle Corp. a lithium-ion battery resource recovery company, will invest more than US$175 million in its first commercial lithium-ion battery recycling Hub at Eastman Business Park (EBP) in Rochester, New York. (Earlier post.) The Hub is a wet chemistry/hydrometallurgical facility that will refine battery-grade materials from black mass generated from... Read more →

Corvus Energy has been selected by Holland Ship Electric to supply lithium-ion battery-based energy storage systems (ESS) for five new all-electric ferries being built by Holland Shipyards Group, a total system integrator of electric systems for the global marine market, for Amsterdam’s municipal public transport provider, GVB. The ferries will... Read more →

LG Chem plans to spin-off its global battery business. LG Chem will seek approval from an extraordinary meeting of stockholders on 30 October and officially launch the spin-off—tentatively named LG Energy Solution—as a new corporation exclusively in charge of the battery business from 1 December. This will be a physical... Read more →

Daimler Trucks unveiled the concept Mercedes-Benz GenH2 Truck, marking the beginning of a fuel-cell push by Daimler for the long-haul transport segment. The premiere was staged during a presentation at STATION-Berlin of the company’s technology strategy for the electrification of its vehicles, with a focus on the technology for hydrogen-based... Read more →

Oregon-based Element 1 Corp (e1), a developer of hydrogen generation technology, in collaboration with China-based Co-Win Hydrogen Power Company Limited (CO-WIN), announced that e1’s proprietary methanol-based M-Series hydrogen generator has been incorporated onto a medium-duty fuel cell truck produced by one of the world’s largest truck manufacturing companies. Extended road... Read more →

Volvo Group’s American subsidiary Mack Trucks announced plans to commercialize the Mack LR Electric, its refuse model equipped with a fully electric integrated Mack drivetrain. Orders for the Mack LR Electric will open in Q4 2020, with deliveries beginning in 2021. The production Mack LR Electric model will fulfill the... Read more →

China dominates BloombergNEF’s (BNEF) lithium-ion battery supply chain ranking in 2020, having quickly surpassed Japan and Korea that were leaders for the majority of the previous decade. China’s success results from its large domestic battery demand—72GWh—and control of 80% of the world’s raw material refining, 77% of the world’s cell... Read more →

Electrify America introduced a new pricing structure designed to provide electric vehicle (EV) owners with consistent and transparent rates across its public brand-neutral fast-charging network. Customers will now experience more competitive rates and overall savings in most cases as Electrify America now offers kilowatt-hour (kWh) pricing, depending upon the state... Read more →

A simpler and more efficient way to predict performance will lead to better batteries, according to Rice University engineers. The method is 100,000 times faster than current modeling techniques. A graph that maps the capacity of batteries to cathode thickness and porosity shows a laborious search based on numerical simulations... Read more →

PPG received funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE) for research into the use of two versatile, high-output processes in the production of lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery electrodes. The three-year, $2.2-million project—one of 13 selected through a DOE initiative focused on addressing engineering challenges for advanced battery materials and devices—will... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $24 million in funding for 2 projects as part of the first stage of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy’s (ARPA-E) Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP) program. These SCALEUP “Fast-Track” teams, Natron Energy and Bridger Photonics, will receive... Read more →

Endera, a technology company specializing in commercial electric vehicles, charging stations and software solutions, delivered 18 all-electric passenger shuttles to ACE Parking, for use at the San Diego International Airport. By the end of 2020, 29 all-electric vehicles will be delivered, making it the largest deployment of an all-electric fleet... Read more →

General Motors announced that it will design, develop and manufacture a family of five interchangeable electric drive units and three motors, known collectively as “Ultium Drive.” GM said that Ultium Drive and its modular architecture will help it transition to a fully electric lineup, and provide significant advantages over GM’s... Read more →

Prometheus Fuels has licensed an ethanol-to-jet-fuel conversion process developed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The ORNL technology will enable cost-competitive production of jet fuel and co-production of butadiene for use in renewable polymer synthesis. The mission of Prometheus Fuels, a startup based in Santa... Read more →

For the past four years, the US Department of Energy’s Co-Optima team (earlier post) has focused research efforts on turbocharged (or “boosted”) spark-ignition (SI) engines, which is the dominant combustion approach for light-duty vehicles such as passenger cars and light trucks. This research involves identifying the fuel properties and engine... Read more →

FLIR Systems, Inc. announced the results from recent automatic emergency braking (AEB) tests that examined how adding a thermal sensor and fusing the data with a radar, a visible sensor, and a trained neural network can improve pedestrian detection from current AEB systems. Following positive proof-of-concept test results announced earlier... Read more →

Audi is adding a new member to its A3 family: the A3 Sportback 30 g-tron natural gas vehicle. Operation with natural gas or biomethane makes the compact model economical and more climate-friendly with low emissions. Sales in Germany and other European countries begin in fall 2020 at a base price... Read more →

Frontier Energy, Inc., in close collaboration with GTI and The University of Texas at Austin, has launched a US Department of Energy project, Demonstration and Framework for H2@Scale in Texas and Beyond. The project is supported by DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office within the Office of Energy Efficiency... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), in collaboration with the US Department of Defense and the US Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, has awarded Cummins, Inc. approximately $1 million in federal funds to develop H2Rescue, a hydrogen fuel cell... Read more →

Kia Motors Corporation previewed its global electric vehicle (EV) business strategy; the brand will launch seven new dedicated BEVs by 2027 across several vehicle segments. Kia also released an early sketch of several of the brand’s future dedicated Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). Details of Kia’s future EV product strategy were... Read more →

Proterra introduced its newest battery-electric transit vehicle: the Proterra ZX5 electric bus. The ZX5 bus, Proterra’s fifth-generation battery-electric transit vehicle, features a new streamlined vehicle design and maximizes the amount of energy that can be stored on board the vehicle to increase power and range. The 40-foot Proterra ZX5 can... Read more →