by Michael Sivak, Sivak Applied Research This analysis examined truck traffic as the percentage of all traffic on interstate highways in the individual states and the District of Columbia. The calculations combined the percentages of vehicle distances traveled by single-unit trucks and combination trucks (but not light trucks) published by... Read more →

Researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the University of Dayton, Yale University, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated the production of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) from food waste–derived volatile fatty acids (VFA) by targeting normal paraffins for a near-term path to market and branched isoparaffins to increase... Read more →

Leading tanker shipping company Stena Bulk unveiled its concept InfinityMAX hybrid bulk carrier design for zero-carbon, multi-modal shipping. The InfinityMAX concept, which is designed to carry both dry and wet cargoes in modular compartments, is built with several new core principles that, accumulatively, represent a paradigm shift in cargo transportation.... Read more →

New Flyer of America Inc. unveiled its next-generation battery-electric Xcelsior CHARGE NG heavy-duty transit bus. Having surpassed 4.5 million service miles with its battery-electric Xcelsior CHARGE and fuel cell-electric Xcelsior CHARGE H2 buses, New Flyer applied the best of zero-emission design, performance, research, and ingenuity to develop its newest electric... Read more →

Neste announced in March 2020 an intention to increase its renewable products production capacity in Europe according to the company strategy. The company has now concluded a thorough study phase concerning the two possible locations, Porvoo, Finland and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Neste has existing sites in both locations. While... Read more →

The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) and software company Bioledger released a case study on the potential of a blockchain database to support traceability of biofuel and its feedstocks and overcome the vulnerabilities identified in securing the supply of sustainable renewables. The report summarizes the results of a project which... Read more →

LG Energy Solution will invest more than $4.5 billion (KRW 5 trillion) by the end of 2025 in the company’s own U.S. business to expand its battery production capacity. This new investment will secure an additional 70GWh in just the US alone, and will be in addition to current and... Read more →

Canda-based Lion Electric, a manufacturer of all-electric trucks and buses, is building a battery manufacturing plant and innovation center in Québec. The factory is planned to begin operations in early 2023 and will produce battery packs and modules made from Lithium-ion cells. Construction is projected to break ground over the... Read more →

The Volkswagen Group presented its technology roadmap for batteries and charging up to 2030 today on its first “Power Day”. The goal of the roadmap is to reduce the complexity and cost of the battery significantly in order to make the electric car attractive and viable for as many people... Read more →

Preliminary data in EPA’s 2020 Automotive Trends Report shows average fuel economy for model year 2020 light-duty vehicles increased to 25.7 miles per gallon (MPG). If this preliminary data holds, that will be a new record high for average new light-duty vehicle fuel economy. The period from 1975–1987 was marked... Read more →

Innovation management specialist Axillium has convened a new £39.6-million (US$55-million) composite materials consortium, funded by a £20.0-million (US$28-million) commitment from industry and a £19.6-million (US$27-million) commitment from the UK Government via the ATI Program. Named ASCEND (Aerospace and Automotive Supply Chain Enabled Development), the consortium will focus on facilitating the... Read more →

The California Energy Commission (CEC), California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) released the first joint agency report and a summary document examining how the state’s electricity system can become carbon-free by 2045. The report is the initial analysis called for in Senate Bill 100 (SB... Read more →

A consortium led by researchers at TU Berlin has launched a €6.5-million project to develop an automated battery exchange station for electric heavy goods vehicles. The eHaul project is funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy with further financial input provided by partner organizations. Other partners are... Read more →

Nissan has begun using second-life battery modules from first-generation LEAF electric vehicles as the power supply for automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in its plants. At Nissan’s Oppama plant, south of Tokyo, there are more than 700 AGVs. Globally, Nissan has more than 4,000 AGVs at work. Nissan was exploring new... Read more →

Canada has released a list of 31 minerals considered critical for the sustainable economic success of Canada and its allies—minerals that can be produced in Canada, are essential to domestic industry and security and have the potential to support secure and resilient supply chains to meet global demand. Global demand... Read more →

Geologists and materials scientists at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have discovered a new way of finding new and previously unknown deposits of rare earth metals, worldwide. They have published the findings of their study in the journal Geology. The researchers discovered that fayalite crystals (pictured) can contain large amounts of... Read more →

Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. received the Technology & Development Award from Toyota Motor Corporation for the development of high-pressure hydrogen tanks used on the new MIRAI, launched by Toyota in December 2020. The new MIRAI is equipped with three hydrogen tanks, one more than the previous model, to extend its... Read more →

BYD announced that its all-new K8M, an innovative 35-foot zero-emission public transit bus, set a high scoring record in the Federal Transit Administration Model Bus Testing Program in Altoona, Pa. The K8M record-setting performance included high marks in structural durability, reliability, maintainability, and safety. As a result, US transit agencies... Read more →

The US Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) awarded a three-year, $5.25-million contract to Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) to continue developing connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technologies to help passenger vehicles operate more efficiently and reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. (Earlier post.) The project is... Read more →

Kia Corporation revealed the first images of the exterior and interior design of EV6, its first dedicated battery electric vehicle (BEV), ahead of the car’s world premiere later this month. Featuring a distinctive crossover-inspired design and based on the brand’s new Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), EV6 is Kia’s first dedicated... Read more →

Drivers are using adaptive cruise control (ACC) as a tool for speeding, possibly undermining the feature’s potential safety benefits, according to a new study by researchers from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) with colleagues from MIT. Drivers are substantially more likely to speed when using ACC or partial... Read more →

SEA Electric Holdings Pty Ltd. recently closed initial private placement equity financing for total gross proceeds of approximately US$42 million. The net proceeds from the investment will allow SEA Electric to solidify its position in the electrification of commercial vehicles while funding its backlog and facilitating more pilot programs with... Read more →

RoboSense (Suteng Innovation Technology Co., Ltd.) has launched China’s first automotive-grade solid-state LiDAR production line and will start mass production and delivery of the automotive-grade solid-state LiDAR RS-LiDAR-M1 for contract projects in Q2 this year. At CES2021 in January, RoboSense officially unveiled the SOP version of the automotive-grade LiDAR RS-LiDAR-M1,... Read more →

Luminar Technologies, Inc. has partnered closely with Zenseact to deliver a full-stack autonomous software system or series production vehicles. Zenseact is a newly-formed 550-person team of top ADAS and autonomous software experts, was founded by Volvo Cars in 2020. Volvo Cars is the first launch customer, representing both Luminar’s and... Read more →

Magna is introducing a scalable solution enabling automakers to electrify their pickup trucks and light commercial vehicles without sacrificing utility and functionality. eBeam is a drop-in replacement for traditional beam axles, using existing suspension and chassis architectures. It integrates with a battery electric or hybrid powertrain system and offers a... Read more →

In March 2020, in a tender launched by German operator Regionalverkehr Köln GmbH (RVK), Solaris Bus & Coach was selected to supply 15 Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen buses. The first of the hydrogen vehicles has been delivered and is being tested in the RVK branch in Wermelskirchen in the Rheinisch-Bergisches... Read more →

Hino Trucks intends to produce medium- and heavy-duty Hino trucks with Cummins engines for sale in North America. Hino intends to offer Cummins B6.7 and L9 engines in Hino’s L and XL Series models by the end of 2021. Hino plans to redirect engineering and other resources to accelerate the... Read more →

Seven companies from the GET H2 initiative in Europe want to build a cross-border pipeline for green hydrogen. From Lingen (Emsland) to Gelsenkirchen and from the Dutch border to Salzgitter, production, transport, storage and industrial acceptance of green hydrogen are to be connected in several steps between 2024 and 2030... Read more →

The BMW Group company is investing in an innovative method for CO2-free steel production developed by American startup Boston Metal (earlier post), through its venture capital fund, BMW i Ventures. Boston Metal is commercializing molten oxide electrolysis (MOE), a patented tonnage metals production platform. Over the coming years, Boston Metal... Read more →

In a project co-funded by Ford Motor Company and the ExOne Company, a team of engineers, material scientists, and manufacturing experts has developed a patent-pending process for rapid and reliable binder jet 3D printing and sintering of aluminum 6061 that delivers properties comparable to die casting. Aluminum 6061 is one... Read more →