Bosch is working on sensor technology for air taxis. The Boston Consulting Group predicts that people around the world will take 1 billion flights in air taxis in 2030, once sharing services have also established a presence on fixed routes above the ground; most of those air taxis will be... Read more →

The Audi Q5 55 TFSI e quattro with 270 kW (367 hp) system output (combined fuel consumption: 2.4 – 2.1 l/100 km; combined CO2 emissions: 53 – 46 g/km) is the first of the new plug-in models from Audi. The new drive concept comprises a 2.0 TFSI, a four-cylinder, turbocharged... Read more →

Lightning Systems introduced a longer-range, higher-speed, Generation 2 model of its Lightning Electric system for the Ford Transit. (Earlier post.) The Lightning Electric Ford Transit is a battery-electric drivetrain package for the Ford Transit 350HD, a product used extensively by commercial and government fleets. With new thermally-managed NMC battery chemistry,... Read more →

Southern California Edison (SCE) has launched Charge Ready Transport, a program that aims to add charging stations for medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles at a minimum of 870 commercial sites within the utility’s 50,000 square-mile service area. This program is specifically tailored to Southern California, where the goods movement industry... Read more →

Under the EU FLAGSHIPS initiative, ABB will provide a fuel-cell-based power and propulsion solution for a newbuild push boat for the France-based Sogestran Group subsidiary Compagnie Fluviale de Transport (CFT), due for delivery in 2021. FLAGSHIPS is the EU-funded initiative to deploy commercially operated zero-emission vessels for inland and short... Read more →

Low-speed electric vehicles (LSEVs) could reduce China’s demand for gasoline and, in turn, impact global oil prices, according to a new issue brief by an expert in the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. “Low-Speed Electric Vehicles: An Underappreciated Threat to Gasoline Demand in... Read more →

General Motors President Mark Reuss unveiled the company’s all-new electronic platform necessary for its next-generation of vehicles, EVs, active safety, infotainment and connectivity features, and the evolution of the Super Cruise driver assistance feature. The technology powers an electronic system, capable of managing up to 4.5 terabytes (TB) of data... Read more →

Einride’s T-pod—a cab-less, autonomous electric truck (earlier post)—has driven on a public road. The world premiere and inaugural run took place at DB Schenker’s facility in Jönköping, Sweden. The T-pod will transport goods between a warehouse and terminal at the facility, as part of a commercial flow. Einride’s T-pod has... Read more →

Business Korea reports that sales of Hyundai Motor’s Nexo hydrogen fuel cell vehicle this year reached 1,075 units on May 17, exceeding the 949 units sold for the whole of last year. This marks the first time Hyundai has sold more than 1,000 hydrogen cars annually since 2013. Of the... Read more →

In 2018, 27% of new light-duty vehicles sold in the US had fuel economies of more than 30 miles per gallon (783 l/100 km), according to the US Department of Energy (DOE). By contrast, none of the light-duty vehicles produced in 1975 had fuel economy greater than 30 miles per... Read more →

American Battery Solutions, Inc. (ABS) emerged from stealth-mode with engineering, testing and manufacturing services enabled by an agreement to acquire of high-voltage manufacturing and testing assets from Robert Bosch Battery Systems. The terms of the sale will not be disclosed. Under the proposed agreement with Robert Bosch Battery Systems, ABS... Read more →

Panasonic will partner with Tropos Motors to advance hyper-efficient electric compact utility vehicles—the second largest class of fleet vehicles. ABLE XR Low-speed electric compact utility vehicles (eCUV) offers benefits to the fleet owner including lower cost of purchase with a reduced cost of operation and maintenance, which equates to a... Read more →

An experimental robot drone that flies like a typical quadcopter, drives on tough terrain and squeezes into tight spaces using the same motors, has been developed by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers. The hybrid FSTAR (flying sprawl-tuned autonomous robot) will be introduced at the International Conference on Robotics... Read more →

A life-cycle assessment of emissions from domestic and imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), and heavy-fuel oil (HFO) for marine shipping by a team from the University of British Columbia has found that only high-pressure dual-fuel (HPDF) engines robustly reduce well-to-wake GHG emissions by 10% compared with their HFO-fueled counterparts. Low... Read more →

Researchers at Beihang University in Beijing have developed a linear molecule sulfur-rich organic material as sulfur cathode for a lithium-sulfur battery. The tetramethylthiuram disulfide-sulfur (TMTD-S) cathode material delivers an initial capacity of 685 mAh g−1 at 0.2C (1 C = 1061 mAh g−1) and maintains the capacity at 540 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles. Furthermore, when... Read more →

A fleet of driverless cars working together to keep traffic moving smoothly can improve overall traffic flow by at least 35%, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Cambridge. The researchers programmed a small fleet of miniature robotic cars to drive on a multi-lane track and... Read more →

An international team of researchers, led by Professor David Antonelli of Lancaster University, has discovered a new material made from manganese hydride that could be used to make molecular sieves within hydrogen fuel tanks. The material—KMH-1 (Kubas Manganese Hydride-1)—demonstrates a reversible excess adsorption performance of 10.5 wt% and 197 kgH2... Read more →

Iwatani Corporation of America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Iwatani Corporation recently acquired four hydrogen-refueling stations in California from Messer (formerly Linde, LLC). The stations are Open Retail Stations providing hydrogen fuel to consumers in support of rapidly growing demand for zero-emission fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). On 1 March... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory recently released an updated version of an online computer model meant to help bioenergy developers preserve critical resources. The model, called Water Analysis Tool for Energy Resources or WATER, has users from more than 35 US states. This map depicts water availability... Read more →

NASA will provide $6 million over the course of three years to support a University Leadership Initiative (ULI) project focused on the development of a fully electric aircraft platform that uses cryogenic liquid hydrogen as an energy storage method. The Center for Cryogenic High-Efficiency Electrical Technologies for Aircraft (CHEETA) project... Read more →

Neste and Air BP are supporting the business aviation sector’s Sustainable Alternative Jet Fuel (SAJF) initiative and helping drive its adoption with operators and aircraft manufacturers. The European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) will take place in Geneva on 21-23 May 2019, and European business aviation community has an... Read more →

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin Madison and ExxonMobil Research and Engineering have devised a two-stage process by which an alcohol such as ethanol or 1-butanol can be converted with high yields into distillate-range ethers and olefins by combining Guerbet coupling (the coupling of two alcohol molecules) and intermolecular dehydration.... Read more →

The SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility District) Board of Directors formally approved its Founding Membership in the California Mobility Center, including an initial investment of $5 million to establish the Center. An additional $10 million will be made available once matching funds are committed by other partners. The California Mobility Center... Read more →

The eighth-generation of the bestselling Volkswagen Golf bestseller will feature a 48V mild hybrid electric drive system. In 2018, Volkswagen announced at the Vienna Motor Symposium that it would make the innovative low-voltage concept accessible to a broad public. The Group is now delivering on its promise and bringing the... Read more →

Since 2010, SEAT, a member of the Volkswagen Group, has improved its production-related environmental footprint by 34% on average with measures to emit less CO2 and fewer volatile organic compounds, generate less waste and consume less water and energy. Over the next few months, the company will implement measures designed... Read more →

Six new start-ups have been decided on for the founders program in the Future Mobility Incubator at the Gläserne Manufaktur in Dresden. The winners of the final pitch were: AVILOO from Vienna; Kopernikus from Berlin; NAVENTIK from Chemnitz; Visualix from Berlin; home-IX UG from Stuttgart; and LiGenium from Chemnitz. They... Read more →

DHL Express and intelligent autonomous aerial vehicle company EHang entered into a strategic partnership to launch a fully automated and intelligent smart drone delivery solution to tackle the last-mile delivery challenges in the urban areas of China. The new customized route, which has been exclusively created for a DHL customer,... Read more →

More than 11.2 million light vehicles equipped with some form of Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) system will be produced globally in 2024, representing 12% of the light vehicle fleet, based on new research and forecasts from business information provider IHS Markit). IHS Markit expects that production of light vehicles equipped with V2X... Read more →

Proterra launched Proterra Energy fleet solutions, a full suite of options that enable turnkey delivery of a complete energy ecosystem for heavy-duty electric fleets, including design, build, financing, operations, maintenance and energy optimization. With this comprehensive solution, operators of medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fleets such as transit bus, school bus,... Read more →

BorgWarner introduced its Onboard Battery Charger (OBC), adding to the company’s impressive portfolio of technologies for plug-in hybrid and pure-electric vehicles. This technology uses silicon carbide technology and is best-in-class for power density, power conversion efficiency and safety compliance, the company says. The OBC is installed in hybrid or electric... Read more →