The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is easing several gasoline-related regulations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. First, EPA intends to provide additional flexibility to the marketplace to transition from winter-grade, high volatility gasoline to summer-grade low vapor pressure gasoline. Due to the steep fall-off in gasoline demand as a... Read more →

PowerCell Sweden AB has signed a contract with a leading European shipyard regarding the development and delivery of a megawatt marine fuel cell system. The system will be developed and delivered over three years; the total value of the contract for the period amounts to SEK 77 million (€6.9 million).... Read more →

6K, a leading developer of microwave plasma technology for the production of advanced materials, has entered the energy storage market with a new division called 6K ENERGY dedicated to energy storage materials. The move follows three years of internal development supported by commercial customers and the US Department of Energy... Read more →

The COVID-19 has hit the Chinese EV sector hard; CRU, a provider of business intelligence on the global metals, mining and fertilizer industries, believes that weak sales will last at least until early Q2 2020. Nonetheless, it continues to forecast Chinese EV sales growth in 2020 over 2019’s total. EV... Read more →

Faced with the compelling need for more respirators, the French government asked a group of French industrial companies led by Air Liquide to study the possibility of increasing the production of respirators so as to provide 10,000 respirators in 50 days, between the beginning of April and mid-May. In response,... Read more →

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the country, it created a critical shortage of face masks. To help protect workers in essential services across the country, GM launched a rapid-response project to produce masks at scale on 20 March. Seven days later, the team had produced its first sample on... Read more →

IHS Markit Crude Oil Markets service expects up to 10 MMb/d of world oil production will be cut or shut-in from April to June 2020 as oil storage fills up and output from financially strapped companies begins to fall. If oil cannot be sold or stored, it cannot be produced.... Read more →

The US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the final Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule setting corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) and CO2 emissions standards for model years 2021-2026 passenger cars and light trucks. These final rules follow... Read more →

Karma Automotive introduced the Karma E-Flex Platform a highly versatile chassis that will offer new electric vehicle mobility solutions ranging from autonomously-driven utility vans, to daily-driver vehicles, to high-performance supercars. Karma, the Southern California-based creator of luxury electric vehicles and high-tech incubator, said the first showcase of the highly-flexible platform... Read more →

Ford Motor Company, in collaboration with GE Healthcare, will begin producing in Michigan the Airon pNeuton model A ventilator with the goal to produce 50,000 of the needed units within 100 days and up to 30,000 a month thereafter as needed. Established in 1997, Airon Corporation is a privately held... Read more →

The falling cost of making hydrogen from wind and solar power offers a promising route to cutting emissions in some of the most fossil-fuel-dependent sectors of the economy, such as steel, heavy-duty vehicles, shipping and cement, according to a new report from BloombergNEF (BNEF). Hydrogen Economy Outlook, a new and... Read more →

Via, a company that provides digital infrastructure to power public mobility in cities around the world (earlier post), has raised a Series E financing led by EXOR. The financing values the company at $2.25 billion and will enable Via to advance its vision of efficient, accessible, and equitable public mobility.... Read more →

Volkswagen reports that, even before the launch of the new ID.3 EV this summer, demand for electrified Volkswagen products has increased in Germany. Every second order for the up! model series is for the fully electric version, with around 20,000 orders received over the first three months of this year.... Read more →

The SEAT Leon line at the Martorell, Spain, plant is producing automated ventilators to collaborate with the healthcare system in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. Going from producing cars to ventilators in record time is the result of the intense work of many SEAT employees. The motivation of everyone... Read more →

Cree has introduced the Wolfspeed 650V silicon carbide MOSFETs, delivering a wider range of industrial applications and enabling the next generation of Electric Vehicle (EV) onboard charging, data centers, and other renewable systems with industry-leading power efficiency. The new 15 mΩ and 60 mΩ 650V devices, which use Cree’s third-generation... Read more →

The BMW Group provided some technical insights into the powertrain system for the planned BMW i Hydrogen NEXT and also reaffirmed its commitment to following a carefully considered and systematic route to emission-free mobility. The BMW Group has been working with Toyota on fuel cell technology since 2013. The two... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will provide up to $22 million for research aimed at achieving breakthroughs in the effort to capture carbon dioxide directly from ambient air (DAC). The initiative encompasses two concurrent funding announcements—one by DOE’s Office of Science (SC) (LAB 20-2303) and another by DOE’s Office... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Company will establish a Hyundai Mobility Global Innovation Center in Singapore (HMGICs) to accelerate its innovation efforts, with support from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). The new innovative lab will be located in Singapore’s Jurong Innovation District. HMGICs will occupy a footprint of 44,000 m2 with the... Read more →

People continuously exposed to air pollution are at increased risk of dementia, especially if they also suffer from cardiovascular diseases, according to a study at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal JAMA Neurology. Patients with cardiovascular diseases who live in polluted environments may require additional support from care... Read more →

As part of a field test comprising four comparable vehicles, the first DAF CF Electric 6x2 refuse collection truck has entered operations with Dutch public waste disposal firm ROVA. The vehicle features a zero-emission VDL electric powertrain alongside a fully electric VDL refuse collection superstructure. The vehicle will be operated... Read more →

The all-new SEAT Leon offers five different powertrain technologies: gasoline (TSI); diesel (TDI); mild-hybrid (eTSI); plug-in hybrid (eHybrid); and compressed natural gas (TGI). SEAT is a member of the Volkswagen Group. In total, there are eleven different mechanical variants, with power outputs ranging from 90 PS with the 1.0 TSI... Read more →

BYD launched the Blade Battery, a development intended to mitigate concerns about battery safety in electric vehicles. The Blade Battery has been developed by BYD over the past several years. The individual cells are arranged together in an array and then inserted into a battery pack. Due to its optimized... Read more →

BMW is introducing the BMW 330e and 330e xDrive PHEV sedans (earlier post) in the US with an MSRP of $44,550 for 330e and $46,550 for 330e xDrive sedan plus $995 Dest. The new BMW 330e and 330e xDrive Sedans utilize an intelligently controlled powertrain consisting of an electric motor,... Read more →

Lilium, the Munich-based aviation company developing an all-electric, vertical take-off and landing aircraft for regional air mobility (earlier post), completed an internal funding round worth more than $240 million. The round was led by Tencent, with participation from other existing investors including Atomico, Freigeist and LGT. The all-electric Lilium Jet... Read more →

Researchers at the Graduate School of Engineering and Graduate School of Science at the University of Tokyo have designed and synthesized a fluorinated cyclic phosphate solvent, 2-(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)-1,3,2-dioxaphospholane 2-oxide (TFEP), for use in lithium-ion batteries. The solvent molecule has a fused chemical structure of cyclic carbonates that can form a stable... Read more →

An international team of researchers led by Hao Chen of Tsinghua University has developed a unique chemical boundary engineering (CBE) approach significantly to improve steel’s physical properties. In an open-access paper in Science Advances, the team reports that when applied to plain steels with carbon content of only up to... Read more →

The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) will cancel its June 2020 show in Detroit in light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic sweeping across the world and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s expected plans to repurpose TCF Center into a temporary field hospital. NAIAS will hold its next annual show... Read more →

On 20 March, GM announced a cooperation with Ventec Life Systems to increase production of Ventec’s multi-function ventilator VOCSN to support the growing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. (Earlier post.) One week later, on 27 March, President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA), directing the Scretary of Health and... Read more →

Volkswagen AG is releasing employees with medical qualifications for up to 15 working days with full pay if they volunteer for work in the public health service. As of 27 March, there were 42,288 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Germany—a country-wide average of 51 cases per 100,000 population (0.05%)—with 253... Read more →

The first of 130 Solaris electric buses (earlier post), a Solaris Urbino 18 electric bus, no. 5870, has been deployed in Warsaw. Since the beginning of the year, Warsaw has been delivered electric buses under the contract that Solaris secured in July last year. Each of the 130 articulated, electric... Read more →