Researchers from the University of Liverpool, Queen Mary University, London and Trinity College Dublin have linked exposure to diesel exhaust particles (DEPs) to susceptibility to pneumococcal disease. An open-access paper on the work is published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that... Read more →

GTI, a research, development and training organization focused on natural gas and energy markets, is launching a hydrogen technology center. GTI focuses its R&D efforts on the generation of clean hydrogen using hydrocarbon fuels that incorporate carbon capture and/or carbon sequestration in a cost-effective manner. These technology efforts are directed... Read more →

In an effort to reduce carbon emissions, Amazon will deploy 10,000 electric delivery rickshaws in India by 2025. This commitment comes after successful pilots across different cities in 2019; learnings from these pilots have helped the company create scalable and long term EV variants to build this large fleet. These... Read more →

The gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine is one of the most prominent technologies car manufacturers adopted to achieve the fuel economy and carbon dioxide emission goals established in 2012 by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The market share of GDI-equipped vehicles increased from 2.3% in model year 2008 to 51%... Read more →

Consumers continue to lack confidence in the future mobility technologies that automakers are eager to bring to market, according to the J.D. Power 2019 Q4 Mobility Confidence Index Study fueled by SurveyMonkey Audience. The Mobility Confidence Index remains 36 (on a 100-point scale) for self-driving vehicles and 55 for battery-electric... Read more →

Audi is pricing its 2020 A8 TFSI e plug-in hybrid with a MSRP of $94,000 in the US. Joining the flagship sedan model line, the Audi A8 TFSI e serves as the first plug-in hybrid variant of the A8. (Earlier post.) By comparison, the starting MSRP for a 2020 Audi... Read more →

Volvo Cars has opened order books for the XC40 Recharge P8 AWD (earlier post), the company’s first fully electric car which is based on the best-selling SUV, in selected markets. The company says it has already received “several thousands” of firm orders even before the formal start of sales. Production... Read more →

E-Trucks Europe, a manufacturer of electric-hydrogen hybrid commercial vehicles, has ordered five HyRange fuel cell systems from Proton Motor. The five hydrogen fuel cell systems will be used to outfit electric refuse trucks as part of the EU project REVIVE (Refuse Vehicle Innovation and Validation in Europe). The tender, which... Read more →

Norway-based energy company Equinor has contracted with Eidesvik Offshore for the Viking Energy supply vessel, which is being retrofitted to make it capable of covering long distances fueled by carbon-free ammonia. The vessel will transport supplies to installations on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). The Viking Energy. (Photo: Eidesvik Offshore)... Read more →

The US Department of Energy announced up to $64 million in funding (DE-FOA-0002229) to advance innovations that will build new markets for the H2@Scale initiative (earlier post). This investment will support transformational research and development (R&D), innovative hydrogen concepts that will encourage market expansion and increase the scale of hydrogen... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $133 million in funding to support new and innovative advanced vehicle technologies research. Funded through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, this funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0002197) supports projects in advanced batteries and electrification in support of the recently announced DOE... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to more than $96 million in funding (DE-FOA-0002203) for bioenergy research and development. Topic areas within this FOA will advance DOE’s Bioenergy Technology Office’s objectives of reducing the price of drop-in biofuels; lowering the cost of biopower; and enabling high-value products from... Read more →

SAE International published its latest standard, SAE J3105: Electric Vehicle Power Transfer System Using Conductive Automated Connection Devices, along with three new tributary documents. The standard covers the general physical, electrical, functional, testing, and performance requirements for a mechanized (hands-free) conductive power transfer system primarily for transit buses using an... Read more →

WeShare, Volkswagen and ŠKODA’s free-floating electric car sharing service, is to expand into seven more cities in Germany and other European countries in 2020. Prague and Hamburg in the spring are to be followed by Paris, Madrid, Budapest, Munich and Milan in the course of the year. In all these... Read more →

Bosch has increased its stake in solid-oxide fuel-cell (SOFC) developer Ceres Power from 3.9% to around 18%. The stake increase is achieved through a subscription by Bosch for new Ceres Power shares, as well as the purchase of further shares from existing shareholders. Bosch’s total investment will be approximately €90... Read more →

A consortium comprising Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals), Gasunie and four other partners will receive an €11-million European grant towards their proposed green hydrogen project in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. The project is a front-runner among several hydrogen initiatives aimed at cutting carbon emissions and will be a significant milestone in... Read more →

Audi of America, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, announced plans for initial deployments of Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) communication on northern Virginia roadways, employing advanced wireless communications to enhance vehicle safety by using the same portion of the 5.9 GHz band... Read more →

Volkswagen Group of America and Aeris, a technology leader in the Internet of Things (IoT), have formed Ventic LLC, a joint venture that is the result of a long-term commitment between Volkswagen and Aeris in the development and operations of connected vehicle platform technologies. The Aeris mobility suite can be... Read more →

BMW i Ventures has invested in Software Motor Company (SMC), a Silicon Valley-based company developing reliable, efficient and intelligent motor systems. SMC’s electric motor system is based on switched reluctance technology, managed by advanced cloud software. The Smart Motor system partners a patented high rotor pole switched reluctance motor (HRSRM)... Read more →

Consumer Reports sent letters and a consumer petition to the leaders of General Motors, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler, Nissan, Subaru, Mazda, Hyundai, Kia, and Mitsubishi, calling on the companies to drop their legal attack against America’s Clean Air Act, and instead support Clean Car standards that help drivers save money on... Read more →

Despite reports that global emissions of the potent greenhouse gas, HFC-23, were almost eliminated in 2017, an international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, has found atmospheric levels growing at record values. Over the last two decades, scientists have been keeping a close eye on the atmospheric... Read more →

OXIS Energy has successfully tested its Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery cell prototypes at 471Wh/kg and is confident of achieving 500Wh/kg in the next 12 months. Consistently shipping cells at 400Wh/kg to its clients in Europe, the US and Japan, OXIS is collaborating with major European chemical partners to develop an advanced... Read more →

Domestic production of lithium, the lightest of elemental metals, is considered a priority for the US. It is essential for the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries commonly used for everything from electric vehicles to cell phones and laptops. However, lithium is sourced almost exclusively from other countries, either concentrated using a... Read more →

The Hydrogen Council has published a new report, Path to Hydrogen Competitiveness: A Cost Perspective, demonstrating that the cost of hydrogen solutions will fall sharply within the next decade, sooner than previously expected. As scale-up of production, distribution and equipment manufacturing continues, cost is projected to decrease by up to... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) and Hydrogen Council Co-chair Euisun Chung has identified three key steps to accelerate the transition to a hydrogen society during the Hydrogen Council’s third annual CEO Meeting in Paris, France. EVC Chung opened the meeting stressing that there is “no shortcut to creating... Read more →

Engineers at Rice University’s Brown School of Engineering have combined a macroporous silicon anode and alumina-coated NMC cathode to provide stable cyclability by means of capacity-limited charging. Their Si-NMC full-cell design with alumina passivation on cathode has exhibited a stable capacity of 1000 mAh/g, with 1.2 times higher energy density... Read more →

ABC Companies, a leading provider of motorcoach sales and support in the USA and Canada, has finalized an agreement with Lightning Systems, a Loveland, Colorado-based developer of zero-emission electric drivetrains for commercial vehicle fleets. Under the new partnership, the two companies will launch their first joint project: an electric powertrain... Read more →

Consumer Reports is publishing survey results that show consumer concerns with new mobility options including ridehailing and ridesharing services. Chart shows the percentage of Americans who have used some common modes of transportation in the past two years. Source: Consumer Reports The survey reveals safety is a major concern for... Read more →

Daimler announced a trial and development partnership with Israeli cleantech company UBQ Materials to explore the use of UBQ’s climate-positive material in the production of automobile parts. Daimler is also promoting the use of UBQ across its logistics manufacturers to offset carbon footprint throughout the Daimler supply chain. Daimler is... Read more →

A new study by University Maritime Advisory Services (UMAS) and Energy Transitions Commission (ETC) prepared for the Global Maritime Forum for the Getting to Zero Coalition, estimates that the cumulative investment needed between 2030 and 2050 to halve shipping’s CO2 emissions amounts to approximately $1-1.4 trillion—an average of $50 billion... Read more →