Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced an initiative to develop a first-of-its-kind corridor for connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) designed to improve transportation for communities in Southeast Michigan. A key goal of the project will be to design the corridor with a focus on closing long-standing gaps in access to transit... Read more →

PPG is partnering with the US Department of Energy (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in a research initiative aimed at developing energy-efficient coatings systems for the automotive industry. The PPG project—“Modeling Coating Flow and Dynamics during Drying”—was selected to receive funding through the DOE High Performance Computing for Energy... Read more →

Neste, the world’s largest producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) produced from waste and residue raw materials, is supplying Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and JetBlue Airways with sustainable aviation fuel for flights from San Francisco International Airport (SFO). The low-carbon and high-quality fuel will contribute to each... Read more →

Recent US Supreme Court precedent has opened the door for states to enact laws requiring all new cars sold in the state to be electric as of a certain date, according to a paper by the nonprofit Coltura published in the University of Michigan Journal of Environmental and Administrative Law.... Read more →

UC Riverside (UCR) engineers have developed a way to recycle PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic waste, such as soda or water bottles, into a nanomaterial useful for energy storage. An open-access paper on the work is published in the journal Energy Storage. The researchers first dissolved pieces of PET plastic bottles... Read more →

NYK Line, Japan Marine United Corporation (JMU), and Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) signed a joint R&D agreement for the commercialization of an ammonia-fueled ammonia gas carrier (AFAGC) that would use ammonia as the main fuel, in addition to an ammonia floating storage and regasification barge (A-FSRB). Ammonia-fueled Ammonia Gas Carrier... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $20 million in funding to advance perovskite solar photovoltaic technologies. (DE-FOA-0002357) Perovskites are a family of materials with a specific crystal structure, named after the mineral with that structure. When used to create solar cells, they have shown potential for high performance and... Read more →

Phillips 66, a diversified energy manufacturing and logistics company, plans to reconfigure its San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo, California, to produce renewable fuels. The plant would no longer produce fuels from crude oil, but instead would make fuels from used cooking oil, fats, greases and soybean oils. The Phillips 66... Read more →

Utility holding company Xcel Energy wants 1.5 million electric vehicles in its service areas by 2030. If realized, EVs would make up 20% of all vehicles on the road in those areas—more than 30 times the number today. Xcel services customers in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North and South... Read more →

Volkswagen has begun expanding its Chattanooga factory to build a North American center for electric vehicles—not only for assembly, but for engineering the EVs of the future. To power those efforts, Volkswagen’s Engineering and Planning Center in Chattanooga will soon feature a high-voltage laboratory designed to develop and test electric... Read more →

Daimler Trucks’ Japan-based subsidiary FUSO recently introduced the eCanter SensorCollect concept truck with a demonstration run at its Kawasaki headquarters. The FUSO eCanter SensorCollect is a concept garbage collection truck based on the all-electric eCanter. The vehicle proposes an application of the emissions-free light-duty truck to make essential garbage collection... Read more →

A new survey conducted by DuckerFrontier finds that aluminum, already the fastest growing automotive material, is expected to grow to content levels of 514 pounds per vehicle (PPV) by 2026, up 12% from 2020 levels. Aluminum applications are classified into 2 categories (platform and component) and 13 groups. Platform Parts... Read more →

Anheuser-Busch is transitioning more than 180 trucks—representing approximately 30% of its dedicated fleet—to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG). In 2014 and 2015, Anheuser-Busch converted 160 diesel-fueled trucks in Houston and St. Louis to fleets powered by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) engines. As the next step to achieve its 2025 sustainability goal... Read more →

A new single-phase catalyst that enables the conversion of renewable and waste carbon into sustainable diesel fuels has been developed through a collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and two US Department of Energy (DOE) consortia, Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy (ChemCatBio) and the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines... Read more →

US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette announced the launch of the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The ARIES research platform will allow NREL researchers and the scientific community to address the fundamental challenges of integrated... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a request for information (RFI) (DE-FOA-0002379) to collect feedback from industry, academia, and the research community on DOE’s hydrogen and fuel cells research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) activities and strategies, including the H2@Scale initiative. Input collected through this RFI will help inform... Read more →

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation announced that Zhejiang Asia-Pacific Mechanical & Electronic Co. Ltd. (APG), one of China’s leading manufacturers of vehicle braking systems, will deploy the Visconti 4 image-recognition processor in its next-generation advanced driver assistance system (ADAS). This marks the first time that a Visconti family processor... Read more →

ExxonMobil has signed an agreement with Global Clean Energy Holdings to purchase 2.5 million barrels of renewable diesel per year for five years from a converted California refinery starting in 2022. As background, globally, in 2019, ExxonMobil sold some 1.9 million barrels per day of heating oils, kerosene and diesel... Read more →

by Dr. Michael Richter, Managing Director, Scantinel Photonics LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is considered to be the key technology for self-propelled vehicles. Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) LIDAR—a cumbersome abbreviation for a disruptive technology—will facilitate the breakthrough in autonomous driving and, according to experts, will completely force the currently... Read more →

ams, a leading worldwide supplier of high performance sensor solutions, and Ibeo Automotive Systems GmbH, the German specialist and a global technology supplier for automotive LiDAR sensor technology and the associated software, confirmed that ams Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) technology is a core component of Ibeo’s newly-developed solid-state... Read more →

Lucid Motors announced independent range verification of 517 miles on a single charge for its forthcoming Lucid Air all-electric sedan. This new benchmark range was secured with FEV North America, Inc. in Auburn Hills, Michigan, applying the EPA's Multicycle Test Procedure (SAE J1634 Oct 2012 Standard) with the standard adjustment... Read more →

With almost 50,000 units, BMW 5 Series plug-in hybrid models were the most successful electrified models in the BMW Group’s portfolio worldwide in 2019. With an increase from two to five models featuring innovative plug-in hybrid drive by November 2020, the new BMW 5 Series offers the largest range of... Read more →

G+L innotec is an R&D service provider and concentrates on the development of the Media Gap Motor (MGM). The MGM is a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) with the special feature of a hermetically sealed system in which the stator inner diameter is oversized in relation to the rotor or... Read more →

Nikola Corporation announced a minimum order of 2,500 electric refuse trucks from Republic Services, expandable up to 5,000. This order is to begin full production deliveries in 2023 with on-road testing likely to begin in early 2022. The refuse trucks are anticipated to carry up to an industry-leading 720 kWh... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board will consider the proposed Heavy-Duty Low NOx Omnibus Regulation on 27 August 2020. The proposed regulation is intended to ensure reductions in smog-forming NOx and protect communities most impacted by air pollution. On-road heavy-duty vehicles are an essential part of the state’s economy. These vehicles... Read more →

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Gas Technology Institute (GTI) are embarking on a five-year initiative to accelerate the development and demonstration of low-carbon energy technologies. With increasingly ambitious decarbonization goals from private companies and governments alike, existing technology is not enough to achieve those targets. The Low-Carbon Resources... Read more →

On 18 August 2020, $27 million in funding will be available in California to replace higher polluting trucks with zero-emission vehicles. The funding is part of the Volkswagen (VW) Environmental Mitigation Trust program, which is intended to fund projects that will fully mitigate the excess nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions caused... Read more →

Drivers of electric vehicles will have more locations to recharge their vehicle’s batteries as they travel across Michigan through $1.7 million ($1,683,297.84) in grants announced by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) for direct current fast chargers (DCFC) along well-traveled routes. The EGLE Charge Up Michigan... Read more →

Different countries will respond in different ways to the challenges of economic growth and environmental sustainability based upon their regional advantages, according to a new paper by an expert in the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. The COVID-19 pandemic has added pressure to... Read more →

Hermeus Corporation, an aerospace start-up developing Mach 5 commercial aircraft, has won a $1.5-million SBIR Phase II award with the US Air Force and the Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate to work toward hypersonic travel for the Department of Defense. This award comes under an Other Transaction For Prototype Agreement... Read more →