El Paso Times. El Paso, NM is bringing in natural gas buses to replace its 159-bus diesel metro fleet. In October, the first of 25 new compressed natural gas-powered buses will begin arriving at a rate of three to five a week, joining another 25 diesel buses being converted to... Read more →

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in conjunction with Energy & Environmental Analysis and J. D. Power and Associates has projected possible hybrid and diesel marketshare in the US through 2012. Unfortunately, it did not incude diesel hybrids in its work. Based on an assessment of the status and outlook for the... Read more →

Nissan, working with Renault, has developed two new fuel-efficient in-line 4-cylinder gasoline engines and a new continuously variable transmission (CVT). The automakers will implement the new hardware on various small passenger cars beginning this autumn. The new 1.5-liter and the 2.0-liter units both incorporate new shared technologies designed to provide... Read more →

Saab is developing a flex-fuel 2.0-liter turbo engine for its 9-5 model range slated to go on sale in 2005. The FFV Saab will burn either E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) or gasoline in any mixture. In addition to the emissions benefits expected from burning E85, Saab indicates that the... Read more →

Hyundai Motors is pushing hard on many fronts to catapult itself to the top ranks of global automakers. (Business Week runs a good overview of the company’s quest in the 6 Sep 04 issue, focusing on the rollout of the Camry-competitor NF Sonata sedan.) An important element of its strategy... Read more →

News Interacative. Perth is putting the first three hydrogen fuel cell buses in the sourthern hemisphere into operation next month. The DaimlerChrysler Citaro buses are like those being tested in other cities including Amsterdam, Beijing, London, Luxembourg and Madrid. (Earlier post.) The State Government is contributing $8 million to the... Read more →

Press Herald. Portland, Maine public schools are replacing three buses in their 32-bus fleet with new compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles, beginning in the fall of 2005. These will be the first CNG school buses in the state. This timing coincides with Portland Metro’s initiative to bring 21 CNG buses... Read more →

Russia holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves: 47 trillion cubic meters (Tcm)—more than twice the reserves in the next largest country, Iran. (EIA) Unlike Russia’s oil industry, the gas industry is not booming. Growth of Russia’s natural gas sector has been stunted primarily due to ageing fields, state regulation,... Read more →

In a letter to the Arizona Republic, T. Boone Pickens, legendary oilman, creator of Mesa, takeover artist/raider and a strong believer in alternative fuels and natural gas takes the paper to task for its assessment of natural gas vehicles following Ford’s announcement. (Earlier post.) NGV technology continues to be developed... Read more →

National Post (Canada). Nova Scotia’s struggling offshore energy sector suffered a potential death blow yesterday with the closure of the only remaining well slated to be drilled by a major oil company. Marathon Canada Petroleum said its $80-million exploratory well will be “permanently plugged and abandoned” after it failed to... Read more →

Slashdot writes about Sigma Automotive, a company that claims it will soon be selling a kit of parts to let you “convert” your car into a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) hybrid. Nice discussion on whether or not this could be real. Read more →

IBM has opened its third supercomputing on demand (Deep Computing Capacity On Demand) center in Houston, this one targeted at the exploration and production segment of the petroleum industry. Landmark Graphics, a Halliburton company, is the anchor. This makes great sense from an IT point of view (and is very... Read more →

While the attack on a cluster of oil pipelines south of Basra on 25 Aug was widely reported, that attack was only one of six targeting the oil and gas infrastructure over a span of three days: 25 Aug to 27 Aug. Here’s the tally from Iraq Pipeline Watch (the... Read more →

Auto Industry UK. At the upcoming Paris Motor Show (23 Sep - 10 Oct), Toyota will unveil a sport version of the Prius as well as an ultra clean Diesel concept car. The Toyota Prius GT actually first appeared in public in June at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in... Read more →

Encouraged by the results of its road tests and ongoing technical developments, UPS is putting three Dodge Sprint hydrogen fuel cell medium-duty delivery vans into mainstream operation. UPS is deploying one van in Los Angeles, one in Sacramento and the third in Ann Arbor. These are the first medium-duty fuel... Read more →

Thanks to Jamais at WorldChanging for a pointer to this good NYT overview on the technical solutions for fuel efficiency gasoline engines are now adopting from diesels. Some of the features that make diesel engines so efficient, including direct fuel injection and air intake systems that use no throttles, are... Read more →

One of the major challenges to be met in a transition to a hydrogen energy and transportation economy is actually producing the H2 in an energy-efficient and emissions-limited manner. If we end up relying on coal-generated electricity to produce hydrogen from a natural gas feedstock (currently the predominant approach in... Read more →

Shell Gas & Power is working with Shanghai Pudong Bus Transportation Co on a joint road trial of Shell’s gas-to-liquids (GTL) fuel in the city. This is the latest in a series of GTL trials using different types of vehicles in major cities. (List of Shell GTL trials here. Earlier... Read more →

Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (AIST) and eight private companies have applied for a permit to test mid- and large-size trucks using Dimethyl Ether (DME) fuel, a clean burning synthetic fuel that can substitute for conventional diesel, liquified petroleum gas (LPG) or be reformed into hydrogen for... Read more →

A bill in the California legislature (AB 2628) would set aside 75,000 permits letting owners of hybrids averaging 45 mpg or more and meeing near-zero-emission standards drive solo in highway car-pool lanes. For the congested urban areas of Northern and Southern California, this is a big deal. Some major HOV... Read more →

Petroleum Review has re-presented the BP Statistical Review data (of which I am so fond), and concluded that, based on the data, that the rate of decline globally is more than 1 M barrels per day. The write-up is pithy, and worth a read (link above). Here are some selections... Read more →

WorldChanging points to a couple of good articles on hybrids in Car and Driver. Check it out. Car and Driver’s latest issue has two important articles about hybrids, and anyone with an interest in the real world performance of efficient vehicle technologies should check them out. One thing, though: Ford... Read more →

China’s First Auto Works (FAW, the country’s oldest indigenous automaker) has entered into a development and sales agreement with Enova Systems to use its hybrid drive systems for FAW full (parallel) hybrid buses. These buses—potentially up to 1,000 of them—will shuttle athletes and guests at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics... Read more →

Toyota is bumping up the MSRP of the Prius for 2005 by $580 (2.9%) to $20,875. Toyota will reimburse most of the price increase for customers who were registered on a waiting list to purchase a 2004 Prius prior to 10 March 2004. The Prius hike is the largest percentage... Read more →

Chosun Ilbo. LG Chem, South Korea’s largest chemical company, has a $4.6 million contract with the US Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) to develop advanced lithium-ion (Li-ion) polymer battery cells for hybrid electric vehicles. Daimler Chrysler, Ford and GM formed the USABC consortium in 1991 to develop batteries for hybrids and... Read more →

Herald Sun. The fleet of 120 school buses in Chatham County, NC, is running on B20 (80% petroleum diesel, 20% biodiesel.) “We’re excited to be part of an early initiative on this,” [Beth Snider, spokeswoman for the Chatham schools] said. “We always want to do anything we can to help... Read more →

The McKinney Courier-Gazette (Texas) gives a fairly detailed description of the alternative fuel strategy being employed by the Collin County, Texas, fleet managers, which includes clean diesel fuel (ultra-low sulfur after a biodiesel trial), hybrids, bi-fuel trucks (propane or gasoline) and retrofitting. But the county is not alone in its... Read more →

Akron Beacon Journal. Industry forecaster J.D. Power and Associates projects sales of 1.5 million diesels in 2009, nearly four times the 423,000 hybrids it expects by then. Power expects hybrid sales to reach 91,000 this year and diesels to log 400,000. Automotive Technology Research Group of Thousand Oaks, Calif., says... Read more →

Caterpillar, the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines, is moving into the automotive powertrain business. On 18 Aug, Caterpillar Remanufacturing Services (Cat Reman) announced two acquisitions: Williams Technologies, a remanufacturer of automatic transmissions, torque converters, and engines for automotive... Read more →

India News Online reports that Iraqi oil stocks in Basra—from which the country is partly maintaining its current export rate of 800,000 to 1 million barrels per day—is dwindling and close to exhaustion. If true, and if, as the report says, no new oil is being produced out of Basra... Read more →

The New York Times runs an interesting piece on why investment in alternative energy companies is NOT booming. Tapping into renewable sources of power like wind, solar power and hydrogen, which are inexhaustible but far from inexpensive, seems to make more commercial sense when crude oil costs $47 a barrel.... Read more →

Detroit Free Press. Yosemite National Park is ordering 18 diesel-electric hybrid buses from Gillig Corp that will use GM’s hybrid technology. The buses are scheduled for service in May 2005. Earlier post on GM’s diesel hybrid buses here. Read more →

Arizona Republic. With Ford and General Motors stopping production of compressed natural gas and propane-fueled vehicles at year’s end, many Valley municipalities have been left wondering how to keep their alternative-fuel programs alive. But not Gilbert. That’s because the town doesn’t have one. Instead, Gilbert is considering expanding its use... Read more →

The Baltic Times. Over half the public transport vehicles in Vilnius, Lithuania run on biodiesel. According to a company official, older buses - Soviet-made Ikaruses - were the first to be adapted to the new fuel, while the 30 Volvos obtained in recent years will be next. A total of... Read more →

The automakers won’t announce August sales figures until September, but indications are that sales are slowing down for GM and Ford. Ford’s market forecaster announced an expected drop-off compared to August 2003. Ford, the second-biggest U.S automaker, reported lower sales in six of seven months this year. This year through... Read more →

Detroit Free Press. DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group may sell gasoline-electric cars and trucks to U.S. consumers as early as 2006, adding another fuel-efficient option to its main strategy of diesel-powered vehicles. Chrysler...is studying whether to add gasoline-electric hybrid versions of some of its vehicles, according to Chrysler Group CEO Dieter... Read more →

The DOE’s 10th Diesel Engine Emission Reduction (DEER) Conference is coming in just a couple of weeks, and it should be a terrific event. It’s much more than just about reducing emissions. The conference is going to touch on new engine research, an update on HCCI, comparisons with hybrids, the... Read more →

Batteries are a key elements of a hybrid vehicle—and a costly one. Toyota, for example, uses a nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery. Its advantages are its light weight and reliability, with a projected lifecycle equivalent to 100,000 miles. Its disadvantage: the metals in the battery are much more expensive than lead... Read more →

Business Week online. A combination of increased gasoline supplies and decreased driving has kept gasoline prices low even while the price for crude continue to ratchet upward. Don’t expect that to last. Gasoline prices soared last spring, when demand took off along with the U.S. economy. Industry pundits were predicting... Read more →

Wall St. Journal via Australian Financial Review. Good piece—and disturbing as well—on the difficulties Ford had in sourcing hybrid components for the Escape in the US. A senior product development executive at Ford has warned that a dearth of US suppliers capable of producing key petrol-electric hybrid components places a... Read more →

The Daily Star in Lebanon offers a good background piece on China’s oil interests in Sudan. Few countries can be watching the Darfur crisis in Sudan with more anxiety than China. At issue is its involvement in Sudan’s burgeoning oil sector. China’s investments there have become so important that Beijing... Read more →

Reuters. Fiat, currently the number one automaker in Brazil, has announced that it will research developing a car that runs on four fuels: gasoline, diesel, ethanol and natural gas. One of the fundamental differences between current diesel and gasoline engines is the method for injecting fuel into the cylinder and... Read more →

Kyodo News via Japan Today. The Japanese government is promoting vehicles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) in projects to be launched next April. (That might have something to do with Toyota’s earlier statement on developing a natural gas hybrid.) CNG vehicles are considered cheaper to build than vehicles running... Read more →

Bloomberg. Kansai Electric Power Co., Japan’s second-biggest utility, is halting all its 11 nuclear reactors for checks after Monday’s fatal accident at the company’s Mihama plant. Kansai Electric produces about 56 percent of its electricity from nuclear power plants, according to the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan. Thermal... Read more →

A new market study from Power Information Network (an affiliate of J.D. Power and Associates) claims that customer demand for SUVs is weakening. The number of days SUVs are on dealer lots (days to turn) increased from 60 days in July 2003 to 73 days in July 2004—a 22 percent... Read more →

Can. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, 11 Aug 2004: “The kingdom is well prepared to meet all requirements of the international oil companies if they need additional volumes, relying on its surplus production of more than 1.3 million barrels daily, which could be used immediately if required.” Can’t. Algerian Energy... Read more →

GM and Ford may be cutting natural gas vehicles in the US, but elsewhere development is booming. GM is introducing a tri-fuel car to the Brazilian market. The Astra Multipower runs on gasoline, ethanol or natural gas. Just-auto.com. The Astra sedan Multipower was developed in conjunction by GM and Bosch... Read more →

The Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration regularly collects financial results from 24 major US-based energy companies. These include the US-based subsidiaries of BP and Shell, but not the international operations of those companies, as both are based overseas. Combining the 24 provides a good snapshot of trends. The EIA... Read more →

Ford is halting production of its natural gas and compressed gas vehicles in North America “to concentrate on fuel-efficient gas-electric vehicles.” Production of cars using alternative fuels will end with 2004 models “due to limited market demand,” the automaker said in a report. Ford sold about 2,100 cars powered with... Read more →

Science, the weekly publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), is focusing on the hydrogen economy in its August 13 issue. You can see short abstracts of the articles as a guest; full access requires membership, subscription, or heading to the local library. The result, at... Read more →