Reuters. The head of Toyota Motor Corp’s European marketing arm intends to beat internal projections by a third to sell 20,000 Prius hybrid cars in Europe in 2005. “In the long run, (hybrids) will play a significant role in the model line-up, but for the time being still, the recognition... Read more →

DaimlerChrysler brought its latest generation of diesel-hybrid drivetrain to NAIAS in the form of its S-Class “Hybrid” concept car that promises fuel efficiency of 34 mpg (6.9 liters/100 km). This concept represents DaimlerChrysler’s basis for the co-development of advanced hybrid technology with GM. Mercedes-Benz will focus on the development of... Read more →

Reuters reports that Kuwait has stepped up security around oil and vital installations after a weekend clash between police and gunmen planning a major attack near the Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery, the country’s largest, and a major U.S. military base (Camp Arifjan). Saturday’s clash lasted for hours in a southern... Read more →

Westport Innovations and Guangxi Yuchai Machinery Co. Ltd. (Yuchai) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to explore opportunities to develop, market, and sell gaseous-fuelled vehicles in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) using Westport’s portfolio of direct-injection technologies. Yuchai is one of China’s largest engine manufacturers for... Read more →

PTI. Indian Oil Corporation will launch the prototype of a hydrogen-powered vehicle in the next two months. India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to test drive the vehicle to signify the importance of using alternative fuel for transport. Indian Oil Corporation is... Read more →

Boston Globe. Massachusetts officials are considering allowing sole-occupant hybrid cars to use certain high-occupancy vehicle lanes. This is a similar policy approach to that adopted by Virginia and proposed by California. California’s implementation is hung up waiting for federal approval. (Earlier post.) Virginia, which did not wait for federal approval,... Read more →

Sales of the GM Vauxhall’s diesel models jumped 34.9% in 2004 to 83,507, the biggest increase of any of the mainstream manufacturers. More than half of some Vauxhall models such as the Vectra sold are now diesel-powered. The first 1.9-litre CDTi engined Astras are starting to reach customers, in both... Read more →

Bloomberg. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India needs to catch up with neighboring China in securing energy supplies, suggesting competition between the world’s two most populous nations for oil and gas fields may intensify. “We need to strengthen our oil companies in launching them as global firms,” Singh said at... Read more →

Detroit Free Press. At NAIAS, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) hosted a panel comprising Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and auto executives to talk about the vision for the automobile in 15 years and Michigan's role in developing products and businesses of the future. Representatives from General Motors Corp., Ford... Read more →

Indo-Asian News Service. Indian companies have to go global to ensure energy security for the country that imports 70% of its oil needs, a top petroleum ministry official said Friday. An Indian company like ONGC Videsh, with activities in 10 countries, has already emerged as a global player and is... Read more →

Myanmar (Burma) will convert 5,200 trucks and buses to run on natural gas this year, according to the government’s official newspaper New Light of Myanmar. Myanmar has more than 940,000 gasoline and diesel vehicles and 56% of them are in Yangon (Rangoon). Myanmar imports about $250 million worth of gasoline... Read more →

Long Beach Transit will take delivery of the first of 27 gasoline-electric hybrid buses next month. The acquisition of the gasoline-hybrid buses, approved in 2003, marks the first volume purchase of transit buses using a gasoline-hybrid drivetrain. Nearly 100 of the gas-electric hybrids are currently on order (including options) by... Read more →

The Ontario government is establishing an Ontario Fuel Cell Innovation Program to support commercialization of R&D fuel cell products and projects. Economic Development and Trade Minister Joseph Cordiano outlined the program during a visit to Hydrogenics Corporation. The million Ontario Fuel Cell Innovation Program will provide $3 million in annual... Read more →

Republican Senator Richard Lugar has asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review contingency plans in the event of a drop in Venezuelan oil production or exports to the US. “We must make sure that all contingencies are in place to mitigate the effects of a significant shortfall of... Read more →

Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Metro Atlanta school systems have been slow to apply for federal money to retrofit aging school buses with pollution control devices, in part because some matching funds are required. The state, which is administering the grant, extended the application deadline from Dec. 15 to Feb. 1 after no... Read more →

Jakarta Post. Jakarta, Indonesia, Governor Sutiyoso said on Wednesday that all vehicles operating in the city should switch to compressed natural gas (CNG) instead of gasoline, in a bid to help reduce air pollution in the city. Sutiyoso said that public transport and official vehicles belonging to the administration, central... Read more →

Although biodiesel is drawing increasing attention from automakers, policymakers and farmers, there is another biofuel that can be used in diesel engines: straight vegetable oil, or SVO. The two approaches, although apparently similar, are operationally and philosophically quite different. Broadly stated, you can either modify (refine) plant oil to create... Read more →

GM today announced the sale of its ElectroMotive division to an investor group led by Greenbriar and Berkshire Partners. Terms of the transaction will not be disclosed. The sale agreement covers substantially all of the Electro-Motive businesses, including North American and international locomotives; power, marine and industrial products; the spare... Read more →

GM’s newly announced hydrogen fuel cell concept vehicle, the Sequel (earlier post), is big. Slightly larger in its dimensions than the Cadillac SRX crossover or Chrysler’s 300C, the Sequel weighs much more than either: 4,774 pounds compared to 4,164 for an SRX or 3,758 for the 300C. Yet GM engineers... Read more →

The Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) stated that the country plans more nuclear power plants to help end Pakistan’s dependence on oil, gas and other sources of energy that produce 1.8 million tons of CO2 per year. PAEC Chairman Pervez Butt said in the face of global... Read more →

The Yomiuri Shimbun reports that the Japanese government will propose a massive reduction in CO2 emissions in advanced nations to levels 25% of those in 2002 by 2050. The government will make the proposal in the long-term energy policy outlines to be compiled later this year. According to the sources,... Read more →

Ford’s diesel-hybrid Meta One concept car, unveiled at NAIAS (earlier post), combines a 2.7-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 diesel engine and an electric motor in the Modular Hybrid Transmission to create the first Partial Zero Emission Vehicle (PZEV)-capable diesel. To meet PZEV requirements, a vehicle must meet SULEV-2 emissions levels combined with... Read more →

Grainnet. West Coast Reduction Ltd (WCRL), a Canadian rendering company, has moved into the biodiesel distribution and production business. WCRL initially will distribute B100 to customers on Vancouver Island and in the Greater Vancouver area while it considers plans to build its own biodiesel plant in Western Canada. WCRL renders... Read more →

Deustche Bank Research recently published a topical study entitled Energy Prospects After the Petroleum Age. It provides a succinct, prescriptive, business-oriented overview of the need to prepare for the transition away from fossil fuels. Some highlights: Massive R&D efforts are needed to smooth the way to solar hydrogen energy. Decentralised... Read more →

In remarks at the NAIAS in Detroit, Honda President and CEO Takeo Fukui outlined the enhancements to the upcoming 8th-generation Civics to be released this fall (model year 2006). The new gasoline ICE Civic will use Honda’s latest i-VTEC engine for higher fuel economy and lower emissions. Honda will introduce... Read more →

The climate scientists at RealClimate dissect Senator Inhofe’s views on the issue of climate change in a speech he gave on the opening senate session, January 4, 2005. Cutting through much of his polemic, Inhofe’s speech contains three lines of scientific argument which, according to him, provide “compelling new scientific... Read more →

Nissan will begin producing the previously-announced hybrid version of the Altima (earlier post) sedan in the US in 2006, said Nissan President Carlos Ghosn during a new conference at NAIAS. Nissan will determine the annual output of Altima hybrids based on demand up to a maximum of 50,000 units per... Read more →

While automakers are giving more attention to the green side of their line-ups, the competitive battle for high-power and performance continues unabated. The Detroit and Los Angeles auto shows in January were the venues for the announcement of a number of new production and concept power platforms, making it very... Read more →

The yet-to-be-released Lexus RX 400h hybrid SUV already has pulled in more than 11,000 confirmed pre-sold orders, according to Denny Clements, Group Vice President & General Manager of Lexus. “That’s more pre-launch interest than we’ve had for any other model.” The RX 400h is due in showrooms in mid-April. The... Read more →

Reuters. Sinopec, China’s top refiner, is shifting production to lower sulfur gasoline and diesel at all its refineries from 1 April. China has mandated a nationwide shift to cleaner fuels from July. Sinopec will produce both gasoline and diesel with 500 ppm sulfur content. Currently, its diesel contains 2,000 ppm... Read more →

Reuters. The string of insurgent attacks on Northern Iraqi oil facilities has paralyzed oil operations, Refining is suspended, and export flows are idle. “The system is virtually down. We are looking at a week to get the refineries back up and more for exports to resume,” said an oil official,... Read more →

Traffic in Virginia’s I-95 High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes car-pool lanes more than tripled between spring 2004 and October 2004, leaving those lanes nearly as congested as the ones they are supposed to relieve, according to a Virginia Department of Transportation (DOT) task force study. (Full report here.) A major... Read more →

The Hillsborough, Fl, Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) is adding three diesel-hybrid buses powered by the GM-Allison hybrid drivetrain and manufactured by Gillig to its mass transit fleet. The hybrid system used by these buses is the basis for the two-mode concept hybrids announced by GM today and for the... Read more →

At NAIAS, GM displayed the Sequel, its latest hydrogen concept car. Following on the AUTOnomy and Hy-wire concept cars, the Sequel is about the size of a Cadillac SRX, travels up to 300 miles on its hydrogen supply, and accelerates to 60 mph in less than 10 seconds. Current-generation fuel... Read more →

GM introduced two applications of its two-mode hybrid system at NAIAS: the Graphyte SUV and the Opel Astra Diesel Hybrid. The two concept cars demonstrate the packaging versatility of the two-mode hybrid system that is the basis for the development partnership between GM and Daimler Chrysler (earlier post). The two-mode... Read more →

Ford is accelerating its development of full hybrid-electric vehicles. Although the company has announced no additional models to those already targeted for deployment as hybrids, the time to production has been compressed for some. The previously announced Mercury Mariner Hybrid will go onsale this year—12 months ahead of the prior... Read more →

At the NAIAS in Detroit, Ford unveiled a small diesel-powered urban concept car, the SYNUS. The SYNUS comes from the Ford Fiesta architecture, and is equipped with a 2.0-liter inline 4-cylinder diesel engine. The Fiesta is smaller than the Ford Focus, and is known as a B-segment car. Popular in... Read more →

Initial testing of Hybrid Fuel Systems’ conversion kits to retrofit medium and heavy-duty diesels for dual-fuel operation with natural gas showed reductions in PM emissions of 78.9% and NOx emissions of 15%, according to results from an independent laboratory. Use of the Fuel 2 kit enabled a 71.2% displacement of... Read more →

DCMilitary.com. The Navy Exchange (NEX) Quarters K gas station in Arlington, Va. just opened its first biodiesel bump. The gas station is the first in the Navy Exchange system to offer biodiesel, E85 and CNG fuels for vehicles. Read more →

GM and Sandia National Laboratories are initiating a 4-year, $10 million program to develop and to test sodium aluminum hydride (sodium alanate for short) storage tanks for hydrogen. The goal is to develop a pre-prototype solid-state hydrogen storage tank that would store more hydrogen onboard a fuel cell vehicle than... Read more →

AFX. The Daily Yomiuri reports that Toyota Motor Corp plans to produce Camry hybrids in the US. According to the report, Toyota will export the engine and hybrid systems from Japan to its assembly plant in Kentucky. Toyota Camry has been the top-selling car in the US for the third... Read more →

WorldChanging provides a useful overview of Personal Electric Vehicles (PEV). The latest attempt to make commuting less environmentally harmful is the personal electric vehicle, or PEV. Often designed as an electric moped or scooter, PEVs are intentionally humble devices in no way seen as a broad-spectrum replacement for cars. Generally... Read more →

ABS-CBN. Philippine Energy Secretary Vincent Perez on Thursday said the government is targeting the deployment of more than 200 CNG buses by June. We’ve ordered the equipment and the buses. We’re just preparing for [the construction] of the CNG stations so that by June 12 we will have CNG buses... Read more →

Dow Jones Newswires reports that some distributors of heating oil and diesel in the Northeast are selling B20 biodiesel for home heating use. The tax credit that went into effect 1 Jan allows biodiesel to be price competitive with regular home heating oil. The move gives heating-oil consumers a means... Read more →

Volkswagen Chief Executive Bernd Pischetsrieder used his keynote speech at the Los Angeles Auto Show to reinforce the company’s strategic embrace of diesels coupled with synthetic fuels and biofuels as the pre-hydrogen solution for sustainable transportation. “Biodiesel and bioethanol are the only fuels that allow for energy independence.” Pischetsrieder said... Read more →

Yonhap. Daewoo Bus Corporation, a spinoff from the former Daewoo Motor, is supplying 110 CNG buses to Santiago, Chile, by August of this year, with an additional 115 to be delivered by 2007. This represents the first S. Korean shipment of such buses to Latin America. Daewoo Bus offers CNG... Read more →

The Mountain Press. The Servierville, TN, Farmers Co-op is switching to selling only biodiesel blends for on-road use. [Co-op manager Darrell] Clark said there currently are stations in the area that give on-road diesel customers the option of buying regular diesel or biodiesel, but Sevier Farmers Co-op is the first... Read more →

BorgWarner has purchased approximately 62% of German-based Beru AG from its major shareholders, The Carlyle Group and a group of family shareholders. The purchase was a cash transaction at a price of €59 per share or €367 million (approximately US $490 million at current exchange rate of 1.335). Of the... Read more →

Combined US sales of the increasing number of hybrid models on the market broke through the 10,000 level in December, with 10,441 units sold between the three automakers: Toyota, Honda and Ford. Total US hybrid sales in 2004 reached 84,199 units. Toyota had its best month ever for the Prius,... Read more →

The Bentz racing team runs the Lucas-Cummins Diesel Dragster—a dragster powered by a twin turbo, 5.9-liter Cummins Diesel engine running B100 biodiesel. The engine is modified and enhanced for drag racing (producing nearly 950 hp vs. the stock 215 hp), but is at base the same platform you get in... Read more →