The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and Sino Parking Services Limited (Sino Parking) have jointly developed and launched a new parking application for Android smartphones. The Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) of PolyU and Sino Parking are partnering on a project, entitled “Development and Implementation of an Advanced... Read more →

The E.ON Energy Research Center at RWTH Aachen University, E.ON electric utility company, battery manufacturers Exide and beta-motion and inverter manufacturer SMA Solar Technology AG (SMA) have joined forces to build the first multi-technology, modular large-scale 5MW battery storage system. The unique feature of the M5BAT (Modular Multimegawatt, Multitechnology Medium-Voltage... Read more →

2015 Ford Focus. Click to enlarge. Ford revealed the redesigned 2015 Ford Focus at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the world’s largest exhibition for the mobile industry. The new Focus will make its auto show debut at Geneva next week. In addition to a number of styling and technological... Read more →

Adaptive control of range resources. Drivers compare the current range situation with their range level reference values, which are driven by certain trait and coping skill variables. As a result, coping strategies are adapted (e.g., drive more economically, do not use EV). This leads to a certain efficiency of range... Read more →

Honda continued the expansion of its manufacturing operations in North America with the production start of the redesigned 2015 Honda Fit at a new, automobile plant of Honda de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (HDM). The start-up of the Celaya Plant increases Honda’s annual automobile production capacity in North America to... Read more →

The Honda Accord was the best-selling car with individual car buyers in the US in 2013, according to new-vehicle registration data compiled by Polk. Accord retail sales in 2013 rose 12.2% to 360,089 units, displacing the Toyota Camry, with retail sales of 342,007 units, from the lead spot. Total sales... Read more →

The nation’s major freight railroads joined US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in announcing a rail operations safety initiative that will institute new voluntary operating practices for moving crude oil by rail. The announcement only covers steps related to crude by rail operations; additional issues, such as tank car standards and... Read more →

Visteon Corporation, a leading automotive electronics supplier, and OpenSynergy, a specialist in embedded automotive systems, announced a strategic alliance to deliver standards-based infotainment solutions that bridge the gap between open source In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) applications and the closed automotive domain. The partners’ first collaboration incorporates OpenSynergy’s COQOS operating system in... Read more →

Volkswagen AG is making a voluntary tender offer worth approximately €6.7 billion (~US$9.2 billion) for all remaining shares (298,910,903) of Scania. Volkswagen has been invested in Scania since 2000 and today indirectly and directly holds a total of 89.2% of the voting rights and 62.6% of the capital of the... Read more →

Halla Visteon Climate Control Corp. (HVCC) is supplying a number of technologies to support the hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle manufactured by Hyundai Motor Group. Introduced in Europe in 2013, the ix35, also known as the Tucson, is slated for a limited US distribution this spring. Products supplied by HVCC... Read more →

In July 2013, General Motors and Honda announced a long-term, definitive master agreement to co-develop next-generation fuel cell system and hydrogen storage technologies, aiming for the 2020 time frame. (Earlier post.) At the SAE 2014 Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Technologies Symposium, Mark Mathias, Director, Fuel Cell R&D for GM, provided... Read more →

Zytek’s lightweight 25kW powertrain drives the Yamaha MOTIV.e through a Vocis single ratio transmission. A further development of the electric machine will deliver more power and torque from the same compact package. Click to enlarge. Yamaha’s new MOTIV.e city car concept, shown at the Tokyo motorshow, is powered by an... Read more →

California Senate President pro tempore Darrell Steinberg proposed a carbon tax on fossil transportation fuels to replace the coming cap and trade mandate on that sector in 2015. Under Steinberg’s proposal, the price of carbon fuel would rise steadily, starting at an estimated 15¢/gallon in the first year. In 2020,... Read more →

Among the highlights on the Nissan stand at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show will be the production version of the e-NV200 electric van and the BladeGlider EV concept. The e-NV200’s electric drivetrain, based on that used in the LEAF, is allied to the class-leading cargo volume of theNV200 to create... Read more →

Nissan has entered into an agreement with the Royal Government of Bhutan with the shared goal of achieving the nation’s transition to an electric vehicle fleet. The agreement follows talks between the Prime Minister of Bhutan Tshering Tobgay and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn in Thimphu last year. Ghosn returned to... Read more →

At the upcoming Geneva Motor Show, Mazda Motor Corporation will introduce the SKYACTIV-D 1.5, a newly developed small displacement diesel engine. The 1.5-liter diesel will join the SKYACTIV-D 2.2 diesel and SKYACTIV-G 2.0 gasoline engine already in the product lineup. Introduced in 2011 (earlier post), the 2.2L SKYACTIV-D engine reduces... Read more →

California Air Resources Board (ARB) staff has posted five new Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) fuel pathway applications to the LCFS public comments website: two for biodiesel, one for renewable diesel, and two for ethanol. The baseline CI value for gasoline is 95.86 g CO2e/MJ; for diesel fuel, it is... Read more →

Clean Air Power, the UK-based developer and manufacturer of Dual-Fuel (natural gas and diesel) engine management systems for heavy duty vehicles, has received an order for 19 Genesis-EDGE, Dual-Fuel trucks from a major distribution company in the UK. The order has a value to Clean Air Power of around £0.5... Read more →

Golf GTE plug-in hybrid. Click to enlarge. Volkswagen will formally unveil the Golf GTE—a new plug-in hybrid (PHEV) version of the Golf hatchback combining electric mobility with the dynamics of a Golf GTI—at the Geneva Motor Show next month. The GTE marks the fifth drive type for the Golf, which... Read more →

Nissan’s 1-motor, 2-clutch parallel hybrid system (1M2CL), first introduced in 2010 for the rear-wheel drive Infiniti M35 Hybrid (earlier post), has since grown into its second-generation rear-wheel drive system as well as spawned a front-wheel drive variant with CVT (earlier post). The system and its offshoots are now applied in... Read more →

Schlumberger has introduced its BroadBand Sequence fracturing technique, which enables sequential stimulation of perforation clusters in wells drilled in unconventional reservoirs. This new technique sequentially isolates fractures at the wellbore to ensure every cluster in each zone is fractured, resulting in greater production and completion efficiency compared to conventional methods.... Read more →

Constellium N.V. launched new aluminum high-strength Crash Management Systems (CMS) technology designed for the front and the rear of a vehicle for enhanced structural protection in the event of a collision. Constellium’s technology enables the production of aluminum CMS that are 15% lighter and 10% stronger than the current aluminum... Read more →

Energy dCi 160 Twin Turbo will be applied in D- and E- segment models. Click to enlarge. Leveraging work done for its F1 engine program (earlier post), Renault has introduced the Energy dCi 160 Twin Turbo, its first 1.6-liter diesel engine with twin-turbocharging. The 1,598cc block delivers 160 hp (119... Read more →

Volvo Cars will showcase a new service for direct delivery to a connected vehicle at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Using Volvo’s new digital keys technology, car owners will be able to select their car as a delivery option when ordering goods online. Via a smartphone or a tablet,... Read more →

DENSO Corporation will begin a ten-month field test of its wireless inductive battery charging system in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The field test is intended to identify any potential operational issues and also look at ways to enhance the convenience of wireless charging. The field test will begin on... Read more →

Saft has been awarded a contract from ECO-H Technologies, Inc. for the delivery of the first Intensium Flex Li-ion battery system to power and store energy for the ECO-H System. Saft delivered the battery in December 2013 and will continue working with distributors on systems opportunities in the coming years.... Read more →

Global automotive supplier DENSO has developed a new exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) valve unit that is the first to integrate an air intake throttle valve and an EGR valve; the new unit is half the size of conventional models and requires fewer components, thus reducing costs. The unit will be... Read more →

BMW X5 plug-in hybrid prototype at Efficient Dynamics Innovation Days 2014. Click to enlarge. At BMW’s Efficient Dynamics Innovation Days 2014 in Germany, the company provided the first opportunities for test-driving the BMW X5 eDrive plug-in hybrid (PHEV) prototype (earlier post). BMW also presented the first four-cylinder member of its... Read more →

A United Airlines Boeing 737-800 aircraft freshly retrofitted with new Split Scimitar Winglets became the first commercial flight worldwide to operate with the advanced winglet technology. United flight 1273 on Tuesday took off from the airline’s Houston hub and flew to Los Angeles. The airline installed the innovative winglets on... Read more →

Tesla Motors announced record deliveries of 6,892 Model S vehicles worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2013, with 22,477 vehicles in the full year. For the quarter, non-GAAP revenue was $761 million, up 26% from Q3. GAAP revenue for Q4 was $615 million, up 43% from Q3. Q4 non-GAAP net... Read more →

Compared to a single-speed EV or HEV transmission, DSD’s MSYS 3-speed system provides a 40% weight saving and 10-15% lower energy consumption. Click to enlarge. UK-based Drive System Design is developing a new EV powertrain based on an alternate approach to powershifting (no torque interrupt) achieved by separating the existing... Read more →

Faster charging stations for electric vehicles will be strategically placed at key locations in Delaware to enable long trips in the state by next year, through a new collaborative research agreement between the University of Delaware (UD) and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC). The 16-kilowatt... Read more →

Boulder Ionics Corp., developer and producer of high-performance electrolytes and electrochemical-grade ionic liquids for advanced energy storage devices (earlier post), signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency, to develop and commercialize the use of pyrrolidinium-based ionic liquids in electrolytes... Read more →

Scheme of the new full sodium-ion battery, which combines an intercalation cathode and a conversion anode. Credit: ACS, Oh et al. Click to enlarge. A team led by Yang-Kook Sun at Hanyang University (South Korea), Bruno Scrosati at University of Rome Sapienza, and Khalil Amine at Argonne National Laboratory reports... Read more →

The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has published a report summarizing the results of its 2013 collaboration with the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) on a survey-based study aimed understanding how the market for fuel-efficiency technologies for truck trailers has evolved and identifying opportunities for capturing additional... Read more →

Researchers at Arizona State University and Argonne National Laboratory reported advances toward perfecting a functional artificial leaf in a paper in Nature Chemistry. Designing an artificial leaf that uses solar energy to convert water cheaply and efficiently into hydrogen and oxygen is one of the goals of BISfuel (Bio-inspired Solar... Read more →

A study by researchers at the Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) examining the impact of financial incentives and other socio-economic factors on electric vehicle (both plug-in hybrids and battery electrics) adoption in 30 countries found that financial incentives; the number of charging stations (corrected for population); and the presence... Read more →

Scientists and engineers developing more accurate approaches to analyzing nuclear power reactors have successfully tested a new suite of computer codes that closely model “neutronics” — the behavior of neutrons in a reactor core. Technical staff at Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC, supported by the research team at the Consortium for... Read more →

2015 Expedition. Click to enlarge. Ford unveiled the 2015 Expedition—Ford’s largest utility vehicle—in Dallas ahead of the 2014 DFW Auto Show. Texas is Ford’s largest market by sales volume, and home to the top two cities for Expedition sales: Dallas and Houston. The 2015 Ford Expedition will feature the 3.5-liter,... Read more →

China’s Dongfeng Motor Group (DFG) will invest at least €800 (US$1.1 billion) in France-based PSA Peugeot Citroën as part of a €3-billion (US$4.13-billion) capital increase newly approved by PSA’s board. The French government is making an equal investment at the same time. The investment also marks a strengthening and deepening... Read more →

Echo Automotive, Inc., a developer of technologies enabling the cost-effective aftermarket addition of plug-in hybrid capability to new or existing vehicles (earlier post), plans to extend its EchoDrive plug-in hybrid system to GM 2500 and 3500 vans, including the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana, model years 2010-2014. Production is expected... Read more →

AT&T and IBM have formed a new global alliance agreement to develop solutions that help support the “Internet of Things.” The companies will combine their analytic platforms, cloud, and security technologies with privacy in mind to gain more insights on data collected from machines in a variety of industries. The... Read more →

Volkswagen Group France et la Société Nouvelle d’Affinage des Métaux (SNAM) signed a partnership agreement through which the hybrid and EV batteries from group brands—Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, ŠKODA and Volkswagen Utilities—will be recycled in the two French factories owned by SNAM, Saint-Quentin-Fallavier (Isère) and Viviez (Aveyron). Through this agreement, SNAM... Read more →

President Obama has directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) to develop and to issue the next phase of medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards by March 2016. Under this timeline, the agencies would issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)... Read more →

The European Commission has selected Ricardo-AEA to lead a project to help cities across Europe take action to improve the performance of their transport systems. The new four-year project will be carried out on behalf of the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE). It aims to develop a web-based... Read more →

Imec, in collaboration with Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), has introduced the first 79 GHz radar transmitter implemented in plain digital 28nm CMOS. With an output power above 10dBm, the transmitter front-end paves the way towards full radar-on-chip solutions for automotive and smart environment applications. Mm-wave radar systems, featuring a range... Read more →

Williams has signed a new multi-year partnership agreement with Brazilian multi-national energy company Petrobras for the development of a new specialist motorsport fuel for use by the team starting in the 2015 F1 season. Williams and Petrobras have had a history of technology collaboration dating back to 1998 when the... Read more →

On a pound-per-pound basis, wet-spun carbon nanotube-based fibers developed at Rice University can carry up to four times as much electrical current as copper cables of the same mass, according to new study by researchers there. This higher current-carrying capacity (ampacity), said the researchers, makes these nanotube-based cables attractive for... Read more →

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is partnering with Cincinnati Incorporated, a manufacturer of high quality machine tools located in Harrison, Ohio, to develop a large-scale polymer additive manufacturing (3-D printing) system. The partnership aims to accelerate the commercialization of a new additive manufacturing machine that can print... Read more →

Standards organizations CEN and ETSI recently confirmed, at the 6th ETSI workshop on ITS in Berlin, that the basic set of standards for Cooperative Intelligence Transport Systems (C-ITS), as requested by the European Commission in 2009, have now been adopted and issued. The Release 1 specifications developed by CEN and... Read more →