by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com October has been billed as a pivotal month in which indebted shale companies would see their credit lines cut, precipitating a faster consolidation in the industry that would sow the seeds of a rebound. But banks appear to be taking a more lenient approach than... Read more →

Germany’s Manager Magazin reports that Volkswagen AG’s internal analysis puts the cost of the diesel emissions scandal at more than €30 billion (US$33 billion). The unconfirmed report says that CEO Matthias Müller plans as far as possible to allocate the charges against the Volkswagen brand in an effort to keep... Read more →

Qualcomm Incorporated through its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, have collaborated to enable the wireless download of racecar telemetry data via Wi-Fi using 5 GHz spectrum during Formula One practice sessions. This technology implementation marks a significant improvement over previous wired data offloading... Read more →

German environmental NGO Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) (earlier post) has charged that an Opel Zafira 1.6 CDTi diesel (Euro 6b) emits up to 17 times more NOx under certain driving situations than permitted by the Euro 6 limit value. Dynamometer testing for DUH was conducted at the Bern University of Applied... Read more →

The theory—and sometimes the implementation—of control systems relies heavily on optimization (e.g., earlier post)—as do many other aspects of engineering and design (e.g., earlier post). At the IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, a trio of present and past MIT graduate students won a best-student-paper award for a new... Read more →

The European Union appears to be undergoing a transition from the testing of and experimentation with electric vehicles to full-scale EV commercialization, according to a new report from the EU’s Joint Research Center (JRC). This report covers battery-electric (BEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV), range extended electric vehicles (REV), and fuel cell... Read more →

Potentially unsafe mental distractions for drivers can persist for as long as 27 seconds after dialing, changing music or sending a text using voice commands, according to a pair of new studies for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety by University of Utah researchers. The researchers discovered the residual effects... Read more →

by Mike Millikin, editor, Green Car Congress This post is part of the ‘Think Further’ series sponsored by Fred Alger Management. For more “Think Further” content, please visit www.thinkfurtheralger.com.” The car has become the most computationally complex high-tech device with which the vast majority of consumers will ever come into... Read more →

Norsk Titanium AS (NTi), a global 3D-printing technology leader, signed a memorandum of understanding with lightweight metals leader Alcoa to launch a Joint Technology and Industrial Cooperation program. Through the program, the companies will identify and explore cooperation projects to leverage each other’s advanced manufacturing expertise and strong commercial capabilities... Read more →

Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) are suggesting that self-driving vehicles should be required to pass a licensing test. Most driver-licensing tests evaluate three aspects of driving readiness, they observed: visual performance; knowledge of rules and regulations related to driving and traffic... Read more →

EcoMotors’ (EM) largest customer, Zhongding Power, a subsidiary of China-based Zhongding Group, is the lead investor in EM’s series D funding round. The amount of the investment is undisclosed. EcoMotors has developed and is commercializing an opposed-piston, opposed cyclinder (opoc) engine. (Earlier post.) The investment signals a tightening bond between... Read more →

Volkswagen confirmed on Thursday that no software constituting an improper emissions control defeat device as defined in law is installed in vehicles with EA 288 EU5- or EU6-engines in the European Union. Consequently, new vehicles of the Volkswagen Group offered within the European Union with those engines comply with legal... Read more →

The Chevrolet EN-V 2.0 vehicle sharing pilot program (earlier post) launched by General Motors and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) earlier this year received the Best Innovative Practice Award today for leading the way in adopting innovative practices and helping Shanghai transform into a global technology innovation center. The honor... Read more →

The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has released its annual update on the fuel efficiency of US airlines. (Earlier post.) The report, which covers US airlines in domestic operations in 2014, highlights a continuing gap in the carbon intensity of US carriers, and comes as the International Civil Aviation... Read more →

Samsung SDI held a completion ceremony for its new EV battery plant was held at Gaoxin Industrial District within Xi’an, Shaanxi Province of China. Samsung SDI is the first global battery manufacturer to construct an EV battery plant and initiate mass production in China. The Xi’an plant has initiated its... Read more →

SG Preston, a Philadelphia-based bioenergy company, is partnering with IHI E&C, a Houston-based engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) subsidiary of Japan’s IHI Corporation, to develop and to construct a series of commercial-scale renewable diesel and jet fuel manufacturing plants, initially in the US Midwest and Canada. The plants will use... Read more →

Westinghouse Electric Company has presented the United Kingdom government a proposal to partner in the deployment of small modular reactor (SMR) technology, a move that would advance the UK from being a buyer to a global provider of the latest nuclear energy technology. The proposal is intended to complement the... Read more →

Nissan and Ecotricity, which operates Europe’s biggest and most comprehensive rapid charging network, the Electric Highway, called on the UK government to introduce official road signage for the UK’s growing number of standard and rapid EV charging points. Despite there being more than 9,000 EV charging points nationwide, there is... Read more →

A researcher at The University of Texas at Austin will receive two grants totaling $15 million to study switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), with a focus on how it can become a sustainable source of bioenergy. Tom Juenger, a professor of integrative biology, will lead scientists from multiple institutions—including federal agencies, universities... Read more →

HRL Laboratories, LLC will develop new methods of rapidly building up materials from the nanometer scale to the millimeter scale in order to exploit the extraordinary properties of extremely small materials. Funded under the Atoms to Product (A2P) program through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Air... Read more →

The Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (earlier post) is now officially on sale in California; more than 300 new owners— representing each of the dealership locations in Southern and Northern California—received ceremonial keys at a Mirai premiere event in Torrance. More than 2,000 people so far have requested to... Read more →

Aston Martin unveiled a fully electric concept of its Rapide S four-door sports sedan outside Lancaster House in London—the venue for a meeting between Their Royal Highnesses Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and President of The People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping. Developed in collaboration with... Read more →

To coincide with its participation in the new Freight in the City event (27 October, Alexandra Palace) the UK’s LowCVP is calling on fleet operators, local authorities and others to join forces in building the market for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) which cut carbon, reduce emissions and lower fuel costs.... Read more →

The Rice lab of chemist James Tour and colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Houston have developed a robust, solid-state catalyst that shows promise to replace expensive platinum for hydrogen generation. The new electrocatalyst, based on very small... Read more →

The New Energy Industrial Technology and Development Organization (NEDO), Japan’s largest public R&D management organization, has selected Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and the Japan-based trading company Kanematsu Corporation to analyze electric vehicle use patterns in Northern California. The NEDO project will seek to encourage the use of electric vehicles for... Read more →

Results of a recent survey by Ponemon Institute, a leading independent security research organization, suggest that automotive software developers are ill-equipped and often overwhelmed when it comes to building security into their processes and tools. Source: Rogue Wave Software. Click to enlarge. The cybersecurity survey, sponsored by software development tools... Read more →

Starting in 2016, Germany-based technology company ZF will combine all electromobility-related activities in a new corporate E-Mobility division, based at the company’s Schweinfurt location. The new division will join the four existing divisions—Car Powertrain Technology, Car Chassis Technology, Commercial Vehicle Technology and Industrial Technology—as well as the newly created Active... Read more →

Spirent Communications announced that its Automotive Ethernet BroadR-Reach Conformance and Performance test solution has been selected by Renault. It will be used to help develop next generation in-vehicle networks that provide drivers and passengers with the multiple benefits of connected cars. Current in-vehicle networks are unable to provide the capacity... Read more →

Rice University scientists, working with colleagues in France, have detected the presence of anthropogenic carbon nanotubes (CBTs) in cells extracted from the airways of Parisian children under routine treatment for asthma. These nanostructures are similar to those present in dusts and vehicle exhausts collected in Paris, as well as to... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO) has issued a request for information (RFI) (DE-FOA-0001420) on advanced thermal insulation for sub-ambient temperature alternative fuel onboard storage systems. Alternative fuels could include hydrogen or natural gas stored onboard the vehicle at sub-ambient temperatures as a compressed gas,... Read more →

ABB and Microsoft Corp. announced the worldwide availability of a new electric vehicle (EV) fast-charging services platform. Combining ABB’s EV charging stations with Microsoft’s Azure cloud-based services will offer stability, global scalability and advanced management features for ABB customers. The collaboration will also take advantage of machine learning and predictive... Read more →

Daimler Greater China and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have signed a contract to continue and further to expand their research cooperation begun in 2012 for another 3 years. Initial projects will focus on studying China-specific traffic behavior; vehicle safety and traffic information technologies now extended by IT innovation; and joint education... Read more →

From 2017, Mercedes-Benz will offer in Europe the S- and E-Class as the first production passenger cars equipped with CO2 air conditioning systems. These completely newly developed systems are based on the DIN specifications defined by the automotive standards committee of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). Due... Read more →

GM and LG announced an expanded and deepened relationship around the coming Bolt battery-electric vehicle (earlier post), with LG providing not only the battery pack and battery heater, but also the critical PEEM (power electronics and electric machine) components; the HVAC electronic climate control system compressor; telematics hardware for OnStar;... Read more →

OmniPhy, a leading supplier of Ethernet PHY intellectual property (IP) for the consumer, automotive, and industrial markets, and Innovasic, a provider of deterministic Ethernet silicon solutions, announced a partnership that provides a clear pathway to next-generation Automotive Ethernet SoC (system on a chip) solutions. By combining the OmniPhy physical layer... Read more →

Marvell, a leading fabless semiconductor company, introduced the Marvell 88Q2112, the industry’s first 1000BASE-T1 automotive Ethernet physical layer (PHY) transceiver compliant with the draft IEEE 802.3bp 1000BASE-T1 standard—i.e., Gigabit Ethernet for cars. The 88Q2112 supports the industry’s highest in-vehicle connectivity bandwidth and is designed to meet the rigorous EMI requirements... Read more →

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, the Virginia Department of Transportation, and Transurban, which operates the express lanes, conducted a demonstration of automated, connected vehicles on a 10-mile stretch of I-395 for federal and state officials. US Sen. Mark Warner, US Department of Transportation Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology Greg... Read more →

Nostrum Energy is launching a new line of high-flow direct injectors with a proprietary “kinetic” particle break-up mechanism, K-DI (Kinetic Direct Injector), for the high performance market this fall. In addition to the kinetic colliding jet injectors, Nostrum will showcase a direct in-cylinder water injector and intake track water injector,... Read more →

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is launching Clean High-Efficiency Diesel Engine VII (CHEDE-VII), the seventh phase of the industry’s longest-running diesel research consortium. The kick-off meeting for the four-year, multi-client cooperative research program, which is open to potential new members, will be 5 November at SwRI headquarters in San Antonio. Consortium... Read more →

by Dalan McEndree for Oilprice.com Two men enter, one man leaves, two men enter, one man leaves, two men enter... —Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome November 27, oil consuming countries will celebrate the first anniversary of the Saudi decision to let market forces determine prices. This decision set crude prices on... Read more →

Guangqi Honda Automobile Co., Ltd. (GHAC), an automobile production and sales joint venture of Honda in China, celebrated the opening of its third automobile production plant and an engine plant within the property of the existing Zeng Cheng Plant. The third plant began automobile production in September of this year... Read more →

USA Today has confirmed an earlier unconfirmed report by Quartz that UK-based Dyson will acquire solid-state Li-ion battery startup Sakti3 (earlier post) for $90 million. Dyson invested $15 million in Sakti3 earlier this year. James Dyson, founder and chief engineer of the eponymous manufacturing and technology company, told USA Today... Read more →

General Motors is partnering with DTE Energy to build a new 800-kilowatt solar array at its Warren Transmission plant that will be GM’s largest solar installation in Michigan. The 2,800 solar panels will generate clean electricity that will go back to the grid. DTE Energy will own the array on... Read more →

AVL has been awarded a contract by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for an emissions measurement system at the National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory (NVFEL) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The AVL-equipped test site will be focused on measuring emissions from the cleanest light- and medium-duty vehicles that comply with... Read more →

ITM Power officially received the first Toyota Mirai fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) to be delivered in the UK. This coincides with the announcement by Toyota today confirming the choice of the UK as an early entry market for its FCEVs. ITM Power also signed its first fuel contract, with... Read more →

Researchers at Iowa State have developed a new hybrid optimization control method to improve diesel engine emissions and performance. As reported in a paper in the International Journal of Engine Research, the hybrid method, which combines both particle swarm optimization (PSO) and genetic algorithm (GA) methods was able to locate... Read more →

Countering a report published in Der Spiegel positing that some 30 managers were involved in the software defeat device on the EA 189 diesel engines, the public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig (Staatsanwaltschaft Braunschweig), which is handling the investigation, told German media than “more than two but well below 10” employees... Read more →

Based on its analysis of the production and transport components of the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of biofuel made from jatropha oil, the US EPA anticipates that biofuels produced from jatropha oil could qualify as biomass-based diesel or advanced biofuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard program if typical fuel production... Read more →

At the Automotive Testing Expo North America 2015 this week, SAKOR Technologies will be highlighting its hybrid and electric vehicle testing, high voltage battery testing and simulation technologies, as well as the smallest AC regenerative engine dynamometer available in the industry. SAKOR’s DynoLAB Test Cell Control System can perform a... Read more →

A team led by a group of researchers at the US Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has experimentally confirmed strong in-plane anisotropy—i.e., directional dependence—in thermal conductivity, up to a factor of two, along the zigzag and armchair directions of single-crystal black phosphorous nanoribbons. This new... Read more →