Chevrolet has sold more than 1.4 million vehicles with 4G LTE connectivity since June 2014, exceeding the total sold by of the rest of the industry combined. That number includes more than 500,000 Chevrolet Silverado, Silverado HD and Colorado trucks (about 36%). Chevrolet offers 4G LTE connectivity across its full-range... Read more →

A joint research team from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) and Seoul National University in Korea, with colleagues at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Brookhaven National Lab in the US, has developed a new highly conductive (4.1 × 10−4 S cm−1 at 30 °C), highly deformable, and... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has tentaively scheduled the first Advanced Clean Transit Advisory Committee meeting for 29 January 2016 in Sacramento. The meeting will include a wide range of stakeholders such as technology providers, original equipment manufacturers, transit agencies, and other interested parties to discuss the current status... Read more →

A £5 London uberX ride on Christmas Eve from London Fields, Hackney to Hoxton in a blue Honda Insight Hybrid was the billionth Uber trip. In recognition of the milestone, Uber is giving one year’s worth of free rides to rider Marvin’s stocking, while Uber driver-partner Ara will be given... Read more →

A team at RWTH Aachen University has identified ethyllevulinate and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran as promising alternatives to cellulosic bioethanol with respect to cost and environmental impact based on a large-scale reaction screening study. In addition, the study of 97 reactions for 23 advanced biofuel candidates found that lignin-based biofuels can be excluded... Read more →

Driven by continued innovation in vehicle connectivity and safety technologies, global revenue from automotive display systems will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 11% to $18.6 billion by the end of 2021, according to a new forecast by IHS Inc. This will add nearly $9... Read more →

Researchers at the Dalian University of Technology have proposed a novel method to control premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) phasing in internal combustion engines in all load operations. High-pressure air jet controlled compression ignition (JCCI) is based on a compound thermodynamic cycle and is implemented in a hybrid pneumatic engine... Read more →

by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com OPEC says that $10 trillion worth of investment will need to flow into oil and gas through 2040 in order to meet the world’s energy needs. The OPEC published its World Oil Outlook 2015 (WOO) in late December, which struck a much more pessimistic note... Read more →

Infiniti will offer three versions of its all-new QX30 premium active crossover for the United States and Canada next year. The QX30 line for the US and Canada is powered by a 208 hp, 2.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder mated to a 7-speed dual clutch automatic transmission, and is scheduled to go... Read more →

Chempolis Limited, a Finland-based biorefining technology corporation, has entered into partnership with India-based Avantha Group’s research wing—Avantha Centre for Industrial Research & Development (ACIRD)—on technology to produce ethanol from various agricultural residues for fuel blending. India’s agricultural sector produces large amounts of bagasse, cane trash, rice and wheat straw the... Read more →

Earlier this month, Audi began testing driverless transport systems (DTS) at its Ingolstadt plant. With DTS, logistics employees no longer have to fetch the required goods from the material shelves; the goods will come to them fully automatically. Audi says it is the first automobile manufacturer to implement such a... Read more →

Researchers at Zhengzhou University in China have optimized the process parameters for the direct production of hydrogen from raw corn stalks without substrate pretreatment by a mesophilic (growing in moderate temperatures) hydrogen-producing bacterium, Clostridium sartagoforme FZ11, that they had earlier isolated from cow dung compost. The highest yield of 96.2... Read more →

A series of 15 inland waterway barges being built for Belgium-based Plouvier Transport N.V., and which will be chartered by Shell Trading Rotterdam (Shell), are to be powered by Wärtsilä dual-fuel main engines. The barges will operate primarily on liquefied natural gas (LNG). For each barge, the full Wärtsilä scope... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected six organizations to receive up to $10.5 million to support the design and operation of innovative marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) systems through survivability and reliability-related improvements. Projects funded under these awards will improve the survivability characteristics and reduce uncertainty regarding installation, operations,... Read more →

A team from Chonnam National University in Korea has developed a new pretreatment method for lignocellulosic biomass that is more efficient and effective for the downstream biocatalytic hydrolysis of various lignocellulosic materials. This, they suggest, will accelerate bioethanol commercialization. The new hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-acetic acid (CH3COOH) (HPAC) pretreatment removes lignin... Read more →

Audi management said that the company will continue with its high levels of investment in 2016, with planned capital expenditure to amount to more than €3 billion (US$3.3 billion). Half of the planned investment will take place at the Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm sites in Germany. Audi plans to enter a... Read more →

Fuel cell company PowerCell Sweden AB, a spin-out from Volvo, has received the first order from France from the PowerCell S2 stack platform for a 25 kW stack. The France automotive market is important for PowerCell and we are happy to announce that a first order of our latest fuel... Read more →

In its new Natural Gas Vehicles report, Navigant Research forecasts that global annual NGV sales—light-, medium- and heavy-duty—will grow 62.5% from 2.4 million vehicles in 2015 to 3.9 million in 2025. Navigant forecasts that the number of light-duty NGVs on the world’s roads will double by 2025 to 39.6 million,... Read more →

Researchers in China have developed a family of hydrophobic borohydride-rich ionic liquids (ILs) which exhibit ultra-short ignition delay times as low as 1.7 milliseconds and the lowest viscosity (10 mPa·s) of hypergolic ionic liquids. The ILs thus show great potential as faster-igniting rocket fuels to replace toxic hydrazine derivatives in... Read more →

A consortium led by the Bosch Group has developed a standardized integrated diagnostic system that in the future will be able to clearly identify and locate defects in the electrical powertrain. The consortium’s project on diagnosis and repairs for electric vehicles—“DINA”—was funded with €2.8 million (US$3.1 million) by Germany’s Federal... Read more →

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, the BMW Group will present a Vision Car to demonstrate what the interior and the user interface of the future might look like, including AirTouch. This feature empowers intuitive control of entertainment, navigation and communication functions using simple gestures made... Read more →

The Nikkei reports that Suzuki Motor plans to commercialize a hydrogen powered fuel cell motorcycle, with plans to start testing it on public roads in 2016 once Japan’s transport ministry finalizes the relevant safety and environmental standards. Suzuki already has a joint venture with Intelligent Energy Holdings that will produce... Read more →

A team at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is scaling up their work on the use of ammonia borane (AB) slurries optimized with an ultrasonic process for automotive hydrogen storage applications. Ammonia borane is an atttractive material for chemical hydrogen storage (CHS) due to its high hydrogen content of 14–16... Read more →

Researchers at the University of Bath (UK) have demonstrated that branched ketone biofuels produced from the alkylation of isoamyl alcohol and isobutanol with acetone have the potential to be used as blending agents with Jet A-1 fuel. A paper on their work is published in the ACS journal Energy &... Read more →

E.ON SE recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Samsung SDI on co-operation in the energy storage business. The co-operation includes the development of profitable energy storage solutions and, to this end, to assess and develop a potential business model for targeting applications for Lithium-Ion batteries in selected regions and... Read more →

A team led by researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has created a super-strong yet light structural metal nanocomposite with extremely high specific strength and modulus, or stiffness-to-weight ratio. The new metal is composed of magnesium infused with a dense and even dispersal of... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) released three new reports today showcasing strong growth across the US fuel cell and hydrogen technologies market. According to these reports, the United States continues to be one of the world’s largest and fastest growing markets for fuel cell and hydrogen technologies. With support... Read more →

Bio-on and S.E.C.I. S.p.A, a part of Gruppo Industriale Maccaferri holding, will build the first facility for the production of PHAs bioplastic from the biodiesel byproduct glycerol. The production site will initially have a capacity of 5,000 tons/year output, expandable to 10,000 tons/year. The €55-million facility will be located at... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “MEGA-BIO: Bioproducts to Enable Biofuels” (DE-FOA-0001434). This FOA supports BETO’s goal of meeting its 2022 cost target of $3/gallon... Read more →

The German Federal Government plan to have one million electric cars on its roads by 2020 has failed, according to the analysis of international management consulting firm Bain & Company. By the end of 2015, there will be a total of about 50,000 electric cars and plug-in hybrids on the... Read more →

Semcon and a global automotive partner have signed a new contract for autonomous vehicles. The assignment is mainly based in Brazil as part of Semcon’s global strategy to involve expertise in high-tech development projects from different countries. The new agreement will initially consist of ten specialists from Semcon in Brazil... Read more →

A team from Bauhaus Luftfahrt in Germany has analyzed the climate impact and economic performance of solar thermochemical jet fuel production. According to their analysis, published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, favorable assumptions for all involved process steps (30% thermochemical energy conversion efficiency; 3000 kWh/(m2 a) solar... Read more →

Innovators at Ford submitted nearly 6,000 new inventions for patent consideration in 2015—an increase of 36% from 2014—with many related to autonomous and connected vehicles, wearable devices, eBikes, navigation, ride-sharing platforms and other technologies. These include technologies to help autonomous vehicles detect other vehicles at obstructed intersections, technologies to alleviate... Read more →

Climate XChange, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Massachusetts, is raffling off a Tesla Model S or X valued at $110,450 on 31 December with the intention of raising awareness of carbon pricing in a push for economy-wide carbon pricing in the Commonwealth. The organization will also pay the $36,730... Read more →

Connecticut-based FuelCell Energy (FCE) has applied for a prospective pathway for California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) for the production of hydrogen fuel produced from biogas derived from the mesophilic anaerobic digestion of wastewater sludge at a publicly owned treatment works (POTW). The biogas is cleaned, then internally reformed in... Read more →

According to a new report from Navigant Research, the advanced batteries industry shipped 53.3 GWh of batteries in 2014, representing more than seven billion individual battery cells and more than $14 billion in sales. Between 2013 and 2014, the industry’s growth rate increased 12.8% in terms of energy capacity and... Read more →

The US Patent and Trademark Office issued patent Nº 9,217,161 for a process using naturally occurring microorganisms to ferment biomass or gases directly to hydrocarbons such as hexane and octane. The fuels separate and rise to the surface of the fermentation broth, and are exactly the same as current components... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz has released the lifecycle analysis for its first plug-in hybrid SUV, the GLE 500 e 4MATIC (GLE 550e in the US). (Earlier post.) The GLE 500 e 4MATIC burns 3.7–3.3 liters of fuel for every 100 km (63.5 to 71.2 mpge), equating to CO2 emissions of 84–78 g/km; electric... Read more →

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is accepting applications for the Texas Natural Gas Vehicle Grant Program (TNGVGP) to improve air quality. Grants are available in one or more of the counties listed under the Clean Transportation Triangle (CTT) program, to include nonattainment areas, affected counties, and other counties... Read more →

To aid the safe implementation of automated driving, Toyota is developing a high-precision map generation system that will use data from on-board cameras and GPS devices installed in production vehicles. The new system will go on display at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2016 in Las Vegas next month. Toyota’s new... Read more →

Valeo has acquired the German company peiker, a major supplier of on-board telematics and mobile connectivity solutions. The two companies had signed a technology cooperation agreement in February 2015. With its technological expertise in the field of telematics and connectivity solutions, peiker enriches Valeo’s global presence and know-how in on-board... Read more →

Heriot-Watt University in the UK will lead a £2-million (US$3-million) project (EP/N009924/1) to develop low-carbon aviation fuels from captured CO2 and waste biomass. The multi-disciplinary project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) will be led by Heriot-Watt engineers and scientists in conjunction with teams from Aston... Read more →

SABIC is actively working on developing car window technology with integrated lighting features. SABIC first disclosed its efforts to develop polycarbonate (PC) windows with integrated lighting at the International Symposium on Automotive Lighting (ISAL), held in Darmstadt, Germany 28-30 September. There, SABIC showed a rear quarter window produced through two-shot... Read more →

XALT Energy and Efficient Drivetrains (EDI) announced a tentative agreement through which XALT will supply EDI with its NMC graphite Lithium-ion battery energy storage packs for use in EDI’s PHEV PowerDrive and electric power export solutions. Initially, EDI will use the first generation XALT Energy battery system in a first-of-its-type... Read more →

Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed a novel electrolyte for use in solid-state lithium batteries that overcomes many of the problems that plague other solid electrolytes while also showing signs of being... Read more →

Researchers at the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have made advances toward affordable photoelectrochemical (PEC) production of hydrogen. A paper on their work is published in Nature Materials. The PEC process uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The process requires special semiconductors, the PEC... Read more →

UPS will supply its fleet in Memphis, Tenn., and Jackson, Miss., with an estimated 15 million diesel gallon gas equivalents of renewable natural gas (RNG)—biomethane—as part of a multi-year agreement with Memphis Light, Gas and Water and Atmos Energy Marketing, LLC. Atmos will secure landfill gas and provide it to... Read more →

BMW and Nissan are partnering to offer public DC Fast charging at 120 locations across 19 states in an effort to support Nissan LEAF and BMW i3 customers and to promote increased adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) nationwide. Each of these new locations will offer a dual 50 kW DC... Read more →

In a new report, Electric Vehicle Market Forecasts, Navigant research projects that under its base scenario, global sales of light duty electrified vehicles (i.e., vehicles that use electricity for traction, including hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and battery-electrics) will grow from 2.6 million vehicle sales in 2015 to more than 6.0 million... Read more →

Washington State University (WSU) researchers, with colleagues from Archer Daniels Midland, have developed a catalyst that converts bio-based ethanol to isobutene, an important olefin widely used in the production of industrial commodities such as butyl rubber and ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE). Currently, the majority of isobutene is produced by the... Read more →