Altair and the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) announced the winners of the 5th annual Altair Enlighten Award, which strives to promote and celebrate innovation in automotive lightweighting. The winner of the Full Vehicle category was the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica, which is 249 pounds (113 kilograms) lighter than its predecessor.... Read more →

Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) and the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) will support the American Center for Mobility (ACM) (earlier post) as a Founder-level sponsor with a $5-million contribution. The ACM is a non-profit testing and product development facility for future mobility, designed to enable safe validation of connected and... Read more →

At the CAR Management Briefing Seminars (MBS, Toyota was presented with an Altair Enlighten Award for its use of innovative weight reducing vehicle closure systems. The award program honored Toyota’s use of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) inner panels on the Prius Prime liftgate and Lexus LC 500 side doors... Read more →

Germany’s H2 filling station network is growing at an increasing pace. After the opening of stations in Wiesbaden and Frankfurt in June, Daimler, Shell and Linde have now commissioned two more hydrogen stations in Sindelfingen and Pforzheim. This brings the number of fueling options for fuel-cell cars in Baden-Württemberg to... Read more →

South African engineering company Swayana has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with LanzaTech to collaborate on developing projects for the production of ethanol and higher value products from waste gases in the ferroalloy and titania smelting sectors. LanzaTech’s first commercial facility will be online at the end of 2017... Read more →

The US DOE has selected four new projects designed to overcome technical hurdles in reducing the weight of vehicle components. The projects are part of a first round of industrial assistance opportunities supported by the Department of Energy’s LightMAT, the Lightweight Materials Consortium (earlier post). DOE will provide $1.2 million... Read more →

Verdezyne Inc., a synthetic biology company producing bio-based chemicals, held a groundbreaking ceremony for its VerdePalm plant, Verdezyne’s first commercial-scale renewable chemicals manufacturing facility, in southern Malaysia. The new facility is designed to produce bio-based long chain diacids via fermentation of Verdezyne’s proprietary yeast, which has been engineered to use... Read more →

An international research team led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have developed a light-activated material that can chemically convert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide without generating unwanted byproducts. When exposed to visible light, the material,... Read more →

BASF SE plans to establish a new Group company, BASF 3D Printing Solutions GmbH, as of 1 September 2017. This wholly-owned subsidiary of BASF New Business GmbH will be headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, at the site of InnovationLab GmbH. It will focus on establishing and expanding the business with materials,... Read more →

Although consumer electronics—devices such as smartphones and laptops—have traditionally driven the most demand for energy storage devices, transportation and stationary applications will soon become the largest energy storage markets, according to Lux Research. By 2025 the energy storage market will top $100 billion with applications in transportation alone reaching $69... Read more →

The Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF) has launched a research program to spur the development of a “hydrogen society”—envisioned as a set of communities with integrated, green-energy networks powered by mini-hydrogen plants that aim to create a carbon-free, hydrogen distribution system. TMF has begun soliciting research proposals under this new program.... Read more →

Researchers in Japan report that a commercially available TiO2 with a large number of surface oxygen vacancies, when photo-irradiated by UV light in pure water with nitrogen—successfully produces ammonia (NH3). The solar-to-chemical energy conversion efficiency is 0.02%, which is the highest efficiency among the early reported photocatalytic systems. This is,... Read more →

A new class of materials which are suitable agents for displacing oil in enhanced oil recovery operations has been developed by scientists at Swansea University (UK) and scientists at Islamic Azad University in Iran. The new nanoparticle-surfactant complexes, composed of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant and fumed silica nanoparticles (Si-NPs)... Read more →

NVIDIA has partnered with AutonomouStuff, a supplier of components used within autonomy systems, to deliver kits packaging the NVIDIA DRIVE PX in vehicles with sensors. DRIVE PX on Wheels is available in three versions: advanced, basic and custom. Each comes with a vehicle configured by AutonomouStuff with sensors and the... Read more →

Continental Motors Group is expanding its family of diesel aero engines with the CD-265 and CDR-285 engines. The CD-265 is intended for fixed-winged applications while the CDR-285 is designed for rotary wing applications. As the other members of the CD-200 family, the CD-265 and CDR-285 are horizontally-opposed (boxer), four-cylinder, direct-injection,... Read more →

Irizar has been awarded the contract for Madrid’s first 15 electric buses and Barcelona’s first four electric articulated buses. With the capture of these 22 new units for the mainland market, Irizar e-mobility has become the market leader for electric buses in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao and San Sebastián. Barcelona... Read more →

In agreement with the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (Kraftfahrtbundesamt – KBA), Porsche has recalled Cayenne 3.0-liter V6 Diesel models in the EU6 emissions class. The sports car manufacturer discovered irregularities in the engine control software during internal investigations and has actively passed on its findings to the KBA. As... Read more →

FCA US has received a certificate of conformity from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a conditional executive order from the California Air Resources Board (ARB), permitting the production and sale of FCA US 2017 model-year light-duty Ram 1500 and Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicles equipped with 3.0-liter diesel engines. The... Read more →

The Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) is funding research into solid-state materials for improved batteries and fuel cells. (Earlier post.) Supported work includes crystalline and amorphous inorganics, and polymers manufactured with glass forming, blowing/extrusion, rolling/calendaring, tape casting, and vapor deposition. At the upcoming 13th Annual Lithium Battery Materials... Read more →

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) has started production of the all‑electric light-duty truck Fuso eCanter in Tramagal, Portugal. (Earlier post.) Fuso is a brand of Daimler Trucks Asia. The Fuso eCanter is produced in line with the conventional Canter light-duty truck at the Tramagal plant. Only the electric-powertrain... Read more →

From 2019, a Porsche factory team will compete in Formula E. After four highly successful years, three victories in a row at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and World Championship titles in both the team and driver classification in 2015 and 2016, Porsche will end its involvement in the... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) today approved the first of four plans by VW to invest $800 million over 10 years in zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure, public outreach, and access to these ultra-clean vehicles for residents of disadvantaged communities. (Earlier post.) The investment is part of a multi-pronged settlement... Read more →

Four Japanese companies—Chiyoda, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha—have launched the “Advanced Hydrogen Energy Chain Association for Technology Development”(AHEAD) along with the world’s first Global Hydrogen Supply Chain Demonstration Project. The project, a subsidized “Technology Development Project to establish Hydrogen Society/Technology Development for the Utilization of Large Scale Hydrogen... Read more →

A study by the University of California, Riverside College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) found that a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Agency (Metro) bus equipped with an ultra-low emission natural gas engine performs significantly cleaner than its certification standards across all duty cycles. (Earlier post.)... Read more →

California’s 29th retail hydrogen station has opened in San Ramon. Built by The Linde Group, this new station is Linde’s third retail hydrogen station in California. Linde developed California’s first retail station in West Sacramento and also operates one in San Juan Capistrano. The San Ramon station offers fuel pressure... Read more →

Following more than 18 months of review and public comment, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved amendments to the state’s cap-and-trade program that improve its implementation and the state’s effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The amendments also establish a framework for the program’s annual limits on greenhouse gas... Read more →

Royal Mail has signed an agreement with Peugeot to purchase 100 Partner L2 Electric vans, to be used as delivery vehicles. The vans will go into service from December 2017 at delivery offices around the UK, supported by a comprehensive rollout of charging infrastructure. Royal Mail—since 2003 a quoted company... Read more →

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced that its technology partnership with the Sauber F1 Team, which was intended to start from 2018 onwards for the FIA Formula One World Championship (F1) (earlier post), has been cancelled. In a brief statement, Honda said that the project, originated after an initial proposal from... Read more →

DENSO Corporation is deploying Toshiba’s Visconti 4, its latest image-recognition processor dedicated to automotive applications, in next generation, front-camera-based active safety systems. Visconti 4 is a multi-engine road-safety solution that provides drivers with real-time analytics of road conditions and potential dangers. The Visconti 4 image recognition processor is equipped with... Read more →

China Yuchai International has delivered 76 diesel-electric hybrid buses, all powered by YC6A270-50 engines, to Siweimei Motor Transport Co., Ltd. in Shenzhen. This is the second large order from Siweimei since its purchase of 110 units at the end of 2016. The diesel-electric hybrid system used in the buses consists... Read more →

Transporting oil by pipelines is more than twice as safe as using rail, and marine tankers are safer still with a markedly improved safety record over the past 40 years, according to a new study released by the Fraser Institute, a Canadian policy think-tank. The study updates previous research that... Read more →

Cumulative sales of electric vehicles by the Renault Nissan Alliance rose to 481,151 units in the first half of 2017, reaffirming the Alliance’s role as the leading electric car manufacturer for the mass-market segment. The increase was driven primarily by demand for the Nissan LEAF and the Renault ZOE, which... Read more →

Cypress Semiconductor announced that global automotive supplier DENSO Corporation has selected Cypress’ Traveo automotive microcontroller (MCU) family and FL-S Serial NOR Flash memory family to drive the advanced graphics in its instrument cluster for the 2017 Toyota Camry. The DENSO instrument cluster uses Traveo devices that were the industry’s first... Read more →

36 electric power outlets will help trucks at the Merchants Distributors, LLC (MDI) distribution center in Hickory, NC cut costs and lower air emissions as part of a Duke Energy $320,000 electrification project. Instead of running engines to keep cargo cold, transport refrigeration units (TRUs) at MDI will be able... Read more →

A new robust and highly active bifunctional catalyst developed by Rice University and the University of Houston splits water into hydrogen and oxygen without the need for expensive metals such as platinum. The work, the team suggests, provides a facile strategy for fabricating highly efficient electrocatalysts from earth-abundant materials for... Read more →

HERE Technologies has launched the new generation of its HERE Real-Time Traffic service—the first global service on the market that integrates live vehicle sensor data from Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz vehicles with traffic probe information, resulting in significantly higher accuracy and more precise information about traffic conditions. HERE Real-Time Traffic,... Read more →

ABS, a leading provider of classification and technical services to the offshore and marine industries, joined the Unmanned Cargo Ship Development Alliance to work with industry partners, including class organizations, shipyards, equipment manufacturers and designers to advance autonomous shipping. The design will integrate features of independent decision-making, autonomous navigation, environmental... Read more →

Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast have developed a novel green route to convert aluminium foil waste into highly active nano-mesoporous alumina (γ-Al2O3) (designated as ACFL550). The material shows higher surface area, larger pore volume, and stronger acidity compared to γ-Al2O3 that is produced from the commercial AlCl3 precursor, AC550. An... Read more →

A team from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has worked with industry partners to use neutrons to probe a running engine at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source (earlier post), giving them the opportunity to test an aluminum-cerium alloy under operating conditions. The feat was a first for the... Read more →

At its 2016 Annual General Meeting in Switzerland, vertically integrated energy storage company Leclanché announced it has a confirmed order book of 95 MWh through 2018—equivalent to more than US$50 million in revenue—and a qualified pipeline of more than 450 MWh. In eTransport, Leclanché is expecting to generate more than... Read more →

Ricardo is creating a new global focus for its automotive business. The new Ricardo Global Automotive Group will provide a highly customer focused global structure that will enable it to optimally serve the demands of customers for clean powertrain technologies and all aspects of vehicle engineering, including autonomous driving applications.... Read more →

The UK Government unveiled its new plan to reduce roadside nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations in the shortest amount of time. Among the many policy and funding details in the UK Plan for Tackling Roadside Nitrogen Dioxide Concentrations, produced by Defra and the Department for Transport is the cessation of the... Read more →

Toyota, which has been working on solid-state batteries for EVs for a number of years (earlier post), is in the news with a report by the Wall Street Journal that it will be ready to commercialize a solid-state battery by 2022. Solid-state lithium-ion batteries, with higher volumetric energy densities than... Read more →

Nexar, provider of a free safety AI dashcam app and an open vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication network, introduced the first driving safety application leveraging the Qualcomm Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine (NPE) SDK. The NPE SDK is designed to help developers run one or more neural network models trained in Caffe/Caffe2 or... Read more →

In March, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced that EPA intends to reconsider its final determination issued on 12 January 2017 which recommended no change to the greenhouse gas standards for light duty vehicles for model years 2022- 2025. (Earlier post.) EPA will reconsider... Read more →

Praj Industries and Gevo announced that Gevo’s proprietary isobutanol technology will now be available for licensing to processors of sugarcane juice and molasses. This follows on the back of Praj’s development work, adapting Gevo’s technology to sugarcane and molasses feedstocks. (Earlier post.) The two companies entered into a Development Agreement... Read more →

Canada-based Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. (NMG) has signed a non-binding letter of intent with China-based Hunan Zhongke Shinzoom Co. Ltd. (Shinzoom), a lithium-ion battery anode producer and developer. The purpose of the proposed collaboration is to participate actively in the growing North American Li-Ion battery anode material market. The two... Read more →

A new white paper from a team at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) assesses the growing US electric vehicle market and the factors that are driving it, with a focus on the 50 most populous US metropolitan areas. Peter Slowik and Nic Lutsey analyze the connections among various... Read more →

China continues to lead the global smart meter market through 1Q 2017 with upwards of 408 million meters installed, accounting for 68.3% of tracked installations, according to a new report from Navigant Research. In Asia Pacific, the smart meter market remains fragmented, with a subset of the region’s major countries... Read more →

The BMW Group announced that the new battery-electric MINI will be a variant of the brand’s core 3-door model. This fully electric car will go into production in 2019, increasing the choice of MINI powertrains to include gasoline and diesel internal combustion engines, a plug-in hybrid (earlier post) and a... Read more →