Researchers in China are proposing a new strategy to retard dendrite formation on Li metal anodes in high-capacity Li-ion batteries. In a paper published in the ACS journal Nano Letters, they describe trapping Li within hollow silica microspheres with a carbon nanotube core to suppress dendrite growth. Such an electrode... Read more →

Material scientists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have developed a novel process for analyzing, for example, the temperature and oxidation resistance of complex alloys that are made up of a number of different elements. Previously, such analyses used to take months. A paper on their work is published in the journal... Read more →

Porsche has opened its 100th sales site in China. The new “Porsche Studio” in Guangzhou uses an innovative sales concept similar to the “Porsche on Sylt” site. The sports car manufacturer plans to use the new site to interact with new target groups in their everyday lives in a more... Read more →

Beijing-based Evoke Electric Motorcycles is now using lighter, more energy dense batteries cells in its Evoke Urban Series lineup, enhancing the performance and overall feel of their motorcycles. Additionally, Evoke Electric Motorcycles has improved the battery management system (BMS) of the motorbikes, enabling better on-board diagnostics and longer battery life.... Read more →

Streetscooter GmbH, the wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Post that is developing a line-up of electric parcel delivery vehicles (earlier post), is using BMW i3 battery packs in some of its fully electric vehicles. The battery modules are identical to those of the current BMW i3 and are produced by... Read more →

Transit bus ridership in the US historically has been higher than transit rail ridership. In 1990, for example, there were 5.74 billion unlinked bus trips (64.1% of the total), but only 2.89 billion rail transit trips (32.3%), according to data gathered by the US Department of Energy (DOE). Source: DOE.... Read more →

Westport Fuel Systems Inc. signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with Weichai Power Co., Ltd., setting the framework for finalizing the development, marketing, and commercialization of the Westport high pressure direct injection (Westport HPDI) technology (earlier post) in China. Westport HPDI 2.0 delivers performance and fuel economy equivalent to that... Read more →

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have received a $3.9-million grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop bacteria that manufacture renewable biofuels. Building on prior funding from the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) for systems biology work on Rhodococcus opacus, this project will apply... Read more →

The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) is working to establish a vehicle fuel economy policy. The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) Head of Petroleum Andrew Guri said preliminary steps towards the policy have started with a baseline study having already been conducted. The study showed fuel consumption for local vehicles... Read more →

Québec Minister of Sustainable Development, the Environment, and the Fight Against Climate Change Isabelle Melançon has issued the final regulations in support of Bill 104 – An Act to increase the number of zero-emission motor vehicles in Québec in order to reduce greenhouse gas and other pollutant emissions. (Earlier post.)... Read more →

Workhorse Group Inc., an American technology company focused on providing sustainable and cost-effective electric mobility solutions to the transportation sector, intends to spin off its aviation division, which includes its SureFly personal helicopter, into a separate publicly traded company named SureFly, Inc. SureFly, Inc. will encompass all SureFly aerial technology... Read more →

Owners of the new Nissan LEAF in Japan can receive free installation of solar panels for their homes if they sign up for an electricity retail plan offered by Ecosystem Japan. The offer is part of a joint campaign by Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Ecosystem Japan. The campaign aims... Read more →

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (Geely Holding), China’s leading privately-owned automotive group, will acquire Cevian Capital’s entire 8.2% share capital holding and 15.6% voting rights in AB Volvo, the leading Swedish manufacturer of trucks, buses, construction equipment, diesel engines, and marine and industrial engines. Reuters calculated the value of the investment... Read more →

LG Electronics is partnering with HERE Technologies (HERE), a global provider of digital mapping and location services, to offer a next-generation telematics solution for autonomous vehicles. The solution combines LG‘s advanced telematics technology with high-precision map data and location services powered by the HERE Open Location Platform. Through their planned... Read more →

Solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) has the potential to be cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and highly efficient for the production of hydrogen from water. There are two types of SOECs, based on the electrolyte materials: oxygen ion conducting SOECs (oxygen-SOECs) and proton conducting SOECs (proton-SOECs). Researchers in South Korea, with colleagues... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Company has partnered with Silicon Valley-based SoundHound Inc., a provider of AI and conversational intelligence technologies, to develop the “Intelligent Personal Agent,” a voice-enabled virtual assistant system, which will be deployed in new models set to roll out as early as 2019. The Intelligent Personal Agent allows drivers... Read more →

Renesas Electronics Corporation is introducing the R-Car V3M Starter Kit to simplify and speed up the development of New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) front camera applications, surround view systems, and LiDARs. The new starter kit is based on the R-Car V3M image recognition system-on-chip (SoC), delivering a combination of low... Read more →

A new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health links short-term exposures to fine particulate air pollution and ozone—even at levels well below current national safety standards—to higher risk of premature death among the elderly in the US. The risk was even higher among elderly who were low-income,... Read more →

For use in autonomous cars of the future, Alps Electric has developed an input device based on capacitive technology that enables gesture and touch input and control of systems around the driver. The company will showcase the technology at CES 2018. The device contributes to a comfortable user experience by... Read more →

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation will exhibit a number of advanced technologies and products, including its EMIRAI4 driving-assistance concept car for safer and more convenient transportation, at CES 2018 next month in Las Las vegas. The EMIRAI4 smart-mobility concept car features next-generation driving-assistance technologies, including the latest human machine interface (HMI) technology... Read more →

The Volkswagen brand is stepping up the use of renewable energy in production with a view to further reducing its environmental footprint. Starting this year, the three production plants of Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH have been supplied with Volkswagen Naturstrom electric power from 100% renewable sources by VW Kraftwerk GmbH. This... Read more →

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have demonstrated a novel integrated conversion process for algal biomass to produce fuel and chemical products of sufficient quality to be blend-ready feedstocks for further processing. A paper on their work is published in the RSC journal Green Chemistry. Biomass from the... Read more →

In a new paper appearing in IEEE Access, members of the Camera Culture group at MIT’s Media Lab present a new approach to time-of-flight (ToF) imaging that increases its depth resolution 1,000-fold—the type of resolution that could make self-driving cars practical. The new approach could also enable accurate distance measurements... Read more →

GAC Motor, China’s fast-growing automaker, is returning to the 2018 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) for the fourth time with all lineup and innovative new vehicles. GAC Motor will be debuting its high-end flagship MPV model; a new signature sedan; and an electric concept car that targets the young... Read more →

Ballard Power Systems has developed a next-generation high-performance fuel cell propulsion system to power unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones. Ballard has also received a follow-on contract from Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary, for extended durability testing of the next-generation 1.3 kW fuel cell propulsion system to power test flights of... Read more →

Earlier this month, Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing Company, conducted a successful demonstration of the company’s autonomous helicopter system developed under the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) Autonomous Aerial Cargo Utility System (AACUS) program. Held at Marine Corps Base Quantico’s Urban Training Center, the AACUS-Enabled UH-1H (AEH-1) conducted multiple flights,... Read more →

The first new Mercedes-Benz Citaro mild hybrid buses (earlier post) have left the factory and will gradually go into service with Stuttgarter Strassenbahnen AG (SSB). They will be used to carry passengers on inner-city routes in Stuttgart. The vehicles offer fuel savings of up to 8.5%. In late 2018, the... Read more →

WABCO Holdings Inc., a leading global supplier of technologies and services that improve the safety, efficiency and connectivity of commercial vehicles, made a $10-million strategic investment in Nikola Motor Company, developer of a Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell range-extended electric truck. (Earlier post.) WABCO said that he transaction further demonstratesits... Read more →

A study by an international team of researchers has found that trees growing in the Amazon river floodplains emit 15.1 ± 1.8 to 21.2 ± 2.5 teragrams (million metric tons) of methane (CH4) per year. This is in addition to the 20.5 ± 5.3 teragrams a year emitted regionally from other sources. Their study is published... Read more →

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering have developed a technique to create high performance lithium-ion batteries utilizing sulfur and silicon electrodes. Reported in an open-access paper in the journal Scientific Reports, this sulfur-silicon full cell (SSFC) battery architecture gradually integrates controlled amounts of pure lithium... Read more →

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with biofuels that are produced from grain sorghum oil extracted at dry-mill ethanol plants. EPA’s evaluation of the GHG emissions shows that producing biofuels from distillers sorghum oil results in... Read more →

The type of biomass available for fuels and chemical production varies with the time of year and geography; the ability to integrate multiple feedstocks into the process of a bio-refinery can substantially de-risk the logistics of supply. However, pioneering bio-refineries have been optimized to process a single feedstock such as... Read more →

A recent user experience evaluation from the In-vehicle UX (IVX) group at Strategy Analytics of the Super Cruise semi-autonomous driving system in the 2018 Cadillac CT6 found that Super Cruise had two key aspects which provided a compelling experience, though it also fell victim to some of the same issues... Read more →

Four of 20 automakers report that automatic emergency braking (AEB) is standard on more than half of their 2017 model year vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced in the first update of manufacturer progress toward equipping every new vehicle... Read more →

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) will receive 25 35-foot Proterra Catalyst electric buses in 2019, in response to a significant commitment by the City of Los Angeles to deploy an all-electric bus fleet by 2030. The procurement will be funded in part by Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Low... Read more →

Daimler Mobility Services has acquired a majority stake in Chauffeur Privé, one of the leading private hire vehicle services in France. With this step, Daimler Mobility Services has an operational presence in 15 European markets, strengthening its position of making it the leading mobility services provider in Europe. As of... Read more →

The new Nissan LEAF, which was unveiled in Europe in October 2017, has accumulated 10,000 orders over the last two months; production is underway to support customer deliveries beginning in February 2018. At the same point back in 2010, orders for the original LEAF could be counted in the hundreds.... Read more →

Webasto, a top-100 global tier-one automotive and aftermarket equipment manufacturer, is entering the North American Electric Vehicle charging market and will unveil a full service electric vehicle (EV) charging program. The offer includes a professional, nationwide installation and service network. The wall-mount Level-2 charging technology products will be displayed publicly... Read more →

Leipzig’s Low Emission Zone was established in March 2011, allowing only access of Euro 4 and higher diesel vehicles, with few exceptions. A joint scientific study by the Saxon State Office of the Environment, Agriculture and Geology (LfULG) and the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) has found that the... Read more →

A project promoting expansion of California’s electric vehicle charging network to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light-duty trucks made its debut in Fresno County. Funded by the California Energy Commission and managed by the Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE), the California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure... Read more →

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has handed over the first e-Crafter electric vans (earlier post) to major customers from Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden at its headquarters in Hannover. The customers will be testing the new electric vans in everyday use until mid-2018. The customers include package delivery services, energy... Read more →

Renesas Electronics Corporation and Airbiquity announced a secure, high-performance automotive solution with over-the-air (OTA) capabilities, targeting advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), vehicle-to-everything (V2X), and automated driving applications of the future. The companies are integrating Airbiquity’s OTAmatic cloud-based OTA software and data management service delivery solution on Renesas’ high-performance, low-power R-Car... Read more →

Nel Hydrogen Solutions, a division of Nel ASA, has received $7.71 million in contracts for three hydrogen fueling stations. The first station will continue the success of combining Proton PEM Electrolysis with a Nel H2Station, and follows the $8.3-million contract announced in September for Sunline Transit Agency in California. This... Read more →

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have announced two new research projects, which will receive a total of $250,000 in funding. The first project will research a new technique to mitigate cracking and corrosion in piping and related equipment used by the oil... Read more →

China-based Didi Chuxing, the world’s leading mobile transportation platform, completed a new equity funding round of more than US$4 billion. Both Chinese and international institutions joined this latest fundraising round. With a substantial cash reserve, DiDi plans to scale up investments in AI talent and technologies, to further build up... Read more →

Quanergy opened a new production facility located in Sunnyvale, California to produce the S3 solid-state LiDAR sensor. The new facility features a high-capacity, fully-automated production line in a clean room environment. The line features state-of-the-art semiconductor handling and packaging equipment, including high-precision photonic IC processing tools and a conveyor system... Read more →

Swedish fuel cell company myFC is developing a range extender for electric cars. Aiming to show a prototype in 2018, the company has now initiated a project together with Gränges to accelerate the development. myFC, established in 2005 as a spin-off from the fuel cell research at the KTH Royal... Read more →

Berlin’s local transport operator Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) and ViaVan, a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz Vans and Via (earlier post), have entered a research and development collaboration to work on providing a supplementary local public transport service on-demand. A pilot project, which is scheduled to start in the Spring of 2018,... Read more →

The first Power-to-Gas project connected to the French gas transportation network—Jupiter 1000—is being built in Fos-sur-Mer. This 1 MW demonstrator will enable the transition from the concept phase to an industrial tool. The purpose of the project is to test the technical and economic viability of Power-to-Gas, by detecting and... Read more →

In Germany, Audi is extending its trade-in bonus for customers who switch from diesel-powered cars that meet the Euro 1 through Euro 4 emissions standards to an Audi that meets the Euro 6 standard. The price advantage is scaled by model—depending on the category of the selected new car, it... Read more →