ExxonMobil said that a new unit at its integrated Beaumont, Texas facility has started operations, increasing production of ultra-low sulfur fuels by about 45,000 barrels per day. The new unit relies on a proprietary catalyst system developed by ExxonMobil to remove sulfur and meet US Environmental Protection Agency specifications while... Read more →

ITM Power announced funding from Innovate UK for a feasibility study to deploy a 100MW Power-to-Gas (P2G) energy storage project, “Project Centurion” at Runcorn, Cheshire, UK. This project explores the electrolytic production, pipeline transmission, salt cavern storage and gas grid injection of green hydrogen at an industrial scale. The feasibility... Read more →

Blue Bird just delivered the first electric-powered school buses to customers in California and Ontario, just in time for the new school year. Seven Type-D All American Rear Engine Electric school buses and one Type A Micro Bird G5 Electric school bus will be in operation this year. All of... Read more →

ExxonMobil has increased its holdings in Brazil’s pre-salt basins after it won the Titã exploration block with co-venturer Qatar Petroleum during Brazil’s 5th pre-salt bid round. The block awarded added more than 71,500 net acres to the ExxonMobil portfolio, expanding the company’s total position in the country to approximately 2.3... Read more →

Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc and its bid consortium member Chevron Brasil Óleo & Gás Ltda won a 35-year production sharing contract for the Saturno pre-salt block located off the coast of Brazil in the Santos Basin. Shell will pay its share of the... Read more →

Elon Musk, CEO and Chairman of Tesla, Inc., has agreed to settle the securities fraud charge brought by the SEC against him last week. (Earlier post.) The SEC also today charged Tesla with failing to have required disclosure controls and procedures relating to Musk’s tweets, a charge that Tesla has... Read more →

SEAT, a member of the Volkswagen Group, will introduce the first SUV powered by compressed natural at the Paris Motor Show. The new Arona TGI marks the fourth vehicle in SEAT’s line-up to benefit from the cleaner, cheaper fuel, joining the Leon, Ibiza and Mii. The Arona TGI has been... Read more →

smart will mark its 20th anniversary at the Paris Motor Show in October with the smart forease electric show car. The smart forease is distinguished by the absence of a roof and a shorter windshields. The vehicle is uncompromisingly open. The smart forease is based on the standard-production smart EQ... Read more →

In a project leveraging computer vision, machine learning, and sensors, Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists are working with private company GRIDSMART Technologies, Inc. to demonstrate how stop lights can be programmed to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions while facilitating the smooth flow of traffic. (Earlier post.) GRIDSMART traffic cameras... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) yesterday voted to clarify its requirement that automakers must comply with California vehicle standards if they sell vehicles in the state. A provision adopted in 2012 establishes that cars meeting federal standards for model years 2017-2025 are “deemed to comply” with California’s standards. This... Read more →

Entering into a strategic partnership, Volkswagen and Microsoft Corp. will collaborate to develop the ‘Volkswagen Automotive Cloud’, one of the largest dedicated automotive industry clouds for all future Volkswagen digital services and mobility offerings. With Microsoft as its strategic partner, Volkswagen is taking a decisive step in its digital transformation... Read more →

BMW has released the new 2019 i3 and i3s electric vehicles with 120 Ah batteries. Since launch in 2014, the battery capacity and range of the i3 has grown from the original 60Ah / 81 miles to 94Ah / 115 miles in 2017 and now 120Ah for 2019. With the... Read more →

Groupe PSA and Punch Powertrain announced their intention to sign a joint venture agreement, named “Punch Powertrain PSA e-transmissions”, to produce the future generation of electrified transmissions (e-DCT), starting in 2022. The e-DCT gearbox with a 48V configuration, will equip Groupe PSA’s future mild hybrid electric vehicles (MHEV). This gearbox... Read more →

Nel Hydrogen Electrolysers, a division of Nel ASA, has received a purchase order for the first Power-to-Gas (P2G) project in Australia from the ATCO Group that will use a Proton PEM electrolyser. ATCO is developing a Clean Energy Innovation Hub (CEIH) based at the company’s Jandakot Operations facility in Western... Read more →

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Elon Musk, CEO and Chairman of Tesla Inc., with securities fraud for a series of false and misleading tweets about a potential transaction to take Tesla private. On 7 August 2018, Musk tweeted to his 22 million Twitter followers that he could take Tesla... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted to extend the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) by ten years to 2030 and to double the program’s carbon intensity reductions target from 10 to 20 percent. Under the LCFS, petroleum refineries and fuel importers must gradually reduce the average carbon intensity of... Read more →

Elio Motors, Inc., the developer of the ultra-high-mileage, low-cost three-wheel Elio vehicle, has entered into a memorandum of understanding with a Fortune 500 OEM to provide the engine foundation as part of a new powertrain for the Elio vehicle. Elio currently projects that the new powertrain will result in $120... Read more →

BP and Johnson Matthey (JM) have signed an agreement with Fulcrum BioEnergy to license their Fischer Tropsch (FT) technology to support Fulcrum’s drive to convert municipal solid waste into biojet fuel. BP and JM have developed a simple-to-operate and cost-advantaged FT technology that can operate both at large and small... Read more →

As part of its plan to electrify its portfolio from 2021 onward, INFINITI will reveal a new Project Black S prototype in Paris, showcasing how Formula One dual-hybrid electric powertrain technology can be deployed in a road car. The prototype is based on the Q60 red S sports coupe and... Read more →

Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY has selected ABB to serve as the Official Charging Partner for the new Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY series. As part of this partnership, ABB will provide custom-made, compact fast chargers for each of the participating teams in this new electric racing series. The Terra DC fast chargers were... Read more →

The Volkswagen brand has introduced a new production strategy—TRANSFORM.TOGETHER—which targets a 30% increase in productivity worldwide by 2025 compared to 2018. Production is therefore making a major contribution to achieving the profitability target of over 6% for the brand. We must invest heavily in our future. Electromobility, autonomous driving, new... Read more →

Roadstar.ai has selected AWare, Renovo’s production-grade OS for automated mobility, as its development and commercialization platform. Roadstar.ai’s first AWare-powered vehicle model is the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivan. Roadstar.ai thereby gains access to the ecosystem of AWare-compatible vehicles, sensors, and other third-party technologies and services that interact with its automated driving... Read more →

As part of an innovative partnership between the Volvo Group, California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), and industry leaders in transportation and electrical charging infrastructure (earlier post), Volvo Trucks will introduce all-electric truck demonstrators in California next year, and commercialize them in North America in 2020. The California... Read more →

Ride-hailing accounts for approximately an 83.5% increase in the miles cars travel for ride-hailing passengers in Denver’s metro area, according to a study published this week in the journal Transportation by researchers at the University of Colorado Denver. For this study, the conservative (lower end) percentage of deadheading miles from... Read more →

Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) and East Japan Railway Company (JR East) have signed a basic agreement for a comprehensive business partnership centered on a hydrogen-based mobility partnership between railways and automobiles. The agreement is rooted in Toyota and JR East’s desire to link railways and automobiles (two key means of... Read more →

Volkswagen and Stanford University have developed in partnership a new catalyst production process to reduce the comparatively high cost of automotive fuel cell technology. One of the biggest cost drivers for fuel cells is the use of the precious metal platinum as a catalyst to operate the fuel cell. The... Read more →

NuScale Power has selected Virginia-based BWX Technologies, Inc. (BWXT) to start the engineering work to manufacture NuScale’s small modular reactor (SMR). The decision follows a rigorous 18-month selection process, with expressed interest from 83 companies based in 10 countries, to determine the best company to refine NuScale’s design for manufacturability,... Read more →

At IAA Commercial Vehicles, Dutch truck manufacturer DAF—a division of Paccar—is showcasing the LF Electric, CF Electric and CF Hybrid Innovation trucks. vocational product range that set the standard in quality, low operating cost and vehicle performance. The DAF LF series if for distribution transport, while the versatile CF is... Read more →

Ascend Performance Materials, the world’s largest fully integrated producer of polyamide 6,6 resin, will showcase a new grade of its Vydyne PA66 designed for automotive lightweighting at Fakuma in Friedrichshafen, Germany, from 16-20 October 2018. The new grade, Vydyne R433H, is designed to reinforce down-gauged steel and aluminum used in... Read more →

Cummins Westport Inc. announced that an independent study on the Cummins Westport ISX12N 400 hp natural gas engine demonstrated that the engine meets and exceeds California Air Resources Board’s (“CARB”) optional Low NOx standard of 0.02 g/bhp-hr. The study was prepared by the University of California, Riverside College of Engineering... Read more →

ITM Power and Johnson Matthey announced the opening of ITM Power’s seventh public access hydrogen refueling station (HRS) located at Johnson Matthey, Swindon on the M4 corridor. The opening is being supported by Toyota, Hyundai and Honda. The new Swindon HRS is ITM Power’s seventh public access HRS and joins... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced up to $205 million in grants for projects designed to accelerate the adoption of clean freight technologies and reduce air pollution caused by the movement of goods throughout the state. Eleven projects will receive $150 million from California Climate Investments—using proceeds from the... Read more →

The Department of Energy (DOE) announced $1.2 million in funding for four projects—two with the Vehicle Technologies Office and two with the Fuel Cell Technologies Office—under the High Performance Computing for Materials (HPC4Mtls) Program. This program aims to utilize the high performance computing (HPC) of DOE’s national laboratories to help... Read more →

In July, ITT Inc.’s Cannon brand announced that Efacec Electric Mobility will use its High-Power Charging (HPC) solution, comprised of a connector, cable and cooling unit, to power highway-based EV charging stations across the United States and Europe. The DC liquid-cooled HPC solution enables charging up to 20 miles of... Read more →

Toyota announced that it will provide its hydrogen fuel cell technology to Caetanobus SA in Portugal. Toyota will supply its fuel cell systems, including fuel cell stacks, hydrogen tanks and other key components to Caetanobus SA—the Portuguese bus engineering and production company—to build hydrogen fuel cell city buses. The first... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded MIT associate professor of metallurgy Antoine Allanore a $1.9-million grant to run larger scale tests of a new one-step, molten electrolysis process (earlier post) to produce copper from sulfur-based minerals—the main source of copper. One of Allanore’s primary goals is to make... Read more →

In 2014, at KU Leuven’s Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis, researchers succeeded in converting sawdust into building blocks for gasoline. A chemical process made it possible to convert the cellulose in the sawdust into hydrocarbon chains. These hydrocarbons can be used as an additive in gasoline. (Earlier post.) The... Read more →

Porsche has increased its total investment in venture capital activities by €150 million for the next five years. The objective of “Porsche Ventures” is to gain access to trends, new technologies and business models. The investment activities being undertaken by Porsche Ventures build in part on the company’s existing start-up... Read more →

The California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development has released its ZEV Action Plan Priorities Update. The plan updates the 2016 report, directing State of California departments to coordinate and implement specific actions that advance the uptake of electric vehicles. Governor Brown’s Executive Order B-48-18, signed in January, reaffirmed... Read more →

The European car market saw growth of 30% to 1.17 million units, the highest August result of the last 20 years, according to JATO Dynamics. However, registrations were boosted by stock clearances ahead of the introduction of WLTP, JATO said. This was evidenced by unusual results in typically slow selling... Read more →

Ford and Vodafone are now testing connected vehicle technology that could alert drivers to an accident ahead moments after it has happened. Furthermore, the system can provide early warning that emergency vehicles are approaching and direct to which side of the road drivers should move towards to avoid being an... Read more →

Paice announced it has reached an agreement to license its patented hybrid technology to Honda. Paice has now licensed its hybrid vehicle technology portfolio to many of the largest automakers in the world—Honda, Toyota, Ford, Hyundai/Kia, and others—who collectively account for more than 80% of all hybrid vehicle sales in... Read more →

BYD has completed its latest US investment, a new $5-million 100,000-square-foot warehouse for its Lancaster manufacturing plant. This is the firm’s fourth expansion of its current manufacturing campus in Los Angeles County, bringing its total investment in Lancaster facilities to more than $53 million. The new warehouse provides additional space... Read more →

A Dalhousie University-led team has developed a longer-lasting, higher-efficiency platinum catalyst. The new catalyst combines gold and platinum to form what’s known as a single-atom catalyst, resulting in nearly 100-fold increases in efficiency over market platinum catalysts, says Peng Zhang, the Dalhousie professor who led this research. A paper on... Read more →

EV startup Lucid Motors has entered into a preliminary agreement with Electrify America to provide Lucid customers a nationwide charging plan. By the end of June of 2019, Electrify America will install or have under construction more than 2,000 DC ultra-fast chargers at nearly 500 sites in metro and highway... Read more →

Groupe Renault is launching its “Advanced Battery Storage” program, which aims to build the biggest energy stationary storage system using EV batteries yet designed in Europe by 2020 (power: 70 MW / energy: 60MWh). It will have a storage capacity of at least 60 MWh, making it the biggest system... Read more →

The Nissan Note e-POWER NISMO S has gone on sale in Japan, offering buyers of the country’s best-selling car more power and sportiness. With a maximum power of 100 kW and 320 N·m of torque, the model is a higher-spec version of the Nissan Note e-POWER NISMO, released in December... Read more →

Ballard Power Systems unveiled its next-generation high-performance liquid-cooled fuel cell stack, the FCgen-LCS, at the IAA Commercial Vehicles Trade Fair and Convention. The FCgen-LCS features important design and performance enhancements, while also offering a reduction in total-cost-of-ownership. This stack will be a core technology component of Ballard’s 8th-generation power module... Read more →

The United States has increased the production of petroleum in recent years, accounting for 16% of the World’s production in 2017, according to the US Department of Energy. The total amount of petroleum produced world-wide grew from 66.6 million barrels per day (mmbd) in 1992 to 97.9 mmbd in 2017.... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded Hyundai America Technical Center $4.95 million over three years as part of an $80-million Co-Optima funding round (earlier post) to conduct research and development for an advanced mixed-mode gasoline (spark/compression ignition) engine to attain significant improvements in both fuel economy and CO2... Read more →