Leclanché has commissioned Comau to develop an automated manufacturing line for lithium-ion battery modules for transport applications. Comau, a member of the FCA Group, is a worldwide leader in delivering advanced industrial automation products and systems. Its portfolio includes technology and systems for electric, hybrid and traditional vehicle manufacturing, industrial... Read more →

Free2move, Groupe PSA’s mobility brand, launched Car On Demand, a service providing access to a car without long-term commitment. The subscription can be stopped at any time, at no charge, with a one month’s notice. The service adapts to the customers’ lifestyle, allowing them to switch vehicles, adjust their mileage... Read more →

A recent study has suggested a new strategy for storing hydrogen, using natural gas as a stabilizer. The research proposed a practical gas phase modulator based synthesis of a hydrogen-natural gas blend (HNGB) without generating chemical waste after dissociation for the immediate service. A paper on the work is published... Read more →

Volvo Penta presented a terminal tractor featuring a Volvo Penta electric driveline at TOC Europe 2019, the leading tradeshow for port and terminal technology and operations. Volvo Penta converted the terminal tractor to fully electric using proven electromobility technology from Volvo’s bus and truck applications. We strive for sustainable power... Read more →

While some stories in the media present automation as having the potential to eliminate large swaths of jobs in the near future, a new study by researchers Maury Gittleman and Kristen Monaco at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics argues otherwise. In the open-access study, published in ILR Review, the... Read more →

In April 2019, 6.7 GWh of battery capacity was deployed globally in newly-sold passenger BEVs, PHEVs and HEVs, an increase of 69% year-over-year, according to a model-by-model build-up using Adamas Intelligence’s ‘EV Battery Capacity and Battery Metals Tracker’. Among the NCM cathode family, NCM 622 saw a surge in deployment... Read more →

Kyocera, a long-time partner of an investor in 24M, plans to install capacity to validate the novel 24M SemiSolid manufacturing platform for Li-ion batteries. (Earlier post.) The facility, under construction in Osaka, Japan, will support pilot production of residential solar + storage systems in the Japanese market. The 24M SemiSolid... Read more →

Daher, Airbus and Safran are partnering for the design and development of the wing-mounted EcoPulse distributed hybrid propulsion demonstrator with a maiden flight scheduled in 2022. Based on Daher’s TBM platform, this project, kick-started by CORAC (the French Civil Aviation Research Council) with support from DGAC (the French Civil Aviation... Read more →

Airbus, Groupe ADP and the RATP Group, along with the Paris Ile-de-France region and the French civil aviation authority (DGAC), have launched a feasibility study to demonstrate an urban system of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. This collaboration, encompassing all components of... Read more →

Imec, a research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics, digital and energy technologies and partner in EnergyVille—a collaboration between the Flemish research partners KU Leuven, VITO, imec and UHasselt—has developed a solid-state Li-metal battery cell with an energy density of 400 Wh/liter at a charging speed of 0.5C (2 hours). Imec... Read more →

At the 2019 IAA Frankfurt in September, Tenneco’sPowertrain division will present its award-winning PRiME 3D simulation software which has been shown to cut development time for engine cylinder components by up to 70%. In an industry first, the software tool enables the generation of a physically realistic virtual model of... Read more →

Porterbrook and the University of Birmingham’s Center for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE) announced that the UK’s first hydrogen train—HydroFLEX (earlier post)— will be tested on the mainline railway following a successful proof-of-concept. The mainline testing of HydroFLEX marks an important step in the development of a zero-carbon emission propulsion... Read more →

Maersk is piloting a new carbon neutral product—the first of its kind in the industry—with select Maersk customers who are highly engaged in sustainable solutions for their supply chain. H&M Group is the first company to trial it as part of the shift towards carbon-neutral transportation. The biofuel in the... Read more →

Recently Volvo Trucks North America, along with automated vehicle software provider Perceptive Automata and customer Dependable Highway Express (DHE), showcased a collaborative innovation project designed to strengthen safety capabilities for the trucking industry through automation. This project leverages human intuition artificial intelligence that reads the intention and awareness of vulnerable... Read more →

US Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced $89 million to support innovative, advanced manufacturing research and development projects (DE-FOA-0001980). This Department of Energy (DOE) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) tackles key priorities such as domestic manufacturing for energy storage. US manufacturers have created almost 500,000 jobs since 2017 and more than 250,000... Read more →

Volkswagen has opened a new IT Development Center in its Gläserne Manufaktur in Dresden. In Software Development Center Production (SDC Production), up to 80 newly hired IT specialists will be working on the Volkswagen Industrial Cloud. In the future, the Industrial Cloud will link all 122 Group-wide Volkswagen production facilities.... Read more →

Despite weak EV sales growth in April 2019 versus the same month the year prior (up just 19.6%), total battery capacity deployed in newly-sold EVs (in GWh) increased markedly over the same period, according to Adamas Intelligence’s “EV Battery Capacity Monthly”. In April 2019, a total of 6.7 GWh of... Read more →

On the sidelines of the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and Global Environment for Sustainable Growth, US Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette; Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Hiroshige Seko; and European Union Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Cañete signed a joint statement of future... Read more →

British start-up Charge Cars will debut its fully electric Mustang at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. The Charge vehicle is built using officially licensed Ford Mustang shells from the 1960s, with components supplied by EV technology company Arrival. Only 499 versions of the classic redesign will be built, with... Read more →

The world’s population is expected to increase by 2 billion persons in the next 30 years, from 7.7 billion currently to 9.7 billion in 2050, according to a new United Nations report. The study concluded that the world’s population could reach its peak around the end of the current century,... Read more →

Groupe Renault, Nissan Motor Co., and Waymo have entered into an exclusive agreement for an initial period to explore all aspects of driverless mobility services for passengers and deliveries in France and Japan. The agreement is designed to bring together the strengths of each party and expand expertise by assessing... Read more →

Researchers at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in China report a two-step method for the synthesis of jet-fuel-range high-density polycycloalkanes from polycarbonate waste under mild conditions. An open-access paper on their work appears in the RSC journal Green Chemistry. Plastics are a family of organic polymers which are widely... Read more →

Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed new functional electrolytes containing multiple additives to enable Li-ion batteries (LIBs) to perform well in a wide temperature range from −40 to 60 °C. A paper on their work is published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Cells based... Read more →

Researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have demonstrated an advanced friction extrusion manufacturing process to produce nanostructured rods and tubes directly from high-performance aluminum alloy powder in a single step. Using a novel Solid Phase Processing (SPP) approach, the research team eliminated several steps that are required during conventional... Read more →

NIO has begun delivery of the 5-seater high-performance, long-range electric SUV NIO ES6, to its users. NIO ES6 Premier Edition vehicles were delivered to users in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The ES6 is NIO’s second mass production model, which we launched after the ES8. In less than five years, we... Read more →

Shortly before the market launch of its full-electric car sharing service WeShare in Berlin at the end of June, Volkswagen has entered a strategic partnership with the Lidl and Kaufland supermarket chains, which are owned by the Schwarz Group. The food retailers are to install 140 public charging stations for... Read more →

Oerlikon AM and MT Aerospace are partnering to accelerate the use of additive parts in the aerospace and defense industries. The partnership aims to bring efficiency and cost savings to the aerospace and defense market by providing end-to-end solutions to their customers. Additively manufactured components, also called 3D-printed or digitized... Read more →

The Lexus Safety System+ will be a standard feature in all US Lexus vehicles starting with the 2020 model year. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) there were nearly 6.5 million reported crashes in 2017 (the most recent available data) many of which were avoidable. Collisions that... Read more →

Two more battery-electric Mercedes-Benz eActros are now in operation in Switzerland: one for the logistics service provider Camion Transport and another one for the retail company Migros. The vehicles are part of the so-called eActros “innovation fleet” to test heavy-duty electric trucks with customers. The 18-tonne truck with Camion Transport... Read more →

Cal State LA has won a statewide award for its zero-emission vehicle sharing program. The university’s Parking and Transportation Services and Cal State LA Hydrogen Research and Fueling Facility received a best practice award for sustainable transportation in the 2019 Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Best Practice Awards competition. The contest,... Read more →

SensorComm Technologies received an award through the CASCADE Innovation Program, managed by Coachella Valley Economic Partnership (“CVEP”), to conduct an Internet of Things-based (IoT) emissions monitoring pilot program within the Coachella Valley in Southern California. SensorComm’s IoT capability will capture real-time NOx emissions data from a fleet of vehicles, and... Read more →

GKN Automotive, Drive System Design and the University of Nottingham are collaborating on an £8-million (US$10 million) project to design and develop a world-leading electric vehicle powertrain for the global market. ACeDrive (Advanced Cooling and Control of High Speed e-Drive) is backed by match-funding from the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC).... Read more →

Deep declines in wind, solar and battery technology costs will result in a grid nearly half-powered by the two fast-growing renewable energy sources by 2050, according to the latest projections from BloombergNEF (BNEF). In its New Energy Outlook 2019 (NEO), BNEF sees these technologies ensuring that—at least until 2030—the power... Read more →

The Volvo Group has signed an agreement with NVIDIA jointly to develop the decision0-making system of autonomous commercial vehicles and machines. Utilizing NVIDIA’s end-to-end artificial intelligence platform for training, simulation and in-vehicle computing, the resulting system is designed to safely handle fully autonomous driving on public roads and highways. The... Read more →

Siemens and Rolls-Royce signed an agreement today at the International Paris Air Show in Le Bourget (France) for the sale of Siemens’ eAircraft unit. Through its Vision 2020+ company strategy, Siemens intends to sharpen its portfolio’s focus. For this reason, the company’s business with electric and hybrid-electric systems for aircraft... Read more →

BASF and Sichuan Lutianhua Co., Ltd. (Lutianhua) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to co-develop a pilot production plant that will significantly reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency in producing dimethyl ether (DME) from syngas compared to the traditional process. DME is a methanol equivalent and can be used... Read more →

Neste, the world’s largest producer of renewable diesel from waste and residues, and LyondellBasell, one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world, announced the first parallel production of bio-based polypropylene and bio-based low-density polyethylene at a commercial scale. The joint project used Neste’s renewable hydrocarbons derived... Read more →

In a comprehensive joint study, Henkel and RLE International have examined and validated the potential of high-performance structural foam for lightweighting in automotive body and closure parts. The study has revealed that fiber-reinforced polymer components with structural foam ribbing and reinforcements can save more than 40 kg of weight per... Read more →

The Volkswagen Group has opened a new, climate neutral data center in Rjukan (Norway). The facility was set up in just six months in collaboration with the Norwegian partner Green Mountain. The data center will be 100% powered by hydropower in the future, thus saving more than 5,800 tons of... Read more →

Rockwell Automation, a leading solutions and services provider to the automotive industry, opened a new 8,000 square-foot electric vehicle (EV) Innovation Center at 111 North Market Street in San Jose, California, within its Information Solutions development facility. The center will provide live manufacturing demonstrations, hands-on trials utilizing new technology and... Read more →

Volkswagen AG intends to group more than 5,000 digital experts together in its new “Car.Software” unit with Group responsibility for software in the vehicle by 2025. The company plans to develop significantly more software in the car and for vehicle-related services itself and to boost the in-house share of software... Read more →

Emissions Analytics, a leading independent specialist for the scientific measurement of real-world emissions, suggests that mass adoption of hybrid vehicles, rather than low-volume take-up of full BEVs, is the most effective solution to cutting CO2 now and also in meeting 2030 emission targets. Of all electrification strategies, full BEVs currently... Read more →

Renault has launched the third-generation of its ZOE electric vehicle, featuring a 52 kWh battery pack that will deliver up to 390 kilometers (242 miles) in the WLTP—an increase of more than 20% from the prior generation. The growth in energy capacity uses the same sized-battery, maintaining the vehicle’s comfortable... Read more →

Together with telecommunications company Telefónica Deutschland and network supplier Ericsson, Mercedes-Benz Cars is putting in place the world’s first 5G mobile network for automobile production in its “Factory 56” in Sindelfingen. The 5G network is being installed by telecommunications company Telefónica Deutschland in collaboration with network supplier Ericsson. Once installation... Read more →

Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) has agreed to purchase five 35-foot Proterra Catalyst E2 electric buses and five 125 kW Proterra plug-in charging systems. CLT, which serves approximately 46 million passengers each year, becomes the ninth airport to purchase Proterra electric buses for ground transportation and joins a growing list... Read more →

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) statistical projection of traffic fatalities for 2018 shows that an estimated 36,750 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes. This represents a slight decrease of about 1.0% as compared to the 37,133 fatalities that were reported to have occurred in 2017. Preliminary data... Read more →

NVIDIA unveiled the world’s 22nd-fastest supercomputer—DGX SuperPOD—which provides an AI infrastructure that meets the massive demands of the company’s autonomous-vehicle deployment program. The system was built in just three weeks with 96 NVIDIA DGX-2H supercomputers and Mellanox interconnect technology. Delivering 9.4 petaflops of processing capability, it has the muscle for... Read more →

All Nippon Airways (ANA), Japan’s largest airline for seven consecutive years, has signed an offtake agreement with LanzaTech, Inc. for the purchase of alcohol-to-jet sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) beginning in 2021. ANA has always been guided by our values, and our decision to transition to sustainable aviation fuel reflects how... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has posted its preliminary draft calculation of 2018 crude average carbon intensity value, with the critical caveat that reporting and data entry for 2018 is not complete for all California oil fields at this time. When reporting and data entry is complete, this draft... Read more →

For every year except 2011, the United States has produced the majority of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) sold in the United States, according to the US Department of Energy (DOE). In 2018, the United States produced 75%, Japan 9%, and Germany 5%, while the remaining eight countries listed produced a... Read more →