To cope with disasters, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) will implement DENDO Community Support Program, which aims to create a system to quickly provide MMC plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to local governments in affected areas. MMC aims to enter into disaster cooperation agreements with local governments throughout Japan by fiscal 2022.... Read more →

Volkswagen has acquired a minority stake in the technology company SeeReal Technologies. This participation will secure access for the Group to future-oriented augmented reality in the field of display technologies for the automobile. SeeReal’s solution to 3D displays is based on true interference-based holography. Holographic 3D (H3D) designs, systems and... Read more →

Nel Hydrogen Electrolyzer AS, a subsidiary of Nel ASA, has entered into a contract to deliver a 3.5 MW alkaline electrolyzer to a large, international energy company. Nel’s Atmospheric Alkaline Electrolyzer features a cell stack power consumption as low as 3.8 kWh/Nm3 of hydrogen gas produced, up to 2.2 MW... Read more →

Andreas Pinkwart, the Economics Minister of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Tobias Meyer, the Board of Management member who oversees Post & Parcel Germany, presented the 10,000th StreetScooter that will be used in DHL’s parcel-delivery operations at an event in Cologne. The DHL Group’s e-fleet has now traveled... Read more →

The Government of Canada recognizes that marine species, including the Southern Resident killer whale, are impacted by underwater vessel noise. Acoustic disturbances can reduce their ability to find prey, effectively navigate, and communicate with each other, while also creating stress. The Government of Canada is thus committing to invest up... Read more →

ITM Power announced funding from the UK Government for the Gigastack feasibility study with Ørsted and Element Energy. The project funding is for the feasibility phase leading, if successful, to the opportunity to bid for further funding for the implementation. Gigastack, funded by the BEIS Hydrogen Supply Competition, will demonstrate... Read more →

With the market launch of the new BMW X5 xDrive45e (earlier post), the drive portfolio of the Sporty Activity Vehicle (SAV) is now being expanded to include a plug-hybrid system. The second-generation of the BMW X5 with electrified drive combines a model-specific in-line 6-cylinder gasoline engine featuring BMW TwinPower Turbo... Read more →

A team from Northern Arizona University, Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have developed a high-resolution, bottom-up emissions map that includes every building and road in the Los Angeles megacity basin for a total of 176... Read more →

A team of researchers at George Washington University led by Prof. Stuart Licht reports that the addition of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) produced from CO2 by low-energy C2CNT (CO2 to CNT) molten electrolysis (earlier post) to materials such as concrete or steel not only forms composites with significantly better properties, but... Read more →

Since 2018, Volkswagen has used only SCR exhaust gas treatment systems with its diesel engines. SCR (selective catalytic reduction) technology significantly reduces nitrogen oxides in the exhaust gas. Volkswagen has now developed the next evolutionary stage of its SCR system: “twin dosing”. Adblue is injected selectively upstream of two SCR... Read more →

MIT’s fleet of autonomous boats (earlier post) has been updated with new capabilities to “shapeshift,” by autonomously disconnecting and reassembling into a variety of configurations, to form floating structures in Amsterdam’s many canals. The autonomous boats—rectangular hulls equipped with sensors, thrusters, microcontrollers, GPS modules, cameras, and other hardware—are being developed... Read more →

The Polish city Ostrów Wielkopolski is ordering six Solaris Urbino 12 electric buses. The contract value amounts to slightly over PLN 16 million (US$4 million). Four electric Solaris buses have been riding on the streets of Ostrów Wielkopolski since 2017. The six new Solaris Urbino 12 electric vehicles will arrive... Read more →

The “Forze VIII”, a hydrogen fuel cell Le-Mans-style prototype, became the first hydrogen-electric vehicle to beat gasoline-powered cars in an official race. The car, designed, built, tested and raced by a group of students from Delft University of Technology, finished second in the Supercar Challenge at the TT Circuit in... Read more →

A Stanford-led research team invented a new coating—a multifunctional network material—to stabilize lithium-metal anodes and finally make lightweight lithium-metal batteries safe and long lasting, which could usher in the next-generation of electric vehicles. By integrating dynamic flowability, fast single-ion conduction, and electrolyte-blocking property into a single matrix—the dynamic single-ion-conductive network... Read more →

Polestar, the electric performance brand jointly owned by Volvo Car Group and Zhejiang Geely Holding, opened its first production facility. Polestar also announced its World Manufacturing Identifier, which officiates the brand as a standalone car company. The new Polestar Production Center in Chengdu, China will produce the Polestar 1—a carbon... Read more →

Despite continuing economic uncertainty and diminishing consumer confidence, the European car market registered growth in July 2019, as registrations were up by 1.2% to 1,325,600 units, according to JATO Dynamics. Although the growth was marginal, it marks a significant improvement on the drop seen in June, when registrations fell by... Read more →

Cummins Inc. has entered a multi-year partnership with the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and its battery validation lab to analyze viable business and technical approaches revto reuse and repurpose electric vehicle batteries effectively. Under the agreement, UC San Diego will perform accelerated testing and real-world application testing, and... Read more →

Fleet drivers in Northern and Central California can now fuel up at multiple commercial fueling sites with high-performance, low-carbon Neste MY Renewable Diesel with the recent opening of three new locations. The new cardlock stations join the first location in San Leandro, California, which opened in March 2019. Made by... Read more →

In 2015, ship emissions increased summer PM2.5 concentrations and O3 mixing ratios by 1.4 μg/m3 and 1.9 ppb, respectively, within the Pearl River Delta (PRD), China, according to a new study by a team from Emory University and the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). This resulted in an estimated... Read more →

technotrans SE will be presenting their e-battery battery coolers at this year’s Busworld Europe in Brussels from 18 to 23 October. In addition, the provider will also show cooling solutions for charging stations. The temperature of the lithium-ion batteries installed in e-vehicles is crucial for their performance and service life.... Read more →

The Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH) has achieved a breakthrough with transistors based on gallium oxide (beta-Ga2O3). The newly developed beta-Ga2O3-MOSFETs (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor) provide a high breakdown voltage combined with high current conductivity. Gallium oxide chip with transistor structures and for measurement purposes, processed at FBH via projection lithography. Credit: FBH/schurian.com With... Read more →

Toyota Motor Corporation and Suzuki Motor Corporation entered into a capital alliance agreement to establish and promote a long-term partnership between the two companies for promoting collaboration in new fields, including the field of autonomous driving. Toyota plans to acquire 24,000,000 shares of common stock in Suzuki (4.94% ownership of... Read more →

Dana Incorporated has acquired Nordresa Motors, Inc., an integration and application engineering expert for the development and commercialization of electric powertrains for commercial vehicles. Two Nordresa systems are now available: the W Series, a walk-in van based on Ford’s E-450 chassis, and the T Series, for cab forward trucks. Terms... Read more →

From the end of August the EBS public transport company will be operating 93 Mercedes-Benz Citaro NGT hybrid low-floor urban buses in the Rotterdam - The Hague metropolitan area. The fleet is made up of 83 Citaro NGT hybrid solo buses and ten Citaro G NGT hybrid articulated buses. Their... Read more →

In June 2019, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) were responsible for 91% of all passenger electrified vehicle battery capacity deployed globally (in GWh) versus just 84% in June 2018, according to Adamas Intelligence’s latest ‘EV Battery Capacity Monthly’ report. There are two causes for the increase in capacity deployed by BEVs... Read more →

Earlier this month, China-based EV company NIO and ProLogium, a developer of solid-state Li-ion batteries, signed a strategic cooperation, the short-term goal of which is the creation of a prototype using a ProLogium solid-state battery pack. More in­depth discussions will follow with respect to the cooperation in the production of... Read more →

Researchers at MIT and the Ford Motor Company have found that depending on the location, lightweight conventional vehicles could have a lower lifecycle greenhouse gas impact than electric vehicles, at least in the near term. Their paper is published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology. Assessments of GHG... Read more →

According to a new report from Navigant Research, Asia Pacific is anticipated to be the largest regional market for energy storage software platforms. Driven by a rapidly growing battery ESS (BESS) market, the region is expected to account for $10.7 billion in cumulative software vendor revenue through 2028. As the... Read more →

Sales of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) in California during the second quarter of 2019 were largely stable from the prior quarter with a slight increase to 26,754 units from 26,053, although with a slight drop in market share from 5.6% to 5.5%, according to an analysis of new vehicle sales... Read more →

KLA Corporation announced that the Automotive Electronics Council (AEC), the organization that sets qualification standards for electronic components in the automotive industry, has accepted the company as an associate member. As the first semiconductor equipment company to join AEC, KLA helps chip manufacturers implement Zero Defect strategies aimed at optimizing... Read more →

BP has agreed to sell its entire business in Alaska to Hilcorp Alaska, based in Anchorage, Alaska. Under the terms of the agreement, Hilcorp will purchase all of BP’s interests in the state for a total consideration of $5.6 billion. The sale will include BP’s entire upstream and midstream business... Read more →

On the eve of its 50th anniversary earlier this month, Embraer unveiled images of a demonstrator aircraft with 100% electric propulsion technology, which is currently under development in collaboration with WEG. The first flight of the prototype is scheduled for 2020. The electric prototype is based on the EMB-203 Ipanema.... Read more →

BorgWarner has optimized the latest generation of its all-wheel drive (AWD) coupling with a compact brushless direct current (BLDC) motor and highly integrated electronics. The resulting actuator unit has very high durability and weight savings of approximately 15% in comparison to a conventional AWD coupling. The lightweight, high-performance design has... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group has developed a new prototype electric scooter. Building on its initial concept presented at CES 2017, the new model features rear-wheel drive, a lithium-ion battery and stylish front and rear lights. The latest concept features in future Hyundai Motor Group plans to enable first- and last-mile mobility... Read more →

The new Passat GTE plug-in hybrid features, under the new WLTP cycle, an electric range of up to 54 km (33.6 miles) (Variant) or 56 km (34.8 miles)(sedan). The battery’s energy capacity has been increased by 31% to a total of 13 kWh. The purely electric range of the predecessor—determined... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group opened Hyundai Hydrogen World—an exhibition hall dedicated to the fuel-cell electric vehicle, related technologies and energy—at the center of the Century Square in Shanghai. The exhibit is open to the public from 26 August through 8 September. The oval-shape arena covering 406 square meters enables visitors to... Read more →

The Motor Vehicles and Component Parts sector employed 3% more people in 2018 than 2017. More than 2 million employees in the sector worked with conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles in 2018, up 1.4% from 2017. About 110,000 employees worked with hybrid electric vehicles, up 10% from 2017. Electric vehicle... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz will continue its engagement in the small van segment and has decided on the successor of its small van Citan as part of the Mercedes-Benz Vans product portfolio—including an electric version. The vehicle will again be established in cooperation with Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi. The new Citan will undergo a comprehensive new... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) will host a public workshop to discuss regulatory concepts to reduce NOx emissions from new on-road heavy-duty vehicles greater than 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating. A key measure in ARB’s Mobile Source Strategy is the establishment of low oxides of nitrogen (NOx) engine... Read more →

Researchers at MIT, with a colleague from Tsinghua University, have developed a safety envelope for Li-ion batteries in electric vehicles by using a high accuracy finite element model of a pouch cell to produce more than 2,500 simulations and subsequently analyzing the data with Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. The safety... Read more →

A University of Texas at Dallas physicist has teamed with Texas Instruments Inc. to demonstrate thermoelectric generators (TEGs) created using nanostructured silicon thermopiles fabricated on an industrial silicon complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) process line. Described in a paper in the journal Nature Electronics, these TEGs exhibit a high specific power generation... Read more →

Crude oil and gas naturally escape from the seabed in many places known as seeps. There, these hydrocarbons move up from source rocks through fractures and sediments towards the surface, where they leak out of the ground and sustain a diversity of densely populated habitats in the dark ocean. A... Read more →

A new study led by University of Chicago researchers finds an association between exposure to environmental pollution and an increase in the prevalence of neuropsychiatric disorders. Based on analysis of large population data sets from both the United States (151 million unique individuals) and Denmark (1.4 million unique individuals), the... Read more →

On behalf of the Australian Government, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced $15 million in funding to Evie Networks to roll out the largest ultra-fast battery electric vehicle (EV) charging network along Australia’s highways. The funding will support the first phase of the $50.2-million intercity highway charging network with... Read more →

Starting with model year 2020, the Chevrolet Bolt EV will offer an EPA-estimated 259 miles of range on a full charge , a 21-mile increase (+8.8%) over previous model years. Chevrolet’s battery engineering team improved the energy of the cell electrodes by making small changes to the cell chemistry. This... Read more →

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is providing $950,000 in funding for gas company BOC for a renewable hydrogen production and refueling project in Queensland. The $3.1-million pilot project will involve the installation of a 220 kW electrolyzer and a 100 kW solar array at BOC’s Bulwer Island gas facility... Read more →

Natural Resources Canada is awarding almost $2 million to Mogile Technologies Inc., a Québec-based company, to develop two innovative electric vehicle infrastructure solutions in Québec. The first project, with an investment of $1.136 million, will test new technology—compatible with multiple electric vehicle charging networks—designed to reduce peak period demand on... Read more →

Researchers in the UK report that, with a bit of management, a largely untended slag heap could absorb significant amounts of CO2, partially offsetting the emissions from steel production. Their open-access paper is published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology. Pullin et al. Steel slag is a by-product... Read more →

Researchers at the University of Delaware have demonstrated a direct ammonia fuel cell (DAFC) prototype with a peak power density of 135 mW cm−2. The DAFC employs an ammonia-tolerant precious-metal-free cathode catalyst and a high-temperature-stable hydroxide exchange membrane. Their paper is publishedin the journal Joule. The researchers started by analyzing... Read more →

Heavily polluted areas have a higher rate of angioplasty procedures to treat blocked arteries than areas with clean air, according to research to be presented at ESC Congress 2019 together with the World Congress of Cardiology. Procedures are even more common in winter, the most polluted time of year. Epidemiological... Read more →