Ford Motor Company, in collaboration with GE Healthcare, will begin producing in Michigan the Airon pNeuton model A ventilator with the goal to produce 50,000 of the needed units within 100 days and up to 30,000 a month thereafter as needed. Established in 1997, Airon Corporation is a privately held... Read more →

The falling cost of making hydrogen from wind and solar power offers a promising route to cutting emissions in some of the most fossil-fuel-dependent sectors of the economy, such as steel, heavy-duty vehicles, shipping and cement, according to a new report from BloombergNEF (BNEF). Hydrogen Economy Outlook, a new and... Read more →

Via, a company that provides digital infrastructure to power public mobility in cities around the world (earlier post), has raised a Series E financing led by EXOR. The financing values the company at $2.25 billion and will enable Via to advance its vision of efficient, accessible, and equitable public mobility.... Read more →

Volkswagen reports that, even before the launch of the new ID.3 EV this summer, demand for electrified Volkswagen products has increased in Germany. Every second order for the up! model series is for the fully electric version, with around 20,000 orders received over the first three months of this year.... Read more →

The SEAT Leon line at the Martorell, Spain, plant is producing automated ventilators to collaborate with the healthcare system in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. Going from producing cars to ventilators in record time is the result of the intense work of many SEAT employees. The motivation of everyone... Read more →

Cree has introduced the Wolfspeed 650V silicon carbide MOSFETs, delivering a wider range of industrial applications and enabling the next generation of Electric Vehicle (EV) onboard charging, data centers, and other renewable systems with industry-leading power efficiency. The new 15 mΩ and 60 mΩ 650V devices, which use Cree’s third-generation... Read more →

Aptiv and Hyundai Motor Group have completed the formation of their 50/50 autonomous driving joint venture aimed at advancing the companies’ shared vision of making mobility more safe, green, connected, and accessible. (Earlier post.) Headquartered in Boston with technology centers across the United States and Asia, the joint venture will... Read more →

The BMW Group provided some technical insights into the powertrain system for the planned BMW i Hydrogen NEXT and also reaffirmed its commitment to following a carefully considered and systematic route to emission-free mobility. The BMW Group has been working with Toyota on fuel cell technology since 2013. The two... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will provide up to $22 million for research aimed at achieving breakthroughs in the effort to capture carbon dioxide directly from ambient air (DAC). The initiative encompasses two concurrent funding announcements—one by DOE’s Office of Science (SC) (LAB 20-2303) and another by DOE’s Office... Read more →

The organizers of the Paris Motor Show have cancelled the main Motor Show at the Porte de Versailles, scheduled for 1-11 October this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fate of the accompanying 2020 Movin’On Paris Summit, the Smart City and side events, has yet to be determined. Nothing... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Company will establish a Hyundai Mobility Global Innovation Center in Singapore (HMGICs) to accelerate its innovation efforts, with support from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). The new innovative lab will be located in Singapore’s Jurong Innovation District. HMGICs will occupy a footprint of 44,000 m2 with the... Read more →

People continuously exposed to air pollution are at increased risk of dementia, especially if they also suffer from cardiovascular diseases, according to a study at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal JAMA Neurology. Patients with cardiovascular diseases who live in polluted environments may require additional support from care... Read more →

As part of a field test comprising four comparable vehicles, the first DAF CF Electric 6x2 refuse collection truck has entered operations with Dutch public waste disposal firm ROVA. The vehicle features a zero-emission VDL electric powertrain alongside a fully electric VDL refuse collection superstructure. The vehicle will be operated... Read more →

The all-new SEAT Leon offers five different powertrain technologies: gasoline (TSI); diesel (TDI); mild-hybrid (eTSI); plug-in hybrid (eHybrid); and compressed natural gas (TGI). SEAT is a member of the Volkswagen Group. In total, there are eleven different mechanical variants, with power outputs ranging from 90 PS with the 1.0 TSI... Read more →

BYD launched the Blade Battery, a development intended to mitigate concerns about battery safety in electric vehicles. The Blade Battery has been developed by BYD over the past several years. The individual cells are arranged together in an array and then inserted into a battery pack. Due to its optimized... Read more →

The development of renewable energy that is intermittent and decentralized requires the security of the electricity grid through flexible electricity storage capacities, especially in the form of batteries. France-based energy major Total is launching a battery-based energy storage project in Mardyck, at the Flandres Center, in Dunkirk’s port district. With... Read more →

BMW is introducing the BMW 330e and 330e xDrive PHEV sedans (earlier post) in the US with an MSRP of $44,550 for 330e and $46,550 for 330e xDrive sedan plus $995 Dest. The new BMW 330e and 330e xDrive Sedans utilize an intelligently controlled powertrain consisting of an electric motor,... Read more →

Lilium, the Munich-based aviation company developing an all-electric, vertical take-off and landing aircraft for regional air mobility (earlier post), completed an internal funding round worth more than $240 million. The round was led by Tencent, with participation from other existing investors including Atomico, Freigeist and LGT. The all-electric Lilium Jet... Read more →

Nuclear power plants play an important role in US electricity generation, consistently providing about 20% of total annual generation. Of the 30 US states with operating commercial nuclear power plants, 12 states generated more than 30% of their electricity from nuclear power, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).... Read more →

Researchers at the Graduate School of Engineering and Graduate School of Science at the University of Tokyo have designed and synthesized a fluorinated cyclic phosphate solvent, 2-(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)-1,3,2-dioxaphospholane 2-oxide (TFEP), for use in lithium-ion batteries. The solvent molecule has a fused chemical structure of cyclic carbonates that can form a stable... Read more →

An international team of researchers led by Hao Chen of Tsinghua University has developed a unique chemical boundary engineering (CBE) approach significantly to improve steel’s physical properties. In an open-access paper in Science Advances, the team reports that when applied to plain steels with carbon content of only up to... Read more →

The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) will cancel its June 2020 show in Detroit in light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic sweeping across the world and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s expected plans to repurpose TCF Center into a temporary field hospital. NAIAS will hold its next annual show... Read more →

The Government of Canada is introducing new domestic transportation measures to support provincial, territorial and local efforts to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 spreading from travelling within Canada. These new measures include: A requirement for all air operators to conduct a health check of travellers before they board a flight... Read more →

On 20 March, GM announced a cooperation with Ventec Life Systems to increase production of Ventec’s multi-function ventilator VOCSN to support the growing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. (Earlier post.) One week later, on 27 March, President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA), directing the Scretary of Health and... Read more →

Volkswagen AG is releasing employees with medical qualifications for up to 15 working days with full pay if they volunteer for work in the public health service. As of 27 March, there were 42,288 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Germany—a country-wide average of 51 cases per 100,000 population (0.05%)—with 253... Read more →

The first of 130 Solaris electric buses (earlier post), a Solaris Urbino 18 electric bus, no. 5870, has been deployed in Warsaw. Since the beginning of the year, Warsaw has been delivered electric buses under the contract that Solaris secured in July last year. Each of the 130 articulated, electric... Read more →

NASA has released a series of concept images of the all-electric X-57 Maxwell airplane (earlier post), showcasing aspects of its final Mod IV configuration during different flight modes. The artist’s concept image shows NASA’s first all-electric X-plane, the X-57 Maxwell, flying shortly after takeoff in its final configuration over NASA’s... Read more →

When searching through theoretical lists of possible new materials for particular applications, such as batteries or other energy-related devices, there are often millions of potential materials that could be considered, and multiple criteria that need to be met and optimized at once. Now, researchers at MIT have found a way... Read more →

For the past four years, the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) National Laboratory consortium has focused research efforts primarily on turbocharged (boosted) spark-ignition (SI) engines for light-duty vehicles. This research involves identifying the fuel properties and engine parameters that mitigate knock and emissions, while maximizing boosted SI efficiency and... Read more →

The decline of the European new car market has continued throughout February. According to JATO Dynamics data, 1,063,264 units were registered last month, compared to 1,143,852 in February 2019. This equates to a decline of 7.0%, as last month saw the lowest number of registrations since 2015, when only 955,113... Read more →

MobiledgeX and Savari announced a strategic partnership jointly to enable enhanced Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) use cases for automotive OEMs, their fleet management, and mobility-as-a-service partners. MobiledgeX was founded by Deutsche Telekom to help the global telecom operators offer cross-carrier edge computing services and capabilities, for their own use and for... Read more →

A sudden drop in miles traveled by car in the US triggered by wide-spread social isolation measures will have immediate ramifications for gasoline demand. IHS Markit analysis finds that US gasoline demand could fall by as much as 4.1 million barrels per day (MMb/d) during the COVID-19 response period. The... Read more →

Researchers at the University of South Australia (UniSA), in partnership with DragonFly, are working to deploy a drone to monitor and to detect remotely people with infectious respiratory conditions. The drone will be fitted with a specialized sensor and computer vision system that can monitor temperature, heart and respiratory rates,... Read more →

Advanced battery management and intelligence systems provider ION Energy has entered into a strategic partnership with European battery pack manufacturer Wamtechnik to facilitate the deployment of a prototype electric excavator for a leading European construction equipment maker. Wamtechnik undertakes the design and production of dedicated rechargeable and non-rechargeable battery packs... Read more →

Bosch Healthcare Solutions, together with Randox Laboratories Ltd., has developed one of the world’s first fully automated molecular diagnostic tests for COVID-19. The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is posing major challenges for healthcare systems and medical institutions worldwide. An ability to rapidly diagnose the virus is of invaluable help in curbing its... Read more →

A data-driven simulation system invented at MIT, in collaboration with the Toyota Research Institute, to train driverless cars creates a photorealistic world with infinite steering possibilities, helping the cars learn to navigate a host of worse-case scenarios before cruising down real streets. Control systems for autonomous vehicles largely rely on... Read more →

Brought to the US market for the first time in the 2020 Audi S6 and S7, Audi’s Electric-Powered Compressor (EPC) comes paired to the 2.9-liter, twin-turbocharged TFSI V6 engine. It consists of an electric motor with a small turbine that helps quickly build turbo boost pressure, sharpening throttle response and... Read more →

The technology group Wärtsilä has initiated combustion trials using ammonia. The research will help the company to prepare for the use of ammonia as a fuel that can contribute to reducing both the shipping’s and energy sectors’ greenhouse gas emissions. (Earlier post.) As part of the tests, ammonia was injected... Read more →

Brazil-based oil company Petrobras will direct part of the processing capacity of its high-performance computers (HPC) to contribute to the Folding@home Project effort on studying the coronavirus behavior in the human body and how the disease progresses, from the interaction of viral proteins, making way for for the development of... Read more →

The Toyota Research Institute (TRI) is expanding its exploratory research with the launch of Machine Assisted Cognition (MAC), a new initiative to develop and demonstrate artificial intelligence tools that can understand and predict human behavior in the context of decision making. A key pillar of TRI’s charter is to explore... Read more →

INEOS, a leading chemcial manufacturer, announced it will build a UK factory to produce 1 million bottles of hand sanitizer per month within 10 days and will replicate this in Germany. These will be produced according to World Health Organisation specifications and be specifically designed to kill bacteria and viruses.... Read more →

According to German Bioethanol Industry Association (BDBe), there is a secure supply of ethanol as a raw material for the production of disinfectants. Special regulations issued by the authorities in recent days permit the use of bioethanol to make the sanitizers needed. With this step, Germany is following a recent... Read more →

The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) data confirm large decreases in air pollutant concentrations—of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations in particular—largely due to reduced traffic and other activities, especially in major cities under lockdown measures. Reductions of around half have been seen in some locations. The EEA’s data are measured hourly, on... Read more →

A team of scientists led by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has captured in real time how lithium ions move in lithium titanate (LTO), a fast-charging battery electrode material made of lithium, titanium, and oxygen. They discovered that distorted arrangements of... Read more →

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., and Quantum Benchmark Inc. of Canada will conduct joint research on quantum algorithms using Quantum Benchmark’s error suppression technology as they aim to advance the capabilities of current generation quantum computing platforms. Quantum Benchmark, a startup founded by leading researchers from the University of Waterloo’s Institute for... Read more →

A container ship leaves a trail of white clouds in its wake that can linger in the air for hours. This puffy line is not just exhaust from the engine, but a change in the clouds that’s caused by small airborne particles of pollution. New research led by the University... Read more →

Transport for London (TfL) announced that all road user charging schemes in the capital will be temporarily suspended until further notice. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, asked for this move to ensure London’s critical workers, particularly those in the NHS, are able to travel round London as easily as... Read more →

Loop Energy, a provider of fuel-cell-electric range-extenders for medium- and heavy-duty transport applications, has received an additional cash investment from Cummins Inc. The further investment was made following Loop’s successful completion of milestone requirements established at the time of Cummins initial investment in September 2019. (Earlier post.) Loop Energy fuel-cell... Read more →

A software package, 10 years in the making, that can predict the behavior of nuclear reactors’ cores with stunning accuracy has been licensed commercially for the first time. The nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is the first to hold a commercial license for the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications... Read more →

Hyundai Hope On Wheels (HHOW), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization supported by Hyundai Motor America and its US dealers, is donating $2 million for COVID-19 Drive-Thru Testing Centers in partnership with children’s hospitals throughout the US. The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has created a particular threat to children with cancer, many of... Read more →