Toyota Motor Corporation is entering a vehicle equipped with a developmental hydrogen-powered engine (earlier post) at the five-hour-long Super Taikyu Series 2021 Powered by Hankook Round 5 Suzuka S-tai, which takes place this weekend. Just as in Round 3 and Round 4, the vehicle will be entered under the ORC... Read more →
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Germany’s BMVI awarding Fraunhofer €80M for fuel cell production efforts
19 September 2021
Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) is awarding €80 million to the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s National Action Plan for Fuel Cell Production. Financing is provided by the future fund of the “Concerted Action Mobility” and is intended to promote the transformation of the automotive industry—in particular the supplier industry.... Read more →
Irizar has manufactured a liquid natural gas (LNG) i4 model coach with a range of more than 1000 kilometers (621 miles) for intercity or short distance routes. This option is an addition to the range of technologies and sustainable fuels that Irizar is currently offering, including electric buses, diesel coaches,... Read more →
Expanding its portfolio of solutions for the marine electrification industry, Leclanché is introducing a new “ports and harbor” infrastructure solution enabling hybrid and fully electric vessels to fast charge when returning to port. Its first customer for the turnkey solution is Damen Shipyards Group, a globally operating company with more... Read more →
Lithium price rises accelerated in the first half of September as surging demand and raw material supply concerns combined to push Chinese domestic prices up to their highest levels since mid-2018 according to data from Benchmark’s Lithium Price Assessment. Lithium hydroxide and carbonate price rises accelerated to new levels in... Read more →
Stellantis tests two new connected safety notification technologies in North America
18 September 2021
Stellantis is exploring two new connected safety notification technologies—Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) and Safety Cloud—in North America, giving drivers advanced notification warnings of potential hazards in their path. Greater connectivity speeds, improved hardware and expanded software expertise have opened new opportunities for Stellantis with safety systems being one of the... Read more →
As part of its more than $30-billion investment in electrification through 2025, Ford is exploring all-electric, purpose-built law enforcement vehicles. To demonstrate that a vehicle with an electric powertrain can deliver strong performance and stand up to demanding police duty cycles, the company is submitting an all-electric police pilot vehicle... Read more →
Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation will deliver 20 units of the all-electric eCanter truck to the Australia Post fleet. In October, Australia Post will become the first local customer to integrate the electric light-duty truck into its daily operations. Australia Post is a government business enterprise providing postal services... Read more →
Shell to build one of Europe’s biggest biofuels facilities for SAF and renewable diesel; 820,000 tonnes/year
17 September 2021
Royal Dutch Shell will build an 820,000-tonnes-a-year biofuels facility at the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam, the Netherlands, formerly known as the Pernis refinery. Once built, the facility will be among the largest in Europe to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel made from waste. Shell expects... Read more →
BASF and CATL partner with a focus on cathode active materials and battery recycling
17 September 2021
BASF SE (BASF) and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) announced a strategic partnership on battery materials solutions, including cathode active materials (CAM) and battery recycling. The collaboration aims at developing a sustainable battery value chain, in support of CATL’s localization in Europe and contributes to achieving both companies’ global... Read more →
South Africa-based Sibanye-Stillwater will establish a joint venture company with Australia-based ioneer with respect to ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project. Sibanye-Stillwater will contribute US$490 million for a 50% interest in the joint venture, with ioneer maintaining a 50% interest and retaining the operational management responsibility for the joint venture. The... Read more →
Solvay adds new thermoplastic composite capacity in the US to meet growing automotive and aerospace demand
17 September 2021
Solvay announced the installation completion of its new thermoplastic composites (TPC) manufacturing facility at its Greenville, South Carolina site. At full production capacity, the new line will add more than 30 positions at the 27,000-square-foot facility. The project represents a major milestone in Solvay’s efforts to industrialize its TPC capacity.... Read more →
Hyundai Motor Group introduced Factory Safety Service Robot, a robot for industrial site safety, and announced its pilot operation at Kia’s plant in South Korea. The Robot is based on Boston Dynamics’ quadruped robot, Spot, with applied artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous navigation, teleoperation technologies, and computing payload (AI Processing Service... Read more →
Lucid Group announced that the Lucid Air Dream Edition Range has received an official EPA rating of 520 miles of range. It is the longest-range electric vehicle ever rated by the EPA, delivering at least 100+ miles of additional range over its closest competitor. One of two distinct versions of... Read more →
Volta Trucks raises €37M in Series B; Volta Zero pre-orders pass 2,500, with an order value exceeding €600M
17 September 2021
Volta Trucks has raised €37 million (US$44 million) in a Series B funding round. Existing investor Luxor Capital Group led the round. Pre-orders for the Volta Zero now exceed 2,500 vehicles, with an order value of more than €600 million (US$706 million), having doubled in the past three months. The... Read more →
The first Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck pre-production units have begun leaving the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center; the all-electric F-150 Lightning goes on sale next spring. With 150,000 reservations for F-150 Lightning to date, Ford said it is investing an additional $250 million in the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center,... Read more →
Ballard Power Systems launched the FCmove-HD+ fuel cell module. FCmove-HD+ is designed for buses and medium- and heavy-duty trucks, and is the latest product in Ballard’s 8th generation heavy-duty power module portfolio. Ballard has been developing a family of FCmove products since 2019 to serve the commercial vehicle market. The... Read more →
Oregon’s Lane Transit orders 19 New Flyer electric buses and infrastructure
17 September 2021
New Flyer of America has received a new contract from the Lane Transit District (LTD) in Oregon for 19 battery-electric forty-foot Xcelsior CHARGE NG heavy-duty transit buses. The order includes six depot chargers and commissioning by New Flyer Infrastructure Solutions, supporting electric bus deployment in Eugene-Springfield, Oregon, and Metro Area... Read more →
Jacobs and Tula to cooperate on CDA valve actuation with Dynamic Skip Fire control
16 September 2021
Jacobs Vehicle Systems and Tula Technology have signed a cooperation agreement to accelerate the development of Jacobs Cylinder Deactivation (CDA) valve actuation technology in conjunction with Tula’s Dynamic Skip Fire (DSF) control algorithms (earlier post). Cylinder Deactivation leverages Jacobs’ well-established componentry to disable engine valves in selected cylinders allowing a... Read more →
Xtreme Diesel Performance to pay $1.125M penalty for selling defeat devices
16 September 2021
Xtreme Diesel Performance (XDP), an automotive parts manufacturer and retailer based in Wall Township, New Jersey, with a sales distribution center in Las Vegas, Nevada, has agreed to stop manufacturing and selling parts for diesel pickup trucks that, when installed, bypass, defeat, or render inoperative EPA-approved emission controls and harm... Read more →
Romeo Power and Dynexus Technology collaborate to introduce advanced battery sensing and diagnostics for battery-electric commercial vehicles
16 September 2021
Romeo Power and Dynexus Technology, a provider of battery sensing solutions and data-driven battery intelligence, will collaborate to integrate Dynexus Technology’s actionable battery performance and health sensors into Romeo Power’s battery ecosystem. The technology developed by Dynexus will initially be utilized for incoming cell quality control and end-of-line verification, as... Read more →
TWAICE, a provider of predictive analytics software that optimizes the development and operation of lithium-ion batteries, and pepper motion GmbH (formerly etrofit), a company offering solutions for the electrification (retrofitting) of used and new commercial vehicles such as trucks in distribution transport, buses in local public transport (LPT) and municipal... Read more →
Ricardo has won a national competition to demonstrate the benefits that transport location data can have on urban air quality. The project addresses both the existing vehicle fleet and also extends to long-term improvements in air quality. The award of funding was made by the Geospatial Commission in partnership with... Read more →
IVECO and Nikola open JV plant for electric heavy-duty trucks; 25 Nikola Tre BEVs to Hamburg
16 September 2021
IVECO and Nikola formally unveiled the manufacturing facility in Ulm, Germany for Nikola Tre electric heavy-duty trucks; production will begin by year end. The first Nikola Tre models produced here will be delivered to select customers in the United States in 2022. On the occassion of the launch, the two... Read more →
Ford, Argo AI, and Walmart to launch autonomous vehicle delivery service in three US cities
16 September 2021
Ford Motor Company, Argo AI and Walmart are working together to launch an autonomous vehicle delivery service in Miami; Austin, Texas; and Washington, DC—Walmart’s first multi-city autonomous delivery collaboration in the US. The last mile delivery service will use Ford self-driving test vehicles equipped with the Argo AI Self-Driving System... Read more →
Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), the public transport operator for the Barcelona metropolitan area has ordered 24 Solaris Urbino 12 electric buses, which will arrive by the end of 2022. The value of the contract, concluded as a result of a tender, stands at more than €12 million. The public... Read more →
Those who flew in 2020 had twice the environmental impact of those in 2019
15 September 2021
by Michael Sivak, Sivak Applied Research. The energy intensity of a transportation mode is calculated by dividing the amount of fuel used by the number of passenger miles traveled and converting the result into a common measure—Btu (British thermal units) per passenger mile traveled. Until recently, the energy intensity of... Read more →
Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution begin construction of EV battery cell plant in Indonesia; 10 GWh to start
15 September 2021
Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution have begun construction of an electric vehicle (EV) battery cell plant in Indonesia to secure leadership in the global battery electric vehicle (BEV) market. Hyundai and LG Energy Solution announced that they held a virtual groundbreaking ceremony with the Government of Indonesia at... Read more →
Embark and HP introduce EV drayage within autonomous truck operations
15 September 2021
Embark Trucks, a developer of self-driving software for the trucking industry (earlier post), announced a joint initiative with HP to combine electric and autonomous truck technology and create a more sustainable distribution network. The two companies launched an electric truck drayage pilot in the Los Angeles area, where local loads... Read more →
DeepRoute.ai has closed a Series B funding round with the investment totaling to more than US$300 million. The funding will further research and development, help scale automaker collaboration and fleet operation, and support the expansion of the team. DeepRoute.ai’s long-term strategy includes developing medium-duty trucks for urban logistics, improving transit... Read more →
India’s Shoonya campaign aims to boost electric last-mile deliveries
15 September 2021
NITI Aayog, the Government of India’s official think tank, with support from RMI and RMI India, has launched a campaign to transform last-mile deliveries and eliminate pollution through consumer engagement. Based on the Sanskrit word for zero, Shoonya will create a verification and branding system for electric delivery vehicles and... Read more →
Rio Tinto teams up with Caterpillar for zero-emissions autonomous haul trucks
15 September 2021
Rio Tinto and Caterpillar have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Caterpillar’s development of zero-emissions autonomous haul trucks for use at one of Rio Tinto’s Western Australian mining operations. The collaboration will see Rio Tinto work with Caterpillar to advance the development of the manufacturer’s future 220-tonne 793 zero-emissions... Read more →
Rolls-Royce and Flanders Electric have agreed to develop a retrofit concept for hybridizing mining trucks that can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 30%. It integrates mtu engines, batteries and hybrid control systems, and Flanders drive train solutions. The two companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding enabling them to... Read more →
Volkswagen of America announced another round of fuel economy figures for the 2021 ID.4 electric SUV. The ID.4 AWD Pro has an EPA-estimated 249 miles of range on a full charge and the AWD Pro S has an EPA-estimated 240 miles of range on a full charge. The ID.4 Pro... Read more →
Mercedes-Benz do Brasil has presented the fully electric eO500U bus chassis. The bus chassis was specially designed for Latin American cities and will be produced in São Bernardo do Campo, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, from 2022 on. The fully electric bus chassis has a range of up... Read more →
KULR Technology Group to provide lithium-ion battery transportation solution to Heritage Battery Recycling
15 September 2021
KULR Technology Group, a developer of lithium-ion battery safety and thermal management technologies, will provide its KULR-Tech Safe Case to lithium-ion battery recycler Heritage Battery Recycling (HBR), a new platform company of The Heritage Group, for the safe transportation logistics of HBR’s battery collection operations across North America. (Earlier post.)... Read more →
A new working paper from the the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) estimates the order of magnitude in scale and pace of national infrastructure investment required to meet the goal of 100% sales of zero-emission tractor-trailers (Class 7 and Class 8)—battery-electric and fuel-cell electric—by 2040. For battery-electric trucks, the... Read more →
Monash researchers stabilize Li-S battery with saccharide-based binder
14 September 2021
Researchers from the Monash Energy Institute, with colleagues from CSIRO, have used a saccharide-based binder system to develop a durable sulfur cathode with minimal polysulfide escape in a lithium-sulfur battery. The saccharide-based binder system regulates polysulfides due to its reducing properties. The binder also promotes the formation of viscoelastic filaments... Read more →
Roy Hill purchases Wabtec’s FLXdrive battery-electric locomotive
14 September 2021
Roy Hill, the largest single iron ore mine in Australia, has purchased Wabtec’s FLXdrive battery-electric locomotive, the world’s first 100% battery-electric, heavy-haul locomotive (earlier post) for the region and the mining industry. We are committed to transforming the next generation of transportation by adopting advanced technologies that improve energy efficiency,... Read more →
Volkswagen introduces Over-the-Air Updates for all ID. models
14 September 2021
All Volkswagen ID. models will now receive regular software updates via mobile data transfer. The updates had previously only been available as part of a test phase for customers who had registered with the “ID. First Movers Club”. The “ID. Software 2.3” offers new functions and optimizes existing ones. Networking... Read more →
Aurora provided a first look at the Aurora-powered Volvo VNL—Volvo’s flagship long-haul truck, integrated with the Aurora Driver’s sensor suite. This prototype is the first of the Volvo VNL fleet to be designed to operate with the Aurora Driver and represents a significant step as Aurora and Volvo begin building... Read more →
Kinder Morgan and Neste partner on major renewable fuels logistics project in US
14 September 2021
Kinder Morgan, one of North America’s largest energy infrastructure companies, is partnering with Neste, one of the leading providers of renewable and circular solutions, to create a premier domestic raw material storage and logistics hub in the United States, supporting increased production of renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel and renewable... Read more →
Heritage Battery Recycling & 6K partner to commercialize cathode-grade battery-recycling network for N. American market
14 September 2021
Heritage Battery Recycling, LLC and plasma technology company 6K announced an exclusive joint development agreement to produce new cathode material from recycled batteries. The process uses Heritage’s established network infrastructure to collect, store, and process end-of-life batteries, combined with 6K’s plasma technology to manufacture critical cathode-grade battery materials needed to... Read more →
Orange EV introduces new series of high-load, higher speed, fast-charge terminal trucks for intermodal operations
14 September 2021
Orange EV, a manufacturer of heavy-duty, electric vehicle (EV) truck solutions, announced its new intermodal terminal trucks, scheduled to be available Q3 2022, to meet the increased cargo handling and lifting demands required by port and rail intermodal operations. Orange EV’s T-Series Class 8 electric terminal trucks have been commercially... Read more →
IHS Markit projects for first time that 2050 global refined product demand will be lower than 2019 levels
14 September 2021
For the first time, the IHS Markit base case scenario for refined products expects total global demand in 2050 to be lower than 2019 levels. However, other more drastic scenarios for falling demand remain unlikely under present conditions. The findings are part of a new analysis by the Refining and... Read more →
The Citroën ë-Berlingo Van is now available to order. The electric version of the Berlingo, the second biggest seller in its segment in Europe, offers a driving range of up to 275 km (WLTP) from its 50 kWh battery and a volume of up to 4.4m³. ë-Berlingo Van is targeted... Read more →
Researchers from Tampere University and the University of Eastern Finland have found that the particulate emissions of auxiliary heaters can be up to a thousand times higher than the particulate emissions of idling gasoline vehicles. Their open-access study is published in the journal Atmosphere. Auxiliary heaters, sold under such well-known... Read more →
Researchers at The Ohio State University have used a chemical looping process to produce hydrogen from hydrogen sulfide gas—commonly called “sewer gas”. Hydrogen sulfide is emitted from manure piles and sewer pipes and is a key byproduct of industrial activities including refining oil and gas, producing paper and mining. The... Read more →
L-Charge, a Russian manufacturer of mobile rapid charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, has raised investment of $1.5 mln. The funds have come from private investors attracted by the ability to charge an electric vehicle with sufficient power for 100 km in just 3-8 minutes using a hydrogen fuel cell or... Read more →
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has released the 2021 issue of its Annual Evaluation of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Deployment and Hydrogen Fuel Station Network Development, pursuant to the requirements of Assembly Bill 8 (2013). This report is the eighth annual publication. This year’s report is the first to... Read more →