Widespread adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in California could confer significant economic benefits by both 2030 and 2050, resulting in increases to Gross State Product (GSP), employment, real household incomes, and state revenue, according to a new report commissioned by the think tank Next 10. The report, Clean Transportation:... Read more →

Of the 11.1 billion tons of freight shipped by trucks in the United States in 2018, 7.3 billion tons (two-thirds) were shipped less than 100 miles. Another 1.8 billion tons were shipped between 100 and 249 miles and 1.2 billion tons between 250 and 499 miles. Source: US Department of... Read more →

General Motors will invest $2.2 billion at its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant to produce a variety of all-electric trucks and SUVs. GM’s first all-electric truck will be a pickup with production scheduled to begin in late 2021. This will be followed soon after by the Cruise Origin, a shared, electric, self-driving... Read more →

by Michael Sivak, Sivak Applied Research. Vehicle distance traveled per person in Great Britain is currently about one-half of the distance in the United States. The issue of interest in this study is whether, despite this difference, the two countries show similar patterns of recent changes on this measure. The... Read more →

In a working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a team from UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) calculates that the social cost of the phase out of nuclear electricity production in Germany is approximately $12 billion per year. More than 70% of... Read more →

Rolls-Royce now holds a 73.1% majority stake in Berlin-based electricity storage specialist Qinous GmbH. The Group acquired the shareholdings of all other current financial investors, including that of investment holdings company IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH (Berlin). The founding shareholders will continue to hold shares in the company and will retain their... Read more →

Norway-based energy company Equinor has contracted with Eidesvik Offshore for the Viking Energy supply vessel, which is being retrofitted to make it capable of covering long distances fueled by carbon-free ammonia. The vessel will transport supplies to installations on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). The Viking Energy. (Photo: Eidesvik Offshore)... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $133 million in funding to support new and innovative advanced vehicle technologies research. Funded through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, this funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0002197) supports projects in advanced batteries and electrification in support of the recently announced DOE... Read more →

Bosch has increased its stake in solid-oxide fuel-cell (SOFC) developer Ceres Power from 3.9% to around 18%. The stake increase is achieved through a subscription by Bosch for new Ceres Power shares, as well as the purchase of further shares from existing shareholders. Bosch’s total investment will be approximately €90... Read more →

BMW i Ventures has invested in Software Motor Company (SMC), a Silicon Valley-based company developing reliable, efficient and intelligent motor systems. SMC’s electric motor system is based on switched reluctance technology, managed by advanced cloud software. The Smart Motor system partners a patented high rotor pole switched reluctance motor (HRSRM)... Read more →

Despite reports that global emissions of the potent greenhouse gas, HFC-23, were almost eliminated in 2017, an international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, has found atmospheric levels growing at record values. Over the last two decades, scientists have been keeping a close eye on the atmospheric... Read more →

The Hydrogen Council has published a new report, Path to Hydrogen Competitiveness: A Cost Perspective, demonstrating that the cost of hydrogen solutions will fall sharply within the next decade, sooner than previously expected. As scale-up of production, distribution and equipment manufacturing continues, cost is projected to decrease by up to... Read more →

Daimler announced a trial and development partnership with Israeli cleantech company UBQ Materials to explore the use of UBQ’s climate-positive material in the production of automobile parts. Daimler is also promoting the use of UBQ across its logistics manufacturers to offset carbon footprint throughout the Daimler supply chain. Daimler is... Read more →

Mercom Capital Group, llc, a global clean energy research and communications firm, released its report on funding and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity for the Battery Storage, Smart Grid, and Energy Efficiency sectors for 2019. According to the report, global VC funding (venture capital, private equity, and corporate venture capital)... Read more →

In 1982 there were over 250 operating crude oil refineries in the United States; that number declined to 132 by 2019, according to data from the US Department of Energy (DOE). Meanwhile, the total distillation capacity of all refineries combined increased from a low of 14.4 million barrels per calendar... Read more →

by Michael Sivak, Sivak Applied Research. Total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by all vehicles in the United States vary greatly across the individual states. The latest annual data from the Federal Highway Administration show that in 2018 the maximum (348,796 million miles in California) was 94.5 times greater than the... Read more →

SEAT, a Volkswagen Group company, has expanded the number of supply routes for the transport of components using duo trailers and giga trailers, the two longest types of trucks with the greatest capacity travelling on European roads. The Spanish company currently has two duo trailer routes that link the Martorell... Read more →

Over the last five years, Rolls-Royce has been pioneering world-first technology that will contribute to the UK’s next-generation Tempest program, which is developing a sixth-generation jet fighter for the British Royal Air Force and the Italian Aeronautica Militare (AMI). The “Team Tempest” consortium comprises the UK Ministry of Defense, BAE... Read more →

Jaguar Land Rover is developing a pioneering shape-shifting seat system designed to improve customer wellbeing by tackling the health risks of sitting down for too long. The ‘morphable’ seat, being trialed by Jaguar Land Rover’s Body Interiors Research division, uses a series of actuators in the seat foam to create... Read more →

New research from McGill University and the University of California, Santa Cruz has found that the local streets of the world’s cities are becoming less connected, a global trend that is driving urban sprawl and discouraging the use of public transportation. The new study, published in an open-access paper in... Read more →

Toyota is collaborating with Joby Aviation (Joby), an aerospace company that is developing and commercializing all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to enable the deployment of fast, quiet and affordable air transportation services. The collaboration reflects Toyota’s recognition of the long-term potential of the urban air mobility market to... Read more →

BMW i Ventures has invested in Alitheon, an optical AI software creator and deep-tech startup developing generative engineering software aimed at automating the product development process. All objects—even those that are indistinguishable to the human eye—have unique surface characteristics. Alitheon’s FeaturePrint technology uses off-the-shelf cameras and proprietary software to identify... Read more →

The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) plans to issue a broad agency announcement (BAA) to procure prototype or commercially available, off-the-shelf, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications devices to support USDOT 5.9 GHz Safety Band spectrum testing. The Safety Band is radio spectrum reserved specifically for transportation safety. In... Read more →

Both houses of the New Jersey Legislature (Senate and Assembly) have passed a bill (S2252/A4819) that establishes goals and incentives for increased use of plug-in electric vehicles in NJ. The Governor is expected to sign it. Specifically, the bill sets a goal of at least 330,000 of the total number... Read more →

Ipsos, the global research and insights organization, says it has uncovered the thoughts of consumers regarding BEVs. These new findings are released in the second module of the Ipsos Global Mobility Navigator Syndicated Study, in which 20,000 consumers worldwide shared their opinions on alternative engines and what it would take... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award up to $625 million (DE-FOA-0002253) over the next five years to establish two to five multidisciplinary Quantum Information Science (QIS) Research Centers in support of the National Quantum Initiative. The National Quantum Initiative Act, signed into law by President Trump in December... Read more →

Metal particles from the abrasion of brake pads (brake abrasion dust, BAD) may cause inflammation and reduce the ability of immune cells to kill bacteria, similarly to particles derived from diesel exhaust particles (DEP), according to a new study led by researchers at King’s College London. The researchers say this... Read more →

Integrating ridesharing with transit in poorly serviced suburban neighborhoods could be an effective way to get people out of their cars and boost ridership, according to the findings of a new study by researchers at the University of Waterloo. The researchers found that two-thirds of people who took advantage of... Read more →

Rio Tinto has awarded Perth-based company Mondium a contract valued at approximately US$276 million (A$400 million) for the design and construction of the Western Turner Syncline Phase 2 (WTS2) mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The WTS2 is part of Rio Tinto’s Greater Tom Price operations in the... Read more →

A new study by a team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) concludes that a high-pressure, scalable, intra-city hydrogen pipeline system could improve the economics and logistics of hydrogen delivery, making it potentially cost-competitive with gasoline. An open-access paper on the work is published in the journal Transportation Research... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) launched the Energy Storage Grand Challenge, a comprehensive program to accelerate the development, commercialization, and utilization of next-generation energy storage technologies. The Grand Challenge builds on the $158-million Advanced Energy Storage Initiative announced in President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget request. The vision for... Read more →

The Fiat 500 and Fiat Panda will be the first FCA models to adopt the group’s new hybrid technology. The 500 and Panda will be available with a new gasoline mild hybrid engine that combines the latest 3-cylinder FireFly 1.0-liter engine family with a 12-volt BSG electric motor and a... Read more →

Fourteen leading US fleets announced the formation of the ACT Fleet Forum, an educational initiative to share best practices between participating fleets, as well as top technology providers and fuel suppliers on adopting advanced, clean transportation technologies. Facilitated by clean transportation consulting firm Gladstein, Neandross & Associates (GNA), the ACT... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board announced a new program that will fund a variety of projects promoting zero-emission transportation options for students, parents and staff members served by school districts in California. Grant winners for the new two-year Clean Mobility in Schools Pilot Project are: El Monte Union High School... Read more →

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) produces annual congestion measurements for the 52 largest urban areas in the United States using data from the National Performance Management Research Data Set (NPMRDS). For the past five years, FHWA has measured the average length of time per day that monitored roadways were at... Read more →

by Michael Sivak, Sivak Applied Research. Since 2011, I have periodically examined changes in the proportion of persons with a driver’s license as a function of age. The previous study compared data for 1983 (as the baseline) with those for 2008, 2011, 2014, and 2017. The results showed that between... Read more →

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a quantum chemistry simulation benchmark to evaluate the performance of quantum devices and guide the development of applications for future quantum computers. Their findings were published in an open-access paper in npj Quantum Information. Quantum computers use... Read more →

A nationwide alliance of national labs, universities, and industry launched in December to advance the frontiers of quantum computing systems designed to solve urgent scientific challenges and maintain US leadership in next-generation information technology. The Quantum Information Edge strategic alliance is led by t Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)... Read more →

A study by an international team of researchers warns that the global transition to global low-carbon energy technology could be at risk unless new international agreements and governance mechanisms are put in place to ensure a sustainable supply of rare minerals and metals. Their paper is published in Science. Climate... Read more →

General Motors Co. delivered 2,887,046 vehicles in 2019 in the United States. The total included more than 1 million crossovers for the second year in a row, an increase of 12.7% compared to 2018, and more than 1 million full-size pickup trucks and SUVs. Fourth quarter North American wholesales declined... Read more →

In late November, Michelin and Faurecia formalized the creation of Symbio, A Faurecia Michelin Hydrogen Company, a joint venture combining all their hydrogen fuel cell dedicated activities, with the aim of becoming a world leader in hydrogen mobility. The two partners had signed a Memorandum of Understanding in March 2019.... Read more →

The US. Department of Energy (DOE) selected 16 projects to receive nearly $25 million in federal funding for cost-shared projects to advance natural gas infrastructure technology development. DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy will provide federal funding for these projects. These projects aim to develop tools, methods, and technologies to enhance... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) will invest more than KRW100 trillion (US$87 billion) over next 5 years—KRW20 trillion (~US$17.4 billion) annually to enhance its leadership in vehicle electrification, autonomous driving and mobility services, said Euisun Chung, Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Group, at the company’s 2020 New Year ceremony at... Read more →

From the 2010 model year through to September 2019, 14.6% of new vehicle sales in the United States have been pickup trucks, according to JATO Dynamics. From a 13.1% market share in 2010, pickups have grown to claim a 16.8% market share in 2019. Source: JATO Dynamics In contrast, pickups... Read more →

Closing of local automotive assembly plants may lead to increases in deaths from opioid overdose, according to a study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts General Hospital. The findings highlight fading economic opportunity as a driving factor in the... Read more →

The partners in Nigeria LNG (NLNG)—Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) (49%), Shell (25.6%), Total (15%) and Eni (10.4%)— have taken the final investment decision (FID) for the expansion project of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant at Bonny Island. This brownfield development, which is expected to start-up in 2024, will... Read more →

New methods of testing and simulating air quality should be considered in order to help policy makers have a more accurate understanding of how emissions affect air pollution levels, new research suggests. In a review published in the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, the authors claim that... Read more →

The Government of Sweden has launched a study to offer proposals on how to implement a ban on sales of new gasoline and diesel cars, and the timeline for the phase-out of fossil fuels. The final report is to be presented by 1 February 2021. Sven Hunhammar will chair the... Read more →

On a per-capita basis, the number of vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) on the nation’s roads varies from a low of 5,300 annual miles in the District of Columbia to 16,900 annual miles in Wyoming. These data are for 2017, the most recent year for which vehicle miles of travel are available.... Read more →

ExxonMobil announced an oil discovery offshore Guyana at the Mako-1 well southeast of the Liza field, marking the 15th discovery on the Stabroek Block. Mako-1 encountered approximately 164 feet (50 meters) of a high-quality oil bearing sandstone reservoir. Mako-1, drilled in 5,315 feet (1,620 meters) of water, is located approximately... Read more →