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Tesla Executive Calls for Stricter Auto-Efficiency Rules

A Tesla Motors Inc. executive called on rival automakers to put more compelling electric vehicles on the road and said fuel-efficiency standards should be far more stringent. Most competitors “are focused on minimum compliance, lowest common-denominator behavior, and the vehicles reflect that,” Diarmuid O’Connell, vice president of business development, said Tuesday at an auto-industry conference in northern Michigan. He cited Tesla, Nissan Motor Co. and BMW AG as exceptions. Automakers are under a U.S. mandate to boost average fuel economy to 54.5 miles (87.7 kilometers) per gallon by 2025. Those rules come under mid-term review in 2017. Tesla would like them strengthened, a move that would benefit the electric-car maker while pressuring traditional auto manufacturers. Forrest McConnell, president of a Honda dealership in Montgomery, Alabama, and a former chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, countered O’Connell’s remarks by holding up a donut and broccoli as symbols of consumer […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Warren Buffett And Elon Musk To Spark A Lithium Boom

The age of electrification across the transportation sector, the solar panel revolution, and Tesla’s battery gigafactory are igniting a battle for the cheapest battery. That will transform lithium into a boom-time mineral and the hottest commodity on the energy investor’s radar. It has been easy to take lithium for granted. This wonder mineral is the backbone of our everyday lives, popping up in everything from the glass in our windows to our mountains of electronics. And while investors have long appreciated the steady rise in demand for this preferred mineral, the number of new applications continues to multiply. Smart phones, tablets, laptops, and other consumer electronics demand more lithium. But the largest driver for future lithium use will be in electric vehicles and home batteries for solar panels. That has lithium on the verge a boom for which supply can no longer be taken for granted. Not since the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Zero-Pollution Buses Emerge With Backing From Silicon Valley

An all-electric bus made by Kleiner Perkins-backed Proterra Inc. Source: Proterra via Bloomberg Chicago Transit Authority expects two electric buses it bought from New Flyer Industries will each save $300,000 in fuel costs and $660,000 in public health costs over their 12-year expected runs. That more than makes up for the $500,000 premium over the diesel buses that the electric ones replaced. They can run for 100 miles — a full day’s work — before needing to recharge overnight. CTA operates about 1,800 buses. ‘Most Sense’ “Electric drive trains make the most sense in heavier vehicles,” said Michael Linse, a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins that’s made early investments in Proterra. “Hybrids get a third of the market now and they’re just marginally better and very expensive at $650,000 to $700,000. It was almost all diesel 10 years ago.” BYD Co., the Chinese automaker partly-owned by Warren […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Flotilla of European Gasoline Tankers Fuels U.S. Driving Binge

As a flotilla of gasoline tankers steams across the Atlantic Ocean to the U.S., European motorists are paying more for their gasoline because Americans are driving more than ever. Surging demand and rising prices for gasoline in the U.S. are luring about double the number of tankers compared with 2014, boosting shipping rates to the highest seasonal levels in seven years. With so much being exported, fuel prices in Europe have increased almost four times faster than crude since February to the equivalent of more than $6 a gallon. The flotilla underscores the rising thirst for fuel after oil prices fell by half since June 2014 and the U.S. economy improved. Americans are driving record miles, raising consumption of gasoline and profit margins for refiners. The International Energy Agency said global oil demand is expected to increase 1.5 percent this year, the most since 2010. “There’s cheap crude and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Using the PHEV (Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle) to Transition Society Seamlessly and Profitably From Fossil Fuel to 100% Renewable Energy

« BMW launches operations at Center of Urban Mobility Competence; boosting electromobility through EV sharing | Main | New non-metallic molecular catalyst system approaches efficiency of platinum in fuel cell oxygen reduction reaction » by Professor Andrew Alfonso Frank CTO Efficient Drivetrains Inc. and UC-Davis Emeritus and Catherine JJ DeMauro Abstract. The alternative-fuel car evolved to reduce exhaust emissions and other problems derived from burning fossil fuels. The PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle), a subset of the electric car, combines a primary electric motor with a much smaller back-up engine fueled with a hydrocarbon/biofuel mix. (In this paper PHEV refers solely to the long-range PHEV of 60 miles (100 km) electric-only range.) The PHEV does not require the heavy, costly batteries required by other electric cars, nor does it suffer from a limited range or poor freeway performance. Though the PHEV combines the two types of energy and power, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. gasoline demand roars back to life: Kemp

A man gets gasoline at a BP station in St. Louis, Missouri January 14, 2015. Consumption of gasoline in the United States is surging according to estimates prepared by the Energy Information Administration. More than 9.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of gasoline were supplied to domestic customers over the last four weeks. Consumption is running about 480,000 bpd above the 2014 level and 250,000 bpd above the 10-year seasonal average ( link.reuters.com/wuh25w ). The amount supplied to domestic customers has to be estimated from refinery production, imports, exports and stockpiles so it is subject to some estimating errors but the data all paint a consistent picture of strong demand. Refineries are running flat out to meet fuel demand from motorists. U.S. refineries have been processing a near-record 16.5 million bpd of crude in recent weeks,1 million bpd higher than the seasonal average ( link.reuters.com/zuh25w ). Gasoline production is […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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BioSolar extends agreement with UCSB for further development of novel polymer cathode; projecting up to 459 Wh/kg and $54/kWh for Li-ion cells

« Bosch offering sub-$10K 24 kW DC fast charger for North America; SAE J1772 DC Combo connector | Main Startup BioSolar, Inc. has signed an agreement to extend the funding of a sponsored research program at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), to further develop its “super battery” technology—a novel polymer cathode that leverages fast redox-reaction properties rather than conventional lithium-ion intercalation chemistry to enable rapid charge and discharge. The lead inventors of the technology are UCSB professor Dr. Alan Heeger, the recipient of a Nobel Prize in 2000 for the discovery and development of conductive polymers, and Dr. David Vonlanthen, a project scientist and expert in energy storage at UCSB. Both are scientific advisors to BioSolar. In a 2014 paper publishedin the journal Advanced Materials , Heeger, Vonlanthen and their colleagues reported the development of a polyaniline-supercapacitor with quinone electrolytes that remained stable over 50,000 galvanostatic charge-discharge […]

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China’s ZTE pushing ahead with high-power wireless charging vehicle test deployment

ZTE Corporation, China’s largest listed telecommunications equipment company, is developing high-power wireless charging systems and services for electric vehicles, with a focus on public charging infrastructure. At a China-US workshop on electric vehicle standardization held in June ( earlier post ), Academus Tian, VP of ZTE New Energy Vehicle Co., presented an overview of ZTE’s efforts in wireless power transfer (WPT). Tian said that ZTE’s inductive charging WPT module has a potential capacity of up to 30 kW, with a gap of 20 cm and efficiency of up to 90%. The footprint of the device is less than 1 m 2 ; frequency is 85 kHz. ZTE, which has aggressively partnered with a number of passenger and commercial vehicles makers over the past few years, has recently launched a series of commercial vehicle (bus) WPT trials. In September, in a joint R&D project between ZTE and Dongfeng Automobile, the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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CMU policy briefs outline benefits and potential for adoption of electrified vehicles in the US

« Toyota, Nissan and Honda agree on details of H2 station support in Japan | Main | Researchers find Nissan LEAF creates less CO2 than Toyota Prius hybrid in west US and Texas, but more in N. Midwest » Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have published two new policy briefs, along with accompanying videos, about the benefits of electrified vehicles and the potential for their adoption in the US. The briefs condense the findings of a number of recent papers coming out of the CMU group led by Professor Jeremy Michalek. The first—“ Electric Vehicle Benefits and Costs in the United States ”—shows that the benefits of vehicle electrification vary based on vehicle type; driving style; climate; how supplying electricity is generated; and time of charge. To achieve the best outcomes, the brief suggests, plug-in vehicle adoption should typically be focused on HEVs and PHEVs by city drivers […]

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4 more cities sign Global Clean Bus Declaration raising total to >40K ultra-low emission buses by 2020; London to trial BYD electric double-decker

« Wireless charging company Evatran gains $1.6M strategic investment from China Tier 1 supplier | Main | Tire-integrated triboelectric generator harvests electricity from rolling tire friction; est. up to +10% fuel econ » Four additional cities—Amsterdam, Lima, Catalonia (Barcelona) and Rome— signed up to the Global Clean Bus Declaration at the 1 st global Clean Bus Summit in London. The Global Clean Bus Declaration , developed by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson in partnership with the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group , launched in Buenos Aires in March 2015 with 20 original signatories. Bus manufacturers including BYD, Volvo, Wright Bus, Optare, Mercedes, Evo Bus, and Alexander Dennis attended the London summit and committed to supporting cities in delivering fleets of new ultra-low emission buses. The World Bank and Green Investment Bank have also signed up to this commitment. Cities of the Low Emission Vehicles Network collectively forged an […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple