Category: Transportation

Click to Open Overlay Gallery Zonar products are used in a variety of Daimler Trucks North America vehicles, including trucks made by Freightliner, Western Star and Thomas Built Buses. Daimler We’re moving into the age of the connected vehicle. And as excited as we might be to have cars that play our ’90s alternative rock Spotify playlists and let us send text messages via voice control, such things are frivolous compared to the safety and efficiency benefits that come when you wire up tractor trailers. Daimler Trucks North America signed a deal Thursday to take a small stake (less than 25 percent) in Zonar, which specializes in connecting truck computers, drivers, and fleet operators who can use all that data to increase efficiency and safety. The tech provider will remain independent, but it’s a sign that Daimler’s committed to using new tools to make trucking as efficient as possible. […]

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General Motors Co. has released early prototype images of its Chevrolet Bolt electric car, evidence the Detroit auto maker is likely well ahead of Tesla Motors Inc. in the race to launch a more affordable long-range battery-powered car. The images show a car that is similar in size and design to the Bolt concept vehicle shown at the Detroit auto show in January. The company says the car will achieve 200 miles of driving distance on a charge, and cost about $30,000 after factoring in federal tax incentives. GM’s Chevy Bolt is slated to hit the market in 2017, at roughly the same time Tesla and other auto makers are expected to be close to launching similar offerings. Currently selling a pricier sedan called the Model S and in the midst of launching the sibling Model X SUV, Tesla expects its Model 3 to help take the product lineup […]

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WASHINGTON—The government on Friday proposed new carbon-emissions standards for big trucks as part of President Barack Obama ’s broad climate-change agenda, a move many in the trucking industry cautiously support as a way to save money on fuel. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department jointly announced draft standards for big vehicles ranging from garbage trucks to 18-wheelers, as well as from vans and buses to heavy-duty pickup trucks. “In 2014, trucking spent nearly $150 billion on diesel fuel alone,” said Glen Kedzie, a vice president of the American Trucking Associations. “So the potential for real cost savings and associated environmental benefits of this rule are there.” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy The administration is proposing two broad categories of standards for big trucks: one for the load-pulling tractor unit of large so-called semitrailers and one for the trailer it hauls. The tractor standard will require that a truck […]

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Tesla Motors Inc. has locked a leading advanced battery researcher into an exclusive partnership designed to help the Palo Alto, Calif., electric-car maker sharply lower the cost of its batteries. Jeff Dahn, a professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia known for his work innovating lithium-ion batteries like those Tesla uses to power its Model S sedan, will cooperate with Tesla researchers. Now working on a project with 3M Co. MMM 0.29 % , he will enter a research partnership with Tesla when his current work is completed. Financial terms weren’t available, but Tesla said it would sponsor Mr. Dahn’s research efforts roughly 6,400 kilometers from Northern California in return for his help solving Tesla’s cost problem. JB Straubel, Tesla’s chief technologist, said this week that lithium-ion battery costs need to come down significantly in coming years so the auto maker can offer lower-priced vehicles. Tesla is the largest […]

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Trucking fleets may be considering natural gas as their fuel of choice, a report from IHS finds. File Photo by UPI/Ezio Petersen PARIS, June 3 (UPI) — China may take the lead, along with the trucking sector, in the transport shift from oil to natural gas and liquefied natural gas, a report from IHS finds. Michael Stoppard, chief gas strategist for the consultant firm, said lower crude oil prices have taken the spotlight off the pursuit for natural gas as an alternative transport fuel. "Nonetheless, the shift to greater use of gas in trucks is set to continue," he said in an emailed statement. "It is widely accepted that power generation is the primary growth market for natural gas demand, but gas as a fuel offers a new market with potentially more value." While passenger vehicles and trucks are comparable in terms of oil consumption, the study finds truck […]

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« China Steel Corporation making $46M investment in LanzaTech commercial waste-gas-to-ethanol project | Main | Toyota embraces the “Bullsh*t” about hydrogen » Vehicle cost, current battery technology, and inadequate consumer knowledge are some of the barriers preventing widespread adoption of plug-in electric vehicles, according to a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council. Developing less expensive, better performing batteries is essential to reducing overall vehicle cost, and a market strategy is needed to create awareness and overcome customer uncertainty, the report finds. The report recommends a range of incentives that the federal government can offer to address these and other barriers. The premise of the report—“ Overcoming Barriers to Deployment of Plug-in Electric Vehicles ”—is that there is a benefit to the United States if a higher fraction of vehicle miles traveled is fueled by electricity rather than by petroleum due to the resulting reduction in dependence […]

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Industry-wide cost estimates for battery packs for electric vehicles have declined by approximately 14% annually between 2007 and 2014, from above US$1,000 per kWh to around US$410/kWh, according to a systematic review of more than 80 different estimates by a team from the Stockholm Environment Institute. Further, they reported in their paper published in Nature Climate Change , the cost of battery packs used by market-leading BEV manufacturers are even lower at US$300/kWh, and has declined by 8% annually. The results further suggest that it is possible that economies of scale will continue to push cost towards US$200/kWh in the near future even without further cell chemistry improvements. Their study, said Björn Nykvist and Måns Nilsson, has significant implications for the assumptions used when modeling future energy and transport systems and permits an optimistic outlook for BEVs contributing to low-carbon transport. Cost of Li-ion battery packs in BEVs. Results […]

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LONDON (Reuters) – Traffic on U.S. highways has hit a new record as the economy recovers and the lower cost of gasoline and diesel encourages more travel. Cars and trucks drove a record 3.050 trillion miles on U.S. highways in the 12 months ending in January, passing the previous peak of 3.039 trillion set in the 12 months to November 2007, according to the Federal Highway Administration ( link.reuters.com/vyj44w ). In January, traffic was 4.9 percent higher than in the corresponding month in 2014, the agency said on Tuesday. Information on traffic volumes is collected from 4,000 roadside monitoring stations across the country and published with a two-month delay. Traffic fell more than 3 percent between November 2007 and November 2011, as the increased cost of fuel coupled with the recession and increased unemployment to produce the most sustained drop in motoring since World War Two. Traffic volumes have […]

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LONDON (Reuters) – Demand for oil is intimately connected to the demand for transportation in the United States and the other advanced industrial economies. Cars, trucks, airlines, railways and shipping accounted for 71 percent of total U.S. oil consumption in 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Petroleum-derived fuels, including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and fuel oil, met 97 percent of the transportation sector’s energy needs. Before the oil shocks of the 1970s as much as half of U.S. oil demand came from power producers and for heating homes, offices and factories. But following the sharp rise in prices, oil’s role in other parts of the economy was largely replaced by cheaper coal, gas, nuclear and eventually renewables, leaving oil as a transport fuel. The same pattern was repeated across the other advanced industrial economies. Oil demand has become inseparable from the demand for transportation services. But […]

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