Category: Transportation

ENLARGE Pat Hoban, of Capitol City Nissan in Chamblee, Ga., expects a lot of late model Leaf electric cars to soon land in a weak market for used electric cars. Photo: Dustin Chambers for The Wall Street Journal Nissan Motor Co. ’s Leaf electric car has been a big seller for Atlanta car dealer Pat Hoban over the past three years, thanks to its low monthly lease price. But as those car leases are beginning to expire amid cheap gasoline, the vehicle is becoming a bit of a headache. Mr. Hoban expects between 100 and 150 of the leased vehicles to be returned to his Capitol City Nissan dealership on a monthly basis over the next two years as their leases expire. The problem: used Leafs aren’t attracting much demand. With gas prices down 33% from a year ago, and buyers cooling toward electric vehicles, some auto makers are […]

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« French Post Office and Renault Trucks testing electric truck with fuel cell range extender | Main | Proterra introduces new extended range battery pack for electric transit buses; up to 180 miles » Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed a new electrolyte that allows lithium-sulfur, lithium-metal and lithium-air batteries to operate at 99% efficiency, while having a high current density and without growing dendrites that short-circuit rechargeable batteries. An open-access paper on their work is published in the journal Nature Communications . “ This new discovery could kick-start the development of powerful and practical next-generation rechargeable batteries such as lithium-sulfur, lithium-air and lithium-metal batteries ,” said PNNL physicist Ji-Guang Zhang, corresponding author of the paper. Lithium (​Li) metal is an ideal anode material for rechargeable Li batteries due to its extremely high theoretical specific capacity (3,860 mAh g −1 ), low density (0.534 g cm −3 ) and the […]

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(Bloomberg) — Apple Inc., which has been working secretly on a car, is pushing its team to begin production of an electric vehicle as early as 2020, people with knowledge of the matter said. The timeframe — automakers typically spend five to seven years developing a car — underscores the project’s aggressive goals and could set the stage for a battle for customers with Tesla Motors Inc. and General Motors Co., both of which are targeting a 2017 release of an electric vehicle that can go more than 200 miles on a single charge and cost less than $40,000. “That’s the inflection point — the proving ground — that brings on the electric age,” Steve LeVine, author of “The Powerhouse,” a book about the automotive battery industry, said on Bloomberg TV Thursday. “Now you have Apple coming in and this is critical mass. Was GM really going to be […]

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Apple’s CarPlay system is seen in the touchscreen console of a Ferrari FF automobile A maker of electric car batteries is suing Apple for poaching some of its best researchers, providing further evidence of the iPhone maker’s plans for a big push into the automotive market . In court filings this week, A123 Systems accused Apple of “systematically hiring away [its] high-tech PhD and engineering employees, thereby effectively shutting down various projects/programs” at the Massachusetts-based company. “They are doing so in an effort to support Apple’s apparent plans to establish a battery division that is similar if not identical to A123’s,” the lawsuit states. The company is also suing five former employees from its R&D lab who have joined Apple since June last year. The lawsuit follows news of Apple’s extensive hiring efforts from carmakers, first reported by the Financial Times last week. The creation of a top-secret automotive […]

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« Porsche names GKN Driveline “Technology Partner” for eAxle system in 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid supercar | Main | Study: stopping at red lights exposes drivers to high levels of particulates » Concept GC-PHEV. Click to enlarge. Mitsubishi staged the North American debut of its Concept GC-PHEV (“Grand Cruiser”)—a next-generation full-size crossover plug-in hybrid. ( Earlier post .) The Concept GC-PHEV features a supercharged 3.0-liter V-6 gasoline engine paired with a high-output electric motor; 12 kWh lithium-ion battery; 8-speed automatic transmission; and Mitsubishi Motors’ advanced full-time Super All-Wheel Control (S-AWC) all-wheel drive. The PHEV drivetrain offers high performance (335 bhp/250 kW) combined with excellent fuel economy. For additional power optimization with reduced exhaust emissions, the 3.0-liter supercharged V-6 engine benefits from the latest iteration of Mitsubishi Innovative Valve timing Electronic Control (MIVEC) variable valve timing. The system’s high-capacity main drive lithium-ion battery pack can also act as a mobile […]

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ENLARGE As shipping lines seek to cut costs, new container ships larger than the CSCL Globe, one of the biggest such ships now in service, are in the offing or on the drawing board. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images The big container ships that ply the world’s trade routes are growing ever larger, holding down the cost of ocean shipping, but also raising concerns among vessel operators, insurers and regulators about the potential for catastrophic accidents. The ships, designed to carry freight stowed in large metal containers, transport much of the world’s seaborne cargo, including manufactured goods and, increasingly, farm products. Their increasing size already is straining the unloading resources at some port facilities and—along with labor troubles—has contributed to major traffic snarls at the nation’s West Coast ports. Since the economic downturn, shipping lines have sought to stay competitive by running larger, more fuel-efficient container ships in major shipping […]

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ENLARGE Thomas Wallner, a mechanical engineer with the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, adjusts Argonne’s "omnivorous engine," an automobile engine that Wallner and his colleagues have tailored to efficiently run on blends of gasoline, ethanol and butanol. Photo: Argonne National Laboratory When most of us picture the high-tech personal mobility of the future, we tend to imagine a sleek, dead-quiet electric car, packed with voice- or motion-directed gizmos and self-driving features. We see ourselves gliding around almost effortlessly, free to talk, work or text as we see fit. What few of us conjure up is having this sort of experience in a gasoline-fueled car. But that may be changing in the face of recent design advances. The internal combustion engine—the workhorse of the industrial age—is proving to be much more than a stubborn technological incumbent. More than a century after becoming the dominant way that people […]

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ENLARGE High gasoline prices in recent years helped give public-transit agencies across the U.S. their best ridership numbers in half a century. Now, falling prices run the risk of putting those gains in reverse. The swift drop in gas prices, to less than $2 a gallon in much of the nation, already appears to be encouraging Americans to drive more. Miles driven increased 3% in October from a year earlier,the largest year-over-year gain since 2006,and advanced 1.1% in November, according to the U. S. Federal Highway Administration. It is too soon to say whether those Americans who are driving more are forgoing public transit, but an extended run of low gas prices could change the cost calculus for transit riders. And a lasting shift could boost pressure on governments from Seattle to Salt Lake City to Cleveland to re-evaluate their expansion plans for buses, subways and trains amid limited […]

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Tesla Motors Chairman and CEO Elon Musk (in driver’s seat) and chief designer Franz von Holzhausen (in passenger seat) drive the new Tesla Model S all-electric sedan out into the street as members of the media look on, at the car’s unveiling in Hawthorne, California on March 26 2009 Tumbling oil prices look set to hit electric cars and biofuels harder than other parts of the green power industry, the head of the world’s leading renewable energy agency has warned. That is because they compete directly with rivals such as petrol-fuelled cars that are becoming cheaper to run as oil prices fall. More On this topic IN Energy But wind farms, solar plants and other renewable electricity generators should not be affected by the price plunge because they do not face anything like the same level of competition, said Adnan Amin, director-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency , […]

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Chris Bortz has seen the cost of gasoline for his car drop by almost half since June. The price of diesel used by his construction business has lagged behind. That’s about to change as sliding farm demand after the U.S. harvest and milder weather brings diesel, nearly identical to heating oil, more in line with gasoline. Government forecasts show the fuel dropping to $2.73 a gallon by June. The average retail price slipped below $3 this week for the first time in four years. Diesel’s drop will aid everyone from truckers to industrial users such as Bortz, chief executive officer of Towne Construction Services in Batavia, Ohio , which uses 300,000 gallons of diesel a year. Haulers have cut fuel surcharges to shippers, lowering the cost of delivering two-thirds of retail goods in the U.S. “Truckers are going to love this,” Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures […]

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