Category: Transportation

GM’s Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid currently gets fewer than 85 miles in range on a single charge. Getty Images The electric car era may hit in 2017 when at least two battery-powered cars that can attain 200 miles of driving range and cost less than $40,000 enter the market. In addition to Tesla Motors Inc. ‘s forthcoming Model 3, a leading battery maker says it is preparing a pack for an electric car that is more than double that of most vehicles on the road today, but at a similar price. "We are definitely working on making a 200-mile-range battery electric vehicle at around the $30,000 to $35,000 price target," said Prabhakar Patil, the chief executive officer of LG Chem Power Inc., a U.S.-based research arm of the South Korean battery company. "It’s more than a possibility. We feel we will be able to support such a vehicle around […]

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GM’s Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid currently gets fewer than 85 miles in range on a single charge. Getty Images The electric car era may hit in 2017 when at least two battery-powered cars that can attain 200 miles of driving range and cost less than $40,000 enter the market. In addition to Tesla Motors Inc. ‘s forthcoming Model 3, a leading battery maker says it is preparing a pack for an electric car that is more than double that of most vehicles on the road today, but at a similar price. "We are definitely working on making a 200-mile-range battery electric vehicle at around the $30,000 to $35,000 price target," said Prabhakar Patil, the chief executive officer of LG Chem Power Inc., a U.S.-based research arm of the South Korean battery company. "It’s more than a possibility. We feel we will be able to support such a vehicle around […]

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Volkswagen of America, Inc. introduced several e-mobility sustainability initiatives to commence with the US launch of the battery-electric e-Golf ( earlier post ). These begin with an investment in carbon reduction projects via a partnership with 3Degrees to offset emissions created from e-Golf production, distribution and from the estimated emissions produced from keeping the vehicle charged through the initial 36,000 miles of its life. VoA made the announcement at the Management Briefing Seminar, hosted by the Center for Automotive Research. Volkswagen of America also selected SunPower as VW’s official solar energy partner; Bosch Automotive Service Solutions as its preferred home-charging and installation services provider; and ChargePoint to provide charging stations to the VW dealer network and to provide US e-Golf owners access to consumers to more than 18,000 charging stations nationwide. The 2015 e-Golf will go on sale later this year at participating dealerships in select states. Separately, Audi […]

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Vehicle price and fueling costs are important factors consumers take into account when deciding to purchase a new light-duty vehicle. While vehicle purchase is influenced by cost and fuel economy, other important factors such as environmental concerns, performance, and style also play a part. Comparison of the fuel savings and incremental vehicle cost among various vehicle fuel types sheds light on how at least some consumers may perceive the value of purchasing a given vehicle fuel type relative to another. Standard gasoline vehicles. The compliance fuel economy of midsize passenger cars using gasoline is projected to increase from about 35 miles per gallon (mpg) today to more than 53 mpg in 2025 by adding fuel efficiency technology, including micro and mild hybridization. These additions raise the average vehicle price from about $25,000 (2012$) to more than $27,000 . For a vehicle driven 12,000 miles annually, 116 gallons of fuel […]

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Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) , among carmakers developing driverless technology, said the appeal of autonomous cars carries the risk of adding to urban sprawl and pollution as they may encourage commuters to travel farther to work. Technologies that let a driver turn vehicle controls over to the car itself should begin arriving late this decade, said Ken Laberteaux, senior principal scientist for Toyota’s North American team studying future transportation. Faster commutes can bring unintended consequences, Laberteaux said in an interview at the Automated Vehicles Symposium in San Francisco yesterday. “U.S. history shows that anytime you make driving easier, there seems to be this inexhaustible desire to live further from things,” Laberteaux said. “The pattern we’ve seen for a century is people turn more speed into more travel, rather than maybe saying ‘I’m going to use my reduced travel time by spending more time with my family.’” Toyota and other […]

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With crude oil prices averaging higher than natural gas, the U.S. Energy Department said Monday it expects freight locomotives to start switching fuel sources. The Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, said the U.S. freight railroad industry spent 23 percent of its operating expense on diesel fuel in 2012, the last full year for which data are available. "EIA projects that liquefied natural gas will play an increasing role in powering freight locomotives in coming years," it said in a Monday briefing . "Continued growth in domestic natural gas production and substantially lower natural gas prices compared to crude oil prices could result in significant cost savings for locomotives that use LNG as a fuel source." The railroad industry consumed 7 percent of all the diesel fuel used in the United States in 2012. From 2017 to 2040, EIA said […]

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In a pair of studies using real-world driving conditions, scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) found that hybrid cars are significantly more fuel-efficient in India and China than they are in the United States due to traffic and driving conditions in those countries. They found that driving a hybrid would achieve fuel savings of about 47 to 48% over a conventional car in India and about 53 to 55% in China. In the United States, hybrids are rated to produce a fuel savings of about 40% over their conventional counterparts. Currently hybrid and electric vehicles have a tiny share of the market in India and China and are seen as a higher-end product. Their results were reported in two papers, “Understanding the fuel savings […]

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ATDynamics projects 200,000 semi-trailers to be equipped with fuel-saving rear-drag aerodynamics technology by end of 2017 The patented TrailerTail design lowers vehicle fuel consumption by reducing low-pressure suction drag directly behind a trailer. Source: ATDynamics. Click to enlarge. ATDynamics , a supplier of semi-trailer aerodynamics technology, projects that, based on current trucking fleet adoption trends, 200,000 semi-trailers will be equipped with fuel saving TrailerTail technology by the end of 2017. TrailerTail technology, which reduces aerodynamic drag at the back of tractor-trailers and improves vehicle fuel efficiency by approximately 5%, has been incorporated into three of the Department of Energy’s SuperTruck Projects. ATDynamics launched the patented thermoplastic composite TrailerTail design in 2010. At present, 350 US trucking companies, including top 100 US fleets such as Mesilla Valley Transportation; Prime Inc.; Roehl Transport; and C.R. England operate approximately 20,000 semi-trailers with TrailerTails. Department of Energy SuperTruck with TrailerTail Technology. Credit: Sarah […]

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APTA reports record public transportation usage in US in 2013; growth outpacing population and VMT growth Growth in public transit ridership since 1995 has outpaced population and VMT growth. Data: APTA. Click to enlarge. In 2013, Americans took 10.7 billion trips on public transportation—the highest annual public transit ridership number in 57 years— according to a report released by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). This was the eighth year in a row that more than 10 billion trips were taken on public transportation systems nationwide. While vehicle miles traveled on roads (VMT) went up 0.3%, public transportation use in 2013 increased by 1.1%. Since 1995 public transit ridership is up 37.2%, outpacing population growth, which is up 20.3%, and vehicle miles traveled (VMT), which is up 22.7%. Some of the public transit agencies reporting record ridership system-wide or on specific lines were located in the following cities: Ann […]

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