DCC plc, an international sales, marketing and support services group, has partnered with Oberon Fuels, the leading producer of renewable dimethyl ether (DME) (earlier post), to advance the design, construction and operations of multiple renewable DME production plants in Europe. The companies have completed an initial feasibility study which confirmed... Read more →

Due to a steady increase in availability of new models, expanded price mix within existing models and widening eligibility of federal and state incentives, acquisition cost is starting to fade as a hurdle to EV adoption, according to J.D. Power. According to the J.D. Power EV Index (earlier post), a... Read more →

J.D. Power and Motorq, a leading connected vehicle analytics and infrastructure company, have announced a strategic alliance to provide the automotive industry with insights based on connected vehicle data. The first product from the alliance will measure real-world electric vehicle (EV) battery health. Using data provided by the vehicle itself,... Read more →

The Superbike Commission of the FIM World Superbike Championship (WorldSBK) has decided that the fuels used, as in MotoGP, must consist of at least 40% non-fossil components from the coming 2024 season. BMW Motorrad Motorsport is preparing intensively for this and is closely involved in the development of such alternative... Read more →

Lamborghini presented Revuelto, its super sports V12 hybrid plug-in HPEV (High Performance Electrified Vehicle). (Earlier post.) An output of 1015 CV is delivered from the combined power of an entirely new combustion engine together with three electric motors, alongside a double-clutch gearbox that makes its debut on a 12-cylinder Lamborghini... Read more →

Kia revealed more details of the Kia EV9, its first three-row seat electric flagship SUV (earlier post). Based on the Electric Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), the EV9 delivers a targeted all-electric range over 541 km (WLTP). Ultra-fast 800-volt charging capability enables the EV9 battery pack to be replenished with sufficient... Read more →

MAN Energy Solutions’ MAN 49/60DF dual-fuel engine has received its Type Approval after a five-day program on the testbed at company HQ in Augsburg, Germany. The Type Approval Test (TAT) was witnessed by inspectors representing the ABS, BV, CCS, DNV, LR and RINA classification societies, who signed the test protocol... Read more →

The South Carolina Department of Education will deploy 160 Thomas Built Buses (TBB) electric school buses in school districts across the state over the next year, under a new procurement finalized this month between the Department of Education and Thomas Built Buses dealer Interstate Transportation. The Department of Education’s purchase... Read more →

Nikola announced that Nikola and its dealer network have received orders for 100 Class 8 Nikola Tre hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). Deliveries of the purpose-built heavy-duty trucks will begin in Q4 2023. With a range of up to 500 miles and an estimated fueling time of approximately 20... Read more →

A study by researchers at the University of Birmingham in the UK has found that while Diesel Oxidation Catalysts (DOCs) and Diesel Particle Filters (DPFs) has been very effective in controlling the tailpipe emissions of solid particles, there has been little change in the liquid mode (<30 nm) particles, and... Read more →

A new hydrogen compressor developed at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) can improve the efficiency and reliability of hydrogen compression used in the refueling of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). The SwRI-developed linear motor-driven reciprocating compressor (LMRC) is designed to compress hydrogen as a fuel source for FCEVs and other hydrogen-powered... Read more →

Two Nissan LEAF electric vehicles (EVs) at the Plymouth State University (PSU) provided 1 MWh of energy to the PSU’s ALLWell Center, offsetting some of the building’s electricity needs, over a six-month period. The university is taking part in an utility rate program developed by its local utility New Hampshire... Read more →

FREYR Battery has entered into discussions on a potential strategic coalition with Glencore, Caterpillar, Siemens and Nidec to pursue the scale-up of sustainable battery solutions across Europe, North America, and beyond. The non-binding alliance may establish guiding principles including: A shared vision of battery technology as critical to the energy... Read more →

United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Japan’s Ambassador to the United States, Tomita Koji, signed a critical minerals agreement. The agreement builds on the 2019 US-Japan Trade Agreement and will strengthen and diversify critical minerals supply chains and promote the adoption of electric vehicle battery technologies. In particular, the... Read more →

E-Tech Resources, a rare earth exploration and development company developing its Eureka Rare Earths Project in Namibia, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire an 85% interest in exclusive prospecting license 8748 (EPL 8748). EPL 8748 is located in the Erongo Mining Corridor of Namibia which lies adjacent to,... Read more →

The European Council and the European Parliament have reached a provisional political agreement on the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR). The objective of the proposed regulation is threefold: To ensure that there is a sufficient infrastructure network for recharging or refueling road vehicles or ships with alternative fuels; to provide... Read more →

CALSTART launched Communities in Charge, an incentives project funded by the California Energy Commission’s Clean Transportation Program, and supported in partnership with GRID Alternatives and Tetra Tech. This incentives project is designed to transform electric vehicle (EV) charging accessibility and accelerate the market with the rapid installation of light-duty electric... Read more →

Greenhouse gases such as methane absorb primarily long-wave radiation, trapping heat from Earth’s surface and preventing it from radiating out into space—thus making the planet hotter. However, greenhouse gases also absorb short-wave radiation incoming from the sun. A new study by researchers from the University of California, Riverside and colleagues... Read more →

Canada-based Rock Tech Lithium officially broke ground for its lithium conversion plant in Guben, Germany (earlier post), from which it will supply Mercedes-Benz with battery-grade lithium hydroxide (LiOH) starting in 2026 (starting with a qualification period). Lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LiOH⋅H2O) is a crucial precursor for the production of lithium-ion battery... Read more →

VinFast delivered the first 27 VF 9 all-electric SUVs to its customers at an event in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The delivery events took place approximately 1 year after introducing the VF 9 model to the public. The first batch of VF 9s, produced and... Read more →

Schaeffler has begun production of its electric wheel hub motors; three manufacturers of compact municipal vehicles are gearing up to incorporate the motors into their production lines in the coming months. All the components needed for propulsion and braking are integrated directly into the wheel rim, rather than being positioned... Read more →

by Michael Sivak, Sivak Applied Research This brief post examines vehicle miles traveled in the United States from 2019 (the last year before the pandemic) through 2022. The raw data came from FHWA. The data are for all vehicles, and they are not adjusted for the changes in population. (Population-adjusted... Read more →

University of California, Riverside (UCR) environmental engineers will soon serve as referees in California’s drive for heavy-duty trucks to meet the state’s tailpipe emission standards. The referee program will provide testing services for vehicles potentially operating with tampered emissions control systems and/or testability issues. Operating under the California Air Resources... Read more →

Liontown Resources, an emerging battery minerals producer based in Australia, has rejected an unsolicited, conditional and non-binding indicative proposal from Albemarle Corporation, in which Albemarle would acquire all of the shares in Liontown at a price of A$2.50 per share—valuing the company at approximately US$3.7 billion. The proposal represented a... Read more →

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), a global leader of new energy innovative technologies, and HGP Storage, LLC (HGP), a company specializing in the development of advanced battery energy storage systems (BESS), announced an agreement on the supply of more than 450 MWh of BESS. Both parties have also agreed... Read more →

Researchers from the University of Twente in The Netherlands have developed a new high-entropy perovskite oxide (HEO) as a high-activity electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER)—the key kinetically limiting half-reaction in several electrochemical energy conversion technologies, including green hydrogen generation. In an open-access study in the journal ACS Nano,... Read more →

Researchers from the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) and Kumoh National Institute of Technology (KIT), have developed a low-cost production technology for silicon disulfide (SiS2) for solid-state electrolytes (argyrodite-type) that has potential to accelerate the commercialization of all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs). The team’s findings from the silicon disulfide study were published... Read more →

United States Steel Corporation announced that its new electrical steel product, InduX, will begin production at its Big River Steel facility in the summer of 2023 with the commissioning of its new non-grain oriented (NGO) electrical steel line. InduX electrical steel is a very wide, ultra-thin, and light-weight steel, having... Read more →

BHP has signed an agreement for piloting of carbon capture and utilization technology with China’s HBIS Group Co., Ltd (HBIS), one of the world’s largest steelmakers and a major iron ore customer of BHP. As part of this new project, HBIS and BHP will trial pilot-scale demonstrations of carbon capture... Read more →

Now in its second-generation, the Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle delivers an EPA-estimated zero tailpipe emission range of 402 miles on the Mirai entry-level XLE grade. The 2023 XLE grade has a starting MSRP of $49,500. An Advanced Technology Package, which includes Bird’s Eye View camera, front and rear... Read more →