Monthly sales of hybrids. Click to enlarge.Reported US sales of hybrids from the major automakers rose 3.6% in August 2008 compared to the same month the year before to 26,045 units. This represented a 2.08% new vehicle market share for the month, on total light duty vehicles sales of 1,249,793 units, as reported by Autodata. The August 2008 results fell short of the current August sales record of 26,249 units hit in 2006. Overall, sales ...

Gasoline consumption in California in May 2008 continued its downward trend, with Californians using 4.8% less gasoline in the month than during the same period the year before, according to figures from the State Board of Equilization (BOE). Diesel consumption in May 2008 was 11.0% below that of May 2007.Total gallons of gasoline used were 65.0 million fewer in May 2008 than in May 2007. On a month-to-month basis, Californians used 26.2 million gallons (2.1%) ...

The Zytek hybrid. Click to enlarge. Corsa Motorsports and UK-based Zytek Group have formed a strategic alliance to produce the first Le Mans Prototype car fitted with a hybrid powertrain. Corsa will compete as a works team in the LMP1 class of the American Le Mans Series. The car will be powered through a combination of a new ethanol-fueled (E10) internal combustion engine and a three-phase induction 35 kW electric motor with a Li-ion battery ...

Watanabe characterized the rapid change is the US market toward more fuel-efficient vehicles as structural. Click to enlarge. Outlining Toyota’s response to rapidly changing global market conditions, growing environmental issues and increasing material costs, President Katsuaki Watanabe said that the company was accelerating its development of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and all electric vehicles. Watanabe said that Toyota would advance its delivery of plug-ins for fleet deployment to 2009 from 2010, and was planning series production ...

Economic value of energy subsidies in Non-OECD countries, 2005. Click to enlarge. Source: IEA World Energy Outlook 2006. Globally, approximately US$300 billion—0.7% of global GDP—is spent annually on energy subsidies. The bulk of this is being used to artificially lower or reduce the real price of fuels like oil, coal and gas or electricity generated from such fossil fuels. A new report—Reforming Energy Subsidies: Opportunities to Contribute to the Climate Change Agenda—by the UN Environment ...

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (MMC) will produce 2,000 i-MiEV electric vehicles in 2009, the year the model will be launched in Japan, President Osamu Masuko said Tuesday.The Japanese automaker will raise its annual output to 4,000 units in 2010 and then accelerate mass production, Masuko told Japanese reporters in Tokyo. Most of the vehicles will be sold in Japan for some ¥3 million (US$27,530) each. Mitsubishi will begin selling the electric vehicles at reduced prices in ...

European automakers’ average CO2 emissions for 2007, and the calculated targets for 2007. (See notes below.) Click to enlarge. BMW AG improved fuel efficiency in 2007 at four times the average rate of other major manufacturers, according to an analysis of European Union data commissioned by Transport & Environment (T&E), a sustainable transport campaign group. However, the aggregate performance of the industry was not enough to meet proposed EU CO2 targets for new cars. The ...

The EV recharging infrastructure designed by the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Click to enlarge. Mitsubishi Corporation recently launched a new R&D project in collaboration with Tokyo Institute of Technology (T. Tech), Tostem Housing Institute Co., Ltd., GS Yuasa Power Supply, Ltd. and other partners, to develop an infrastructure system to charge electric vehicles (EVs) using renewable energy such as solar photovoltaic (PV), solar thermal energy and wind power. As part of the project, Tostem Housing ...

Navistar is now offering customers of the International DuraStar Hybrid medium-duty truck (earlier post) a battery-lease program—the first of its kind in the North American commercial truck industry—that shaves $10,000 off the initial purchase price of the truck in exchange for making 60 monthly lease payments on the battery. Navistar is offering two other incentive programs for the diesel-electric hybrid trucks as well: a $6,000 tax-match incentive and a 60-month fair market value lease that ...

Volkswagen’s new 50-state compliant (US EPA Tier 2 Bin 5) diesel Jetta TDI sedan and SportWagen are now available for customer delivery. (Earlier post.) The Jetta TDI has an EPA fuel economy rating of 29 mpg city and 40 mpg highway. VW commissioned third-party certifier, AMCI, to test the Jetta TDI and found it performed 24% better in their “real world conditions,” achieving 38 mpg in the City and 44 mpg on the Highway. Buyer ...

Steady-state NOx versus filter smoke number at 35 mph for ULSD, Bu20 and Bu40. Click to enlarge. Butanol can be used as a blending agent in diesel to displace petroleum and reduce emissions of particulate matter without significantly increasing NOx or significantly lowering the cetane number, according to the results of a preliminary study by researchers at Argonne National Laboratory. With properties superior to that of ethanol, butanol (C4H9OH) is generally being considered as a ...

GM released a set of photos of portions of the production Volt design in conjunction with a presentation by Bob Boniface, Director of Design for Chevrolet Volt, at the Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Michigan.The production design differs from the original show car based on work done to optimize the aerodynamics of the vehicle to ensure meeting the 40-mile all-electric range target. “The show car surface as tested could not have confidently delivered on ...

Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have set a world record in solar cell efficiency with a photovoltaic device that converts 40.8% of the light that hits it into electricity. This is the highest confirmed efficiency of any photovoltaic device to date, according to NREL.The inverted metamorphic triple-junction solar cell was designed, fabricated and independently measured at NREL. The 40.8% efficiency was measured under concentrated light of 326 suns. ...

Conceptual rendering of the Benwood CTL plant. Click to enlarge. CONSOL Energy Inc., the US’ largest producer of bituminous coal, and Synthesis Energy Systems Inc. (SES) have formed a joint venture—Northern Appalachia Fuel LLC (NAF)—to develop their first US coal gasification and liquefaction plant to be located near Benwood, West Virginia. The two companies announced last year that they were jointly exploring coal gasification opportunities. (Earlier post.) The plant is expected to be a “mine ...

The Nikkei reports that Toyota’s newly established department for battery research (earlier post) is focusing on metal-air cells as the next-generation battery technology for its vehicles. In June at Toyota Environmental Forum in Tokyo, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said that the company was setting out to develop an innovative next-generation battery that far outperforms lithium-ion batteries. Watanabe was referring to what’s known as a metal-air battery, according to Toyota Executive Vice-President Masatami Takimoto. In this ...

Several recent incidents have highlighted the development challenges associated with some of the Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) under development for the 2009 F1 racing season.The Red Bull factory was evacuated last week as a precaution after a battery vented, and a BMW mechanic suffered an electric shock. In a column for ITV, retiring F1 Red Bull driver David Coulthard said: As has been well documented elsewhere, there are concerns about isolating the electrical charge ...

One of the unique features of the high temperature gas-cooled reactor is the TRISO fuel used for the fission reaction. Click to enlarge. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected teams led by Idaho National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory to advance the technology of nuclear fuel “Deep-Burn” in which plutonium and higher transuranics recycled from spent nuclear fuel are destroyed while generating energy. This technology advances nuclear power production and reduces the amount ...

DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC (DDCE) and the University of Tennessee (UT) Research Foundation, through Genera Energy LLC, are partnering to construct a pilot-scale biorefinery and R&D facility for cellulosic ethanol in Vonore, Tenn. The pilot facility will develop the commercial package for DDCE’s cellulosic ethanol technology.DuPont and Genencor, a division of Danisco A/S, formed the 50-50 global joint venture DuPont Danisco in May to develop and commercialize a low-cost technology solution for the production ...

Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec), a wholly owned subsidiary of ECOtality, Inc., has launched a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) Grid Interaction Project to demonstrate and evaluate a bi-directional fast-charge system capable of both fast-charging a PHEV in 10 minutes and supplying the stored energy of a PHEV back to a smart grid. Funded by the US Department of Energy through Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and supported by project partner V2Green, the project will pair ...

A report commissioned by Australia’s National Roads and Motorists’ Association (NRMA) calls on the Australian Government to set a target of reducing oil dependence by 20% by 2020; 30% by 2030 and 50% by 2050 and to do all it can to fast-track the development of the electric car in Australia, charged by renewable energy sources such as wind or solar. The NRMA established the Jamison Group following the company’s Alternative Fuel Summit in 2006. ...