By mmillikin China-based Li-ion battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) has begun construction of its first lithium-ion battery factory in Thuringia, a state in east-central Germany. CATL has developed partnerships with a number of European companies in the automobile industry including BMW, Volkswagen, Daimler, Volvo, and Bosch. Germany is home to a strong…
By mmillikin Motiv Power Systems, a provider of all-electric medium-duty chassis for buses and trucks, has secured $60 million in equity funding. The Series B round of investment was led by investors GMAG Holdings Corp. and Winnebago. These funds will support the overall growth of Motiv, including opening a new engineering and manufacturing facility in…
By mmillikin by Michael Sivak. This is the latest in my series of analyses on the relationship between road transportation and economic activity in the United States. Of interest in this study were the changes in distance driven per inflation-adjusted GDP (gross domestic product) since the end of the Second World War. For each year…
By mmillikin The Audi A6 allroad is making its US return in 2020 with a specially tuned adaptive air suspension and quattro with ultra technology. The 2020 A6 allroad is standard equipped with a turbocharged 3.0-liter TFSI engine and Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicle (MHEV) technology that work in tandem to efficiently produce 335 horsepower and…
By mmillikin Shortly following on the global debut of the electric Taycan in September, Porsche is presenting the third version of the electric sports car: the Taycan 4S. The new model is available with two battery sizes: the Performance battery (79.2 kWh) models with up to 390 kW (530 PS) or the Performance battery Plus…
By mmillikin Porsche and Boeing signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore the premium urban air mobility market and the extension of urban traffic into airspace. With this partnership, both companies will leverage their respective market strengths and insights to study the future of premium urban air mobility vehicles. As part of the partnership, the…
By mmillikin The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019 to John B. Goodenough, The University of Texas at Austin; M. Stanley Whittingham, Binghamton University, State University of New York; and Akira Yoshino, Asahi Kasei Corporation, for the development of lithium-ion batteries. The foundation of the lithium-ion battery was…
By mmillikin Volvo Cars and Geely intend to merge their existing combustion engine operations into a stand-alone business in order to establish a new global supplier that will seek to develop next generation combustion engines and hybrid powertrains. The proposed new business would clear the way for Volvo Cars to focus on the development of…
By mmillikin The global industrial gas and engineering company Linde Group has made a £38.0 million (US$47 million) strategic investment in electrolyzer manufacturer ITM Power plc. Linde also is entering into a 50/50 joint venture with ITM which will focus on delivering green hydrogen to large scale industrial projects, principally those with an installed electrolyzer…
By mmillikin by Michael Sivak. This is the latest of my occasional updates on retrospective, long-term trends in U.S. vehicle fuel economy. Specifically, this study examines actual fuel economy of cars and light trucks (pickup trucks, SUVs, and vans) from 1966 through 2017. Calculated vehicle fuel economy is available going back to 1923. However, the…
By mmillikin To develop higher capacity batteries, researchers have looked to lithium-sulfur batteries because of sulfur’s high theoretical capacity and energy density. There are still several problems to solve before lithium-sulfur batteries can be put into widespread practical application—such as sulfur’s intrinsically low electrical conductivity and the rapid capacity decay caused by polysulfides escaping from…
By mmillikin Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv will be forming an autonomous driving joint venture to advance the design, development and commercialization of SAE Level 4 and 5 autonomous technologies. The joint venture will begin testing fully driverless systems in 2020 and have a production-ready autonomous driving platform available for robotaxi providers, fleet operators, and…
By mmillikin Audi has set the goal of successively reducing vehicle-specific CO2 emissions by 30% by 2025 compared with reference year 2015 and over the entire product lifecycle. In the long term, Audi is pursuing the vision of CO2-neutral mobility and aims to be climate-neutral throughout the company on balance by 2050. Audi is focusing…
By mmillikin The US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final action entitled the “One National Program Rule,” which will enable the federal government to provide nationwide uniform fuel economy and greenhouse gas emission standards for automobiles and light duty trucks. The action…
By mmillikin Daimler Trucks & Buses and battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) have entered a global battery cell modules supply agreement for electric trucks. CATL will supply lithium-ion battery cell modules for a wide range of Daimler Trucks & Buses’ global electric truck portfolio to be introduced in markets from 2021 onwards,…