The Beijing Municipal Government has issued several new measures aimed at tackling traffic congestion in the city.

Effective immediately, buyers of automobiles that are replacing old vehicles may continue to use the previous license plates and won’t be subject to its first quota system for new plates. Under its regulations, the issue of new license plates will be otherwise subject to a quota published annually by the municipal government with 88 per cent allocated to first-time individual buyers and 12 per cent to business buyers on a monthly basis via a lottery system. The quota for the coming year will be 240,000 – 20,000 per month.

In addition, there will be increased parking fees in certain areas and a cap on the number of automobiles that can be purchased by government agencies.

It has also been indicated that further measures may follow to restrict the use of motor vehicles in main congested areas within the city during peak traffic periods.

According to Hetong Guo, the chairman of Lentuo, the largest non-state owned automobile retailer in the city, the measures may adversely affect the growth of the automobile retail market but there is still optimism about market potential. He estimates that new car sales in 2011 will be significantly below the record number of approximately 800,000 in 2010 but believes a substantial amount of sales will be made to non-first-time buyers who buy new cars to replace their older vehicles.

He believes this development has been factored in by buyers who have stepped up purchase activities in the days prior to the publication of new measures with dealerships receiving a significantly higher number of orders in December, 2010 – far exceeding the normal rate in previous periods.

Nissan has signed a memorandum of understanding with NEC Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation in an effort to promote a new membership-based charging service for electric vehicle users.

The service will be introduced nationwide in Japan with the three companies to conduct a joint study to develop charging facilities that can provide continuous service to users. They will also work on a business model for the charging infrastructure with the aim of making the facilities and quick chargers convenient for electric vehicle users including provisions of charging facilities for residents of apartment buildings and monthly parking users.  

In a further environmental push, Sumitomo has launched the New Business Development & Promotion Division, which will be responsible for environmental businesses and is working on developing new approaches to realising a low-carbon, recycling based society. It will support the widespread adoption of next generation vehicles including electric vehicles with the use of lithium-ion batteries and the development of a system that will facilitate Green IT.

The link-up follows on from an agreement between Nissan and Sumitomo back in September to form a new joint venture that will conduct research on the second-life use of lithium-ion batteries previously used in electric cars as Nissan intends to accelerate its development of the infrastructure essential to promoting electric vehicles and create greater convenience for users.

With demand constantly increasing, the NEC Group is aiming to boost its production of rechargeable high-capacity lithium-ion batteries.

The move has received support from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s “Regional Development Subsidy for Enterprises Creating Employment and Adding to a Low-Carbon Society” and is considered a major milestone as the company aims to achieve a capacity of 10million kWh per year in 2012 – that’s compared to current capacity of two million kWh per year.

The investment will be carried out by NEC Energy Devices which develops and produces the rechargeable high-capacity laminated lithium-ion batteries and will leverage the subsidy to increase electrode production capacity by the 2012 fiscal year.

Previously its fuel-saving start-stop technology has been limited to hybrid cars and some vehicles in Europe, but now Ford will introduce the devices across its vehicles, including crossovers and SUVS, in North America in 2012.

When the technology debuts it will be available on petrol powered cars and utilities with either a manual or automatic transmission as well as those using its patented dual-clutch six-speed automatic transmission. It will eventually be made available in all global markets.

The technology improves fuel economy for most drivers by at least four per cent with savings as high as 10 per cent depending on the vehicle size and usage. Exhaust emissions are also reduced to zero while the vehicle is waiting at traffic lights.

The start-stop technology is the latest example of Ford moving towards fuel saving technology after introducing electric power steering, dual-clutch six-speed transmissions and more. The auto start-stop rollout is already taking place in Europe where it is standard on ECOnetic models of the Ford Ka and Mondeo as well as launching on the Ford Focus, C-MAX and Grand C-MAX.

One of the added advantages of start-stop is that it does not need any additional maintenance and it includes a light that alerts drivers when the engine is off and a special tachometer that moves the needle to a green zone when the engine is not running.

Commercial operation of full-size battery electric buses has begun on the Mt Namsan routes courtesy of the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG).

The government has been working on a project to develop the buses with local technology over the last 18months after reaching an agreement with Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hankuk Fiber back in September, 2009. It now has a goal of putting 120,000 of the vehicles to use in the city by 2020 – this will account for 50 per cent of all public transport vehicles.

One of the electric buses.

On the Mt Namsan route, the electric coaches are 11.05metres long and run up to 52miles on a single charge with the ability to be fully recharged in less than 30minutes using a high-speed battery charger. They have a maximum speed of 62mph and feature a high capacity lithium-ion battery and a regenerative braking system.

The body of the vehicle is made of a carbon composite material that reduces weight while reinforcing durability.

So far, five buses on the route have been replaced with electric vehicles and the long term aim is to substitute all 14 buses with electric coaches to minimise the inconvenience of citizens that might be caused by the introduction of the new vehicles.

Data from the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association has reported that automobile production in Japan dropped by 6.7 per cent year on year in November to 802,009 units.

According to the statistics, passenger car production suffered a steep drop of 8.2 per cent to 689,808 units led by a 30.3 per cent decline in small cars to 165,866 units. Similarly, mini car production – that is vehicles with a displacement of less than 600cc, dropped by 4.2 per cent to 108,394 units.

By contrast, the production of standard cars with a displacement above 2.0litres rose by 3.7 per cent to 415,548 units; while truck production was up 3.3 per cent to 101,853 units. Bus production also rose by 11.7 per cent to 10,348 units.

Honda is continuing to ramp up its research into electric vehicles and has announced its co-operation with Kumamoto Prefecture on an Electric Vehicle Testing Programme.

The programme will focus on next-generation personal mobility products such as electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles, electric scooters and electric carts. It follows on from Honda’s announcement that it will carry out additional electric vehicle testing programmes in Saitama Prefecture and the US. Similar plans have also been discussed for a programme in China.

Honda actually formed a comprehensive agreement with Kumamoto Prefecture back on August 5, with the idea that testing would be carried out through to March, 2013. Among the vehicles being tested is the Monpal ML200 electric cart.

The aim of the programme is to look at the practicality and convenience of electromotive technology including Honda’s electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. It will also look at the effectiveness of solar power generation and other renewable energy sources and the potential of next generation personal mobility to enhance the quality of life of residents in local communities.

A solar reactor derived by a team from Caltech, ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute, could assist the thermo-chemical production of fuels.

In a paper published in the journal Science, the researchers claim that fuel can be generated over 500 cycles. Solar to fuel efficiencies of 0.7-0.8 per cent were achieved.

The basis for the system is a thermo-chemical cycle that disassociated water and carbon dioxide using nonstoichiometric ceria. It is designed to concentrate solar radiation and heating ranges from 1,420-1,6408C. This strips oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide and water, while forming CO and hydrogen respectively. 

According to the scientists this represents an attractive path to solar fuel production at high rates and efficiencies. Cerium oxide has emerged as a highly attractive redox active material choice because it shows rapid fuel production kinetics and high selectivity. However, to date these studies have been limited to bench-top demonstrations and an assessment of cyclability has been limited. Now, it has been demonstrated that high-rate solar fuel production can be achieved without the need for complex material microstructures and/or system design.

The conversion efficiency obtained is about two orders of magnitude greater than was achieved with state-of-the-art photocatalytic approaches. It was also found that the efficiency and cycling rates in the reactor were limited largely by thermal losses and so the team anticipates that reactor optimisation and system integration will result in significant increases in efficiency and fuel production rates.

In a major boost for the biofuel sector, China has decided to exempt taxes on pure biodiesel from waste animal fats and vegetable oils.

Its new policy will actually be retroactive from January 1, 2009, with taxes that have already been paid to be refunded according to the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation.

A report in Xinhau suggests the move is aimed at lifting the renewable resources sector while easing demand for petroleum and protecting the ecological environment. It is also expected to save biodiesel producers around 900yuan per tonne.

It is hoped that biodiesel producers will now be more competitive in the fuel sector and this should help to guard against waste edible oils being reused for human consumption so as to ensure food safety.

Suzuki Motor Corporation and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation have reached an agreement on OEM supply of Suzuki’s SOLIO compact passenger vehicle.

It is expected that Suzuki will supply around 800 SOLIO vehicles a month to Mitsubishi starting from spring 2011 with the aim of generating new customers. It hopes to respond to a number of customer needs by adding a new genre to Mitsubishi’s line-up, known as a compact height wagon.

Suzuki also aims to boost its productivity while lowering production and development costs by increasing its economies of scale. This supply will be limited to the Japanese market.