French car manufacturer Renault has joined forces with a host of companies to establish an e-mobility project in the Rhine-Ruhr region.

The project’s aim is to integrate electric mobility into everyday traffic along the A40 motorway. Charging infrastructure will be built in the towns of Mulheim, Essen and Dortmund by mid-2011 and data will be collected to enable the development of marketable products, including GPS devices, with a clear charging station overview.

The vehicle fleet includes 40 Renault pre-production electric vehicles and 110 converted electric cars, based on the Fiat 500 and Karabag 500E that RWE will provide as lease vehicles.

The Renault models expected to be incorporated into the project include the Kangoo Express zero emission utility vehicle and the Fluence zero emission mid-range family saloon car. Both of the vehicles are expected to be launched in Europe in 2011 and are capable of a range of 160km with both standard and quick charging available. As an added bonus, Fluence batteries can also be exchanged using the quick-drop system.

The project will receive support from the German Ministry for Traffic, Construction and Urban Development to the tune of around €7million. Participants in the scheme include RWE Effizienz GmbH; Renault Deutschland AG; automotive engineering research company Forschungsgesellschaft Kraftfahrwesen mbH Aachen (fka); and the Institut für Hochspannungstechnik (High-Voltage Engineering Institute) of RWTH Aachen University.

A range extended electric conversion of the Ford F-150 has been revealed as part of the 2010 National Truck Equipment Association Work Truck Show and Green Truck Summit.

The vehicle, developed by Michigan-based electric powertrain company ALTe LLC includes a Ford 2.0litre, four-cylinder normally aspirated petrol engine that powers an 82kW Remy DC generator. It includes two Remy DC drive motors that run at 320V and deliver 400Nm maximum torque.

The battery pack has been assembled into a saddlebag configuration with a 52mile all-electric range. Fuel economy in charge sustaining mode is 32mpg and the entire range extended electric system adds around 200lbs to the vehicle’s net weight. 

According to ALTe CEO John Thomas, the company is in discussions with several car manufacturers at the chairman and CEO level and is also in discussions with a major retail chain that is interested in becoming a nationwide centre partner.

Thomas hopes that his company might be the one that offers Freightliners, manufacturers and their customers the range-extended solution to complement the existing battery electric vehicles in the field.

In an effort to slash energy use and reduce feedstock consumption, work has started on an EU-funded project to improve the performance of the continent’s biorefinaries.

Known as EUROBIOREF (European multi-level integrated biorefinary design for sustainable biomass processing) it is a four-year project with a total budget of €37billion, of which a substantial amount will come from the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme.

Its aim is to overcome fragmentation in the sector through the promotion of networking, co-operation and co-ordination. It has put together a project consortium to cover the whole biomass chain and this will include companies in the biochemical industry, European organisations and researchers.

In addition, partners will develop a biorefinary concept for a wide range of feedstocks and different processes including chemical, biochemical and thermochemical. This will result in the production of a variety of products that range from polymers to high energy aviation fuels and chemicals.

It is hoped that by improving the efficiency of the reaction processes, the systems can become more flexible and reduce production time and logistics. This in turn could help improve cost efficiency by as much as 30 per cent. Furthermore, they hope to reduce the amount of energy used by around 30 per cent and cut feedstock consumption by 10 per cent. The plants should also produce zero waste.

Project partners are based in 14 countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Madagascar, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV has continued its European adventure after the Mitsubishi Motors Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding with MM Automobile Schweiz AG and Alpiq Holding AG, the country’s largest electricity provider, in Switzerland.

The three parties will work together to confirm the viability of electric vehicles and quick charger units and promote the new generation i-MiEV in the country.

Alpiq sees the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and electric mobility as an innovative solution to develop individual means of transport without CO2 emissions.

The i-MiEV has already made its way to the country as part of the Geneva International Motor Show. It is being made available for test drives within the show’s Green Pavilion. The show runs until March 14.

The green movement in the US is not just limited to the West coast – now New York is getting in on the act with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) awarding $8million to help develop or commercialise 19 advanced energy storage projects.

The awards will be made to companies and universities across the state and could benefit transportation as well as renewable energy technologies and utility Smart Grid applications.

Let’s take a look at some of the projects set to benefit:

• General Electric – Has been awarded $2,500,000 to develop its sodium metal halide batteries for use in a new generation of cleaner locomotives and stationary applications.

• Ultralife Corporation – Picks up $2,400,000 for integrating battery and ultra-capacitors on a common power circuit that serves two renewable energy sources to increase renewable energy contributions to the grid.
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – $200,000 for next-generation lithium-ion rechargeable batteries.
• Cerion Enterprises – With $200,000 it will develop innovative materials for next generation lithium-ion batteries.
• Ioxus - $600,000 will go towards three projects to improve ultracapacitor performance.
• City University of New York – Picks up $349,597 towards two projects – one to develop a nickel-zinc battery that uses low cost materials; and the other to improve the performance of ultra-capacitors.
• Brookhaven National Laboratory – $552,890 towards three projects to develop improved batteries for stationary grid scale energy storage applications.
• SUNY Binghamton – Has been awarded $200,000 for lithium-air storage systems for vehicle or grid systems.
• College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering of the University at Albany – Funding worth $200,000 to produce electrolytes that improve the performance of ultra-capacitors.
• Hollingsworth & Vose Co – $200,000 for an advanced separator for valve-regulated lead-acid batteries.
• Cornell University – Has been awarded $200,000 for non-flammable battery electrolytes.
• General Motors – $196,090 for materials for improved lithium-ion battery electrodes for automotive applications.
• Impact Technologies – With $99,766 awarded it will develop a method to increase the lifetime of batteries by assessing battery health.
• Rochester Institute of Technology – With $195,869 it will look into methods to recycle and reuse lithium-ion batteries.

There have been some unique and innovative ideas tossed around as we inch closer towards the electrification of vehicles – and this one is definitely up there with the best of them.

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has deployed a prototype implementation of an online electric vehicle (OLEV) technology. This picks up electricity from power cables that are buried underground using a non-contact magnetic charging method.

According to KAIST, it’s an important development towards the commercialisation of electric vehicles and its demonstrator has replaced a trackless combustion engine train running inside Seoul Grand Park.

So how does it work?

The equipment installed underneath the vehicle collects electricity from a roadway and distributes it either to operate the vehicle or for battery storage. This means that whether the vehicle is running or stopped it is constantly receiving electric power from the underground cables and so there is no need to fit the vehicles with large battery packs – in fact the online electric vehicles use batteries that are one-fifth of the size of those installed in electric vehicles that are currently on the market.

The road with the recharging strips is divided into several segments so when a car drives on a certain segment a sensor is turned on and it can pick up the electricity. According to research, if it was applied to the public bus system in South Korea, the power lines would need to be installed on only 20 per cent of the bus route – such as at bus stops, intersections and in car parks.

KAIST has already submitted more than 120 applications for patent rights to develop online electric vehicles and has established a road map for research and development with the aim to reach commercialisation by 2013.

French automotive components manufacturer Valeo has placed a clear emphasis on CO2 emission reduction as it outlines its goals for the coming years.

As part of an investor day in Paris, the company presented a strategic plan and medium term financial objectives that will include higher organic growth and becoming a major player in the sector.

It will devote two thirds of its advanced research development to technology solutions to downsize internal combustion engines and for hybrid and electric vehicles. Part of its focus will be reducing component weight and energy consumption as it hopes to double it sales for technologies linked to CO2 reduction to €1billion by 2013 and then to more than €5billion by 2020.

According to Jacques Aschenbroich, the group’s chief executive officer, CO2 emissions and high growth in emerging markets will drive the automotive market over the next few years. With a focus on those two areas, Valeo should be able to return organic growth and play an active role in the consolidation of the sector.

He believes that organic growth should be higher than that of global automotive output and that sales of €10billion can be reached by 2013 and €15billion by 2020. The company will also investigate external growth opportunities and plans to devote 60 per cent of its investments to emerging countries to reinforce historical positions with particular emphasis placed on China, Brazil, Thailand, India and Turkey, with plans also outlined to boost the company’s presence in Russia.

In addition, Valeo has presented a dossier to the European Works Council to form a new organisation based around four business groups with the objective that by 2013 it will have one of the best performances in its sector in terms of the return of capital. It will also aim to improve its operating margin by reducing administrative expenses, limiting investment to 80 per cent of depreciation and returning to group average profitability for the Visibility Systems Business Group.

A draft report of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2008 indicates that transportation emissions fell by 5.7 per cent – the largest annual fall since 1990.

The report outlines that overall greenhouse has emissions have decreased by 2.9 per cent with CO2 emissions in the transportation sector dropping from 1,893.8Tg CO2 in 2007 to 1,785.3Tg CO2 in 2008. This is the largest annual change in absolute or percentage terms since records began in 1990.  

The transportation end-use sector accounted for 1,818.1Tg CO2 in 2008 with 32 per cent of CO2 emissions, 24 per cent of CH4 emissions and 65 per cent of N2O emissions coming from fossil fuel combustion. Light duty vehicles represented 62 per cent of CO2 emissions, with medium and heavy trucks accounting for 22 per cent and commercial aircraft seven per cent.

Overall, from 1990 to 2008 transportation emissions have increased by 22 per cent – largely due to increased demand for travel as well as the stagnation of fuel efficiency across the US vehicle fleet. Vehicle miles travelled have also increased by 37 per cent over the 18year period and there has been a significant increase in air travel and freight transportation.

According to the EPA, the decrease in 2008 is largely due to a decline in economic activity and the increased price of transportation fuels.

There’s one mode of transport even greener than hybrid and electric cars – and that’s the humble bicycle. That’s why we know environmental enthusiasts everywhere will be thrilled with the latest innovation from Google.

The online search specialist has added biking directions in the US to Google Maps which includes step-by-step directions, bike trails, and a new ‘bicycling’ layer that indicates bike-friendly roads, bike lanes and bike trails.

At the moment, the new feature is still in Beta, but, according to Google, it will allow the user to click and drag the route to customise it and the layer will be colour coded to show three different types of paths: dark green for bike-only trails; light green for dedicated bike lanes along a road; and dotted green for roads without bike lanes that are more appropriate for biking.

Ford’s European engine product range has been revamped with the emphasis placed clearly on offering more efficient petrol and diesel engines.

At the top of the list is the introduction of two four-cylinder Ford EcoBoost petrol units that combine high pressure direct injection with advanced turbocharging and twin variable valve timing. This maximises combustion efficiency and both 1.6litre and 2.0litre models will be made available.

The 1.6litre version is scheduled to be launched in the all new Ford C-MAX and Ford Grand C-MAX models that are due to debut later this year as well as being included in the next-generation Ford Focus from early 2011. Meanwhile, the 2.0litre engine will makes its debut in the latest 2010 S-MAX, Galaxy and Mondeo models.

Also making its first appearance for Ford is an updated Duratorq TDCi diesel engine that delivers high efficiency with improved performance and better fuel economy. Both the 1.6litre and 2.0litre versions are enhanced by a next generation combustion system with a lower compression ratio; a higher pressure common-rail fuel injection system with advanced multi-hole injectors; and smaller, low-inertia variable geometry turbochargers. The engines now meet Euro 5 emission standards and, according to Ford, the 1.6 TDCI engine can reduce CO2 emissions by as much as six per cent compared to the previous model; while the 2.0litre version cuts emissions by seven per cent. The 1.6litre TDCI will be included in the all-new C-MAX, Grand C-MAX and the next generation Focus; while the 2.0litre model will also be offered in the C-MAX and Grand C-MAX as well as the 2010 Kuga, Mondeo, Galaxy and S-MAX models.

The entire TDCi Ford range will also boast ECOnetic derivatives that are optimised specifically for fuel economy and low CO2 emissions. From this year, Ford will launch an updated Focus ECOnetic that can be specified with Ford’s auto start-stop system and can take emissions down to a class-leading 99g/km.

Also lined up by Ford is a host of new transmissions including an advanced Ford PowerShift six-speed dual clutch automatic and a new six-speed manual gearbox. The six-speed transmission is light and compact with real world fuel economy reduced by three-five per cent compared to the five-speed manual gearbox.