sustainability
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Wiebe Wakker took one very long drive in an electric car—for a total of 1119 days, covering 59,000 miles and traversing portions of 33 countries on the way from the Netherlands to Australia. It was, by just about any standard, an epic road trip. Wakker reached Sydney last Sunday, April 7, and was welcomed with a parade of EVs, across the Harbour Bridge, through the city, to the Royal Botanic Garden. He claims to have made the trip “without money”—with the fuel for his trip revolving around the goodwill of electric-vehicle fans and people along the way, as he aimed...
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Ahead of electric-car production, VW demands suppliers cut carbon emissionsAs Volkswagen ramps up to build a new generation of mass-market electric vehicles in the aftermath of its diesel scandal, regulators and environmental groups will likely be paying close attention to their emissions—especially the emissions created in making them. The Financial Times, in a...
Bengt Halvorson -
GM commits to more efficient, electric, and autonomous cars
General Motors plans to add more hybrids and electric cars, despite missing its own goal for sales volume.
Stephen Edelstein -
GM Lauds Greenest Dealers, Shares Best Practices For Cutting Energy Use
General Motors launches its Green Dealer Recognition program to encourage energy-efficient practices.
Stephen Edelstein -
New Honda 'Green Dealer Guide' Spells Out Energy Efficiency For Dealership Buildings
Honda translated lessons learned from its green-dealer program into a set of voluntary guidelines.
Stephen Edelstein -
Would Intelligent Cars Get Us Green Quicker Than Electric Cars?
What technologies will have the most impact on making cars greener and transportation more sustainable--and provide that impact fastest? Suppose that the key isn't plug-in electric cars, but in fact connecting cars to each other and to the infrastructure around them--making traffic flow vastly more...
John Voelcker -
For a century, we've gotten almost all our gasoline and diesel fuel from petrochemicals. Now Silicon Valley startup Solazyme [NSDQ:SZYM] is testing diesel fuel derived from refining renewable oils--produced by specialized algae--in two Volkswagen turbodiesel models. Since July 2012, the VW Passat TDI mid-size sedan and Jetta TDI compact sedan have covered about 20,000 miles together running exclusively on algae-derived diesel fuel. The results of the year-long test, a joint effort of Volkswagen and Solazyme, will be issued later this year. VW engineers and Solazyme will pay particular...
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No Bull With Fisker Karma's Low Carbon, Sustainable Leather
It would be a shame to put so much effort into making a luxury super sedan like the 2012 Fisker Karma, only to fill the interior with materials that go against the low-carbon ethos. That's why Fisker and Scottish leather producer Bridge of Weir have announced their partnership for the Karma. The...
Antony Ingram -
Researchers Turn To Plants And Animals To Fuel Sustainable Car Development
Edible car contests are a fixture at college campuses and grade school science classes, where whacky fun combines with an exercise in engineering and imagination, but it seems that foodstuffs are no longer confined to scale models. But as illustrated by Ford's newly announced use of soybean oil to...
Talking Points Memo -
By Royal Appointment? Electric Cars Welcome in Prince of Wales’ Eco-village
While many in the United Kingdom doubt that he will accede his mother Queen Elizabeth II to the throne and become King, HRH the Prince of Wales has never been one to shy away from helping his subjects combine quintessential British values with new technology. His latest project does exactly that...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Greening The Rouge: Ford's More Sustainable Pickup Plant
A green roof is not at its most photogenic in a Michigan winter. In fact, it's hardly green at all--more like gray and brown--though it still insulates the building below just as well. But while some of the green aspects of Ford's showcase Rouge assembly plant have succumbed to the January weather...
John Voelcker -
Ford: Era Of EVs Calls For Closer Eye On Conflict Minerals
Increasingly, in production electric vehicles such as the 2012 Ford Focus Electric and 2011 Nissan Leaf, automakers are turning to recycled and repurposed materials. But the rest of a modern car—even an ol' fossil-fuel burner—is no longer just sheetmetal, alloy, and plastics; extruded...
Bengt Halvorson
