(November 20, 2019) At freight yards like the Port of Los Angeles, Utility Tractor Rig's are hauling containers back and forth. At that port there is a high concentration of these trucks, overwhelmingly diesel powered, which makes for a high concentration of horrid air pollutants. This hydrogen fuel cell truck is one possible solution to the problem. In this application a fuel cell does not have the disadvantages of their use for passenger cars - the UTR's do not travel far, and can therefore be refueled on site.
(September 9, 2019) Kia joins hands with Ionity, a company operating ultra-high-power charging station services in Europe. This says that 2021 Kia and Hyundai electric cars will be able to handle 800 volt charging, and be able to handle the 350 kiloWatt charging rate that Ionity delivers.
(August 14, 2019) Zero emission aircraft could be fueled by hydrogen produced locally using renewable electricity. Airports have lots of open land where solar farms could collect electricity to fuel hydrogen electrolysis equipment, surely. That's the message by ZeroAvia, who is developing a fuel cell based drive train for medium size electric airplanes. Their test mule, pictured here, is a six passenger Piper M-Class aircraft. Clearly they intend to supply drive trains to existing airplane manufacturers. The selling point is lower fuel cost than using regular jetfuel. The founder, Val Miftakhov, previously launched Electric Motor Werks and in 2017 he sold that company to ENEL.
(August 6, 2019) The coming wave of robocars requires robotic charging systems it seems. All the automakers are planning autonomously driven cars, that require no human driver, to provide automated taxi services - kind of like Uber or Yellow Cab but without the driver. Such robotaxi's will need charging stations, and Stable looks to provide fast charging services for these robotaxi's. The first step is a pilot project in San Francisco.
(August 1, 2019) The coming wave of robocars requires robotic charging systems it seems. All the automakers are planning autonomously driven cars, that require no human driver, to provide automated taxi services - kind of like Uber or Yellow Cab but without the driver. Such robotaxi's will need charging stations, and Stable looks to provide fast charging services for these robotaxi's. The first step is a pilot project in San Francisco.
(July 12, 2019) As Volkswagen says all these heart-warming things, that we must stop avoiding the question of climate change and move on to action, we have to remember the recent history of the Volkswagen Group. What VW says in this press release is very nice, to be sure. A few years ago VW was caught red handed cheating on emissions testing. They had rigged the Volkswagen TDI drive train to operate in a super-clean mode while under emissions testing, and to operate in a "normal" (hence polluting) mode in normal operation. VW had to deliver on the Fahrvergnügen promise (German for driving enjoyment). As a result VW has had to pay steep fines, several executives have gone to jail, and suddenly the VW Group is more interested in electric vehicles than before. If that's what it takes to make progress, so be it.
(June 26, 2019) As Volkswagen says all these heart-warming things, that we must stop avoiding the question of climate change and move on to action, we have to remember the recent history of the Volkswagen Group. What VW says in this press release is very nice, to be sure. A few years ago VW was caught red handed cheating on emissions testing. They had rigged the Volkswagen TDI drive train to operate in a super-clean mode while under emissions testing, and to operate in a "normal" (hence polluting) mode in normal operation. VW had to deliver on the Fahrvergnügen promise (German for driving enjoyment). As a result VW has had to pay steep fines, several executives have gone to jail, and suddenly the VW Group is more interested in electric vehicles than before. If that's what it takes to make progress, so be it.
(June 26, 2019) While Hyundai and its partner company Kia have some very well designed electric vehicles, Hyundai is also keen on fuel cell vehicles. In this deal they prove that the primary way to get hydrogen is by extracting it from fossil fuels. Therefore the claim that the hydrogen economy is super clean is largely a fiction. Unless the hydrogen is extracted from a clean source, like water, it is a fossil fuel masquerading as a clean fuel.
(May 14, 2019) Many people are looking forward to self driving cars, presumably so they can play on Facebook with their mobile phones without worrying about hitting the cars around them. But the same technology is going into other sorts of vehicles. Autonomous vehicle technology is being put into weapons systems -- if I read correctly between the lines of this contact from a recuiter.
