by Paul Hirsch The automotive industry has invested billions in alternative fuel technology since that first Prius rolled off its assembly line. And these days a growing portion of that investment has been focused on zero emission technologies, such as battery electric vehicles (EVs) and hydrogen fuel cells. Yet as a professional tasked with commercializing [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi as published to Huffington Post Lately, I’ve been listening a lot on my iPod to a number of pop songs from the late 1960’s: “Wichita Lineman”, “Love Is Blue”, “Everybody’s Talkin’”, “To Sir With Love”, “Classical Gas” and so on. These are some of the AM radio songs of my youth, [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi The August 16 edition of The Economist contains an interesting article summarizing many of the advancements being made by various companies to improve the good-old internal combustion engine. For instance, Daimler (NYSE: DAI) is working on an engine design called the DiesOtto, which attempts to forge a cross between a diesel [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi Last week, Cleveland-based Progressive Insurance (NYSE: PGR) announced that it was sponsoring the Progressive Automotive X Prize: $10 million to develop a market-ready automobile that would achieve 100 miles per gallon fuel efficiency. The Associated Press reports that 60 teams from nine countries have already signed up for the competition, which [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi Whereas diesel engines have made great strides in the European auto markets, here in the U.S., gasoline still dominates. Apparently, the prospect of much higher fuel mileage and lower CO2 emissions from diesels doesn’t overcome the objections of U.S. environmental regulatory authorities concerned mainly about local air quality issues. I suspect [...]
By John Addison (1/28/08). In the future, utilities will pay you to plug-in your vehicle. Millions will plug-in their electric vehicles (EV), plug-in hybrids (PHEV) and fuel cell vehicles (FCV) at night when electricity is cheap, then plug-in during the day when energy is expensive and sell those extra electrons at a profit. Vehicle to [...]
By John Addison (1/17/08). Fuel economy was on display at the Detroit Auto Show. Starting Saturday, even more exciting vehicles will be unveiled at the North American International Auto Show, also in Detroit. $100 per barrel oil and new CAFÉ standards have made improved fuel economy mandatory for auto makers. Most popular with individuals and [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi As has become my custom, with the year drawing to a close, I now look in the rear-view mirror and try to distill what I see. In no particular order, here are my top ten reflections on 2007: 1. Popping of the ethanol bubble. Not long ago, it seemed like anyone [...]
By John Addison (6/19/07). Several hundred engineers, researchers, and managers shared fuel cell technology, trends, and market success at the Fuel Cell 2007 Conference. In some areas, fuel cells generate millions in revenues from commercial deployment; in other areas, fuel cells are early in research and development. A number of commercial products involve hydrogen PEM [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi On the clean-tech front, ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) seems to be striving to take the lead among U.S. oil companies. In just the last two few weeks, COP has made two announcements of significance. First, COP unveiled a partnership with Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) to produce biodiesel from animal fats (press release). [...]
