Mercedes-Benz adds 'Green' features to plant

Fuel-efficiency and "greener" vehicles might be the trend in autos, but the technology is showing up in more than just the SUVs at Mercedes-Benz U.S. International.

It also is being installed  in the sprawling auto plant's buildings.

The Vance plant recently installed solar panels on the roof of its Visitor Center and the adjoining Bill Taylor Institute that will be used to heat the building's water.

"We are doing the finishing tie-ins now, and it should be online about the first of the year," said Phil Onstott, assistant manager of Mercedes' facility engineering department.

Onstott said the new water heater employs a hybrid technology that will use solar power to heat water but also have the ability to switch to natural gas when more hot water is needed.

Mercedes does not disclose the costs of such investments, but Onstott said it hopes to save money on its water heating. The solar-natural gas water heating will be monitored closely by computers, and "if it works out, we could put more in the plant," he said.

The project started when Alagasco approached Mercedes to see if it would be interested in trying the new solar-natural gas water heating technology, said Onstott, a 15-year Mercedes employee who describes his department as "the MBUSI engineers who have nothing to do with auto production."

The new water heating system will be similar to conventional water heaters in which cooler water flows into a tank and is heated by natural gas power flame or electricity. With the new system, the water will be warmed by the heat generated from the solar panels. If it is nighttime, too cloudy or more hot water is needed, the natural gas burners will kick in to assure a steady supply of warm water, Onstott said.

In that way, the system is similar to the hybrid sport utility vehicles being made in Vance. The vehicles run on electrically charged batteries but can switch automatically to gasoline or diesel when extra power is needed.

The solar water heating is just one of the "green" technologies being embraced at MBUSI.

Early in 2011, the company also will install solar- and wind-powered collectors on top of two light poles at its Plant 1 entrance. The power generated by the solar and wind collectors will be stored in batteries in the base of the poles and will power the poles' hybrid LED roadway lights.

The poles will not be wired into an electrical grid like most street lights, Onstott said, and will rely on just the sun and wind. One battery charge will be sufficient to power a light for three nights, he said.

The wind turbine will have cylinders to collect wind power and will not have the windmill-like propellers traditionally seen on wind-powered projects. The cylinder collectors, unlike the propellers, will make the project bird-friendly, Onstott said.

The wind power will light the road lights night and day and will operate quietly, he said.

"Both projects are production trials in a way," Onstott said. "They are our way of checking out various energy-efficiency technologies as we consider options that may be useful for the rest of our operations."

In a third "green" project, MBUSI plans to replace the high-intensity discharge lighting in its production plant with high-efficiency flow lighting next year.

That work will start in January and will be done in phases so as not to disrupt production. Onstott said when the new lighting is completely installed, the plant should save about 12,000 megawatts of electricity yearly.

Production workers also will notice the difference with the new lighting being a little brighter, he said.

All the efforts are ways to continue reduction of MBUSI's carbon footprint, he said. This past spring, the company reached a milestone when its internal recycling efforts resulted in zero waste going to landfills, he said.

"Everything from the plant either gets reused or recycled now."    Read full article




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Daimler, Walmart Team Up on Hybrid Truck

Daimler Trucks North America announced Monday that it has partnered with Walmart to build a hybrid electric truck, the first fruit of a new, long-term partnership between the two companies to develop green technologies.

The diesel-equipped truck features a parallel hybrid system based on an electric second axle. The system uses advanced battery storage technology.

Walmart is a long-time customer of Portland-based Daimler Trucks North America and will act as an engineering partner to the company going forward.

"Walmart is partnering with our suppliers like Daimler Trucks North America to develop technologies that will improve the efficiency and lessen the impact of our operations. These partnerships help to prove out these technologies and speed up the time to market," said Chris Sultemeier, senior vice president of transportation for Walmart, in a press release.  Courtesy of Sustainable Business Oregon


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Verizon, UPS Expand their ‘Green’ Fleets

Verizon and UPS are both expanding their hybrid fleets in the U.S. While Verizon plans to add more than 260 hybrid vehicles in New Jersey, UPS is rolling out 160 additional hybrids in New York, New Jersey and California. Freightliner also launches its next-generation of all-electric walk-in delivery vans.

Verizon’s new hybrid vehicles are part of the 1,600 alternative-energy vehicles that the company plans to add to its fleet across the country this year. These will include Toyota hybrid sedans, Chevrolet hybrid pickup trucks and unique “mild hybrid” aerial fiber splicing trucks.

The Chevrolet hybrid pickups will be used by FiOS and traditional telephone customer-service technicians and are expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 43 percent compared to the vans they will replace.

The aerial fiber splicing trucks are equipped with an aerial lift device, or “bucket,” for aerial line work and an environmentally controlled body compartment for splicing fiber-optic cable. The lift, splicing equipment and climate controls are powered by lithium-ion batteries, eliminating the need for a gasoline- or diesel-powered generator. This will save approximately one gallon of petroleum fuel consumption per hour of operation and reduce six to 12 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually per aerial truck, depending on use.

Verizon says it used this “mild hybrid” solution because conventional hybrid technology offers little benefit for equipment such as aerial splicer trucks with typically low-mileage drive cycles.

In July, Verizon added 576 Chevrolet Silverado Two-Mode Hybrid full-size pickups in an effort to reduce the carbon footprint of its fleet vehicles.

Verizon employees also have also been reducing CO2 emissions by cutting engine idling times. Since 2008, Verizon employees have conserved more than 2.7 million gallons of fuel.

UPS also is beefing up its hybrid fleet. The package delivery company is adding 130 hybrid electric vehicles to its growing fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles (AFVs), which will be deployed next year, with 30 slated for New York and New Jersey and 100 to California.

UPS estimates these vehicles will save 66,085 gallons of fuel and 671 metric tonnes of CO2 annually, representing a 35 percent improvement in fuel economy.

UPS operates one of the largest private fleets of alternative-fuel vehicles in the transportation industry with 2,022 vehicles in total. The company has invested more than $25 million to develop its AFV fleet, which also includes other fuels such as compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, propane and all-electric. The fleet is deployed in eight countries in addition to the U.S., and since 2000, has traveled 185 million miles.

In June, UPS announced it was putting 200 new hybrid electric trucks into service across eight U.S. cities in an effort to reduce fuel consumption.

Earlier in the year, UPS deployed 245 new delivery trucks fueled with compressed natural gas (CNG) to cities in Colorado and California, and 200 next-generation hybrid electric delivery trucks in Austin, Houston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York City, Minneapolis and Louisville.

UPS says it was the first package delivery company to introduce a hybrid electric vehicle into daily operation with a research program in early 1998. Currently, there are 250 UPS HEV delivery vehicles operating in the United States.

The new vehicles’ hybrid electric power system uses a conventional diesel engine combined with a battery pack, which saves fuel and reduces emissions. The energy generated from braking is captured and returned to the battery as electricity. The combination of clean diesel power and electric power, supplemented by regenerative braking, allows significant improvements in fuel savings and emissions reductions, according to UPS.

The HEV fleet features two different size vehicles from Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation (FCCC) and a hybrid drive system from Eaton Corporation. The external truck bodies are identical to UPS’s other signature brown trucks, with the exception of additional labeling that identifies them as hybrid electrics.

FCCC, together with Morgan Olson, recently launched the next-generation all-electric walk-in van that features new exterior and interior body styling. The companies say the MT-EV WIV features a lightweight, aerodynamic design for improved efficiency.

Introduced at the Hybrid Truck Users Forum (HTUF), the new MT-EV is built of lightweight, durable composites that are completely recyclable, and the instrumentation panel within the cab incorporates automotive styling and adds additional features that constantly monitor the EV operating system to provide the driver information, such as the battery state of charge data. The vehicle performance gauge also is included to assist the driver in the operation of the vehicle.

The MT-EV all-electric chassis uses Enova Systems’ 120kW all-electric drive system technology and is powered by Tesla Motors’ lithium-ion batteries. The battery packs provide up to a 100-mile driving range on a single charge, making it suitable for pickup and delivery applications. The battery pack will charge from fully depleted to fully charged in six to eight hours.

In addition, the vehicle charging system is incorporated into the overall operating system so no exterior devices are required to charge the truck. The batteries also capture and store energy during the regenerative braking phase of the vehicle’s operation.    Courtesy  Environmental Leader



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World's first hybrid GT race car makes Green sexy

German luxury carmaker Porsche's new 911 GT3 R Hybrid is the world's first hybrid GT racing car, and it was in the United States to compete in the American Le Mans Series, a proven ground for green technology race cars.




At a Washington event, it showed off sleek lines and the ground-breaking new hybrid technology, developed for racing but which Porsche ultimately wants to incorporate into its normal cars -- not that Porsche does any normal cars.

"This car shows that being environmentally efficient doesn't have to be boring. It can be fast, it can be sexy, it can be competitive," Patrick Long, a 29-year-old Porsche factory driver and one of a handful of men to have gripped the wheel and shifted the gears of the new Porsche GT hybrid.

"Hybrids don't have to make no noise and drive slowly down the road. They can be loud, exciting race cars," he said.

The car has the body of a 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 R with a four-liter, flat-six, 480 horsepower combustion engine in the rear.

Up front, its unique hybrid system harnesses two electric motors and a flywheel to generate, store and release power. The Porsche is the first car to use an electromechanical flywheel as the battery, said Christoph Michalik, Porsche's director of motorsports strategy and planning.

When a driver brakes on one of the many curves on a race course, the electric motors, which are coupled to the wheels, generate an electric current that powers up the flywheel, located in the front passenger seat.

Energy is released from the flywheel during normal acceleration and automatically delivered to the front wheels to support the combustion engine and reduce fuel consumption.

Energy can also be requested by the driver -- to overtake a rival racer, for example -- by pushing a paddle on the steering wheel to request a "boost".

In "boost" mode, the car switches from rear-wheel to all-wheel drive, which increases traction and reduces tire wear, and both the front and rear engines are used at 100 percent, the combustion engine delivering 480 horsepower and the front electric motors adding another 160-180 horsepower.

"When you pull the paddle and get the charge, it launches you back in the seat and you'd better be ready and have your lines set up so you stay on the race track. That's roughly 30 percent more horsepower," said Long.

"And all that power is produced by stored kinetic energy that was created from the braking of the car," he added.

In normal accelerating mode, the Porsche GT hybrid lets the combustion engine work less, which cuts down on fuel consumption.

And the car's technology allows drivers to brake later and harder with less wear on parts like brake pads, said Long.

"In endurance races, which this car is made for, if we spend 60 seconds in the pits changing brake pads halfway through the race... no matter how fast your lap times are, if you spend time in the pits you're going to lose the race," he said.

"This Porsche is a glimpse into the future of what high-performance efficiency will be," said Scott Atherton, president of the American Le Mans Series, the only major motorsports series in the world in which cars use alternative energies.

The new Porsche GT hybrid racing car will make its US racing debut on October 2 at the 1,000-mile, 10-hour-maximum final of the American Le Mans Series. A month later it will race in Zhuhai, in China, with Long at the wheel.

In Atlanta, the Porsche will race against cars including a Corvette powered by cellulosic E85 ethanol, a Mazda that runs on isobutanol; and an Audi that runs on clean diesel, Atherton told AFP.

But because the Porsche's technology is so new, it won't be in the running for a prize at the race.

That's because officials haven't had time to come up with rules and regulations for the sexy, green German car that only made its first outing in May at the Nuerburgring in Germany, dominating the 24-hour race until the rear combustion engine developed a problem with just two hours to go.
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China Sweetens Prices of Green Cars to Boost Sales

China will offer new subsidies for fuel efficient vehicles that can boost vehicle sales by more than four million units by 2012, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

The government will provide 3,000 Chinese yuan ($441) to consumers who buy fuel efficient cars with engine capacities of 1.6 liters or less and use 20 percent less fuel than current models, China.org reported.


The scheme can reportedly generate more than 400 billion Chinese yuan in vehicle sales by 2012, help reduce 3.3 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions and save 750 million liters of fuel.
The commission confirmed that 71 green vehicle models have qualified for the fuel subsidies. These include models from 16 Chinese automobile manufacturers, including BYD Automobile Limited (HKG: 1211) and Chongqing Changan Automobile Company (SZSE:000625), as well as joint ventures involving Hyundai Motor Corporation (LSE:HYUD) and Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F).

China, the world’s largest auto market, is banking on green vehicles to reduce pollution and save energy. The government previously unveiled plans to invest up to 10 billion Chinese yuan to develop new energy vehicles that will help them achieve its target of deploying 500,000 to 1 million green cars by 2015.
Earlier this June, the government rolled out its trial incentive program for fuel efficient vehicles in the cities of Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Changchun and Hefei.

Under the subsidy scheme, buyers of wholly-electric vehicles will receive 60,000 Chinese yuan, while buyers of plug-in hybrid cars will get 50,000 Chinese yuan. However, the incentives will not go directly to the buyers but to the automakers, as they will reduce the actual price of the vehicles accordingly.

While the process is deemed easier, issues in transparency and policy implementation and supervision may arise, said Jia Xinguang, an independent auto industry consultant.

The five-city pilot scheme can cover nearly one-third of the price of BYD’s F3MD hybrid passenger vehicle worth 100,000 Chinese yuan to 130,000 Chinese yuan, said Xu An, the company’s spokesman.

Industry analysts also predict that the program will increase shares of lithium-ion battery manufacturers in the domestic market, particularly between 2011 and 2015 when automakers will have produced first-generation green vehicle models.

However, the scheme will have limited effect on the auto industry as of the moment due to its small coverage. “If the subsidy plan applies only to a few cities, it won’t fully boost new energy vehicle consumption in China,” said Kevin Wale, president and chief executive of General Motors China.

Wang Jianjun, BYD vice president agreed, saying that the growth of the industry also depends on consumers’ familiarity with green vehicles. Businesses also need to establish related services such as recharging stations.

Taking these into consideration, BYD decided to produce only 1,000 green cars this year, with no immediate plans to mass produce.

Another potential problem for the deployment of new energy vehicles is the cost. Even with government subsidies, most green vehicles will cost 200,000 Chinese yuan per unit, which is more expensive than their gas-powered counterparts, noted Zhao Hang, director of China Automotive Technology Research Center.

“The fact that new energy vehicles are still in the trial stage is the major reason why the subsidy program is only carried out in five cities,” he continued.

Mr. Zhao also emphasized that the government should increase subsidies to enable companies to accelerate technical development and help raise the competitiveness of EV’s against conventional fuel cars.   Source Ecoseed


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Toshiba Eyes Plant Expansion after EV Motors Deal with Ford

Toshiba Corporation plans to upgrade its manufacturing facility for motors designed for electric vehicles following a major supply contract with Ford Motor Company and optimistic outlook for the EV market.


 The Japanese conglomerate will develop its existing plant in Houston in January next year and develop its first overseas manufacturing base for automotive propulsion motors.

The Toshiba International Corporation site in Houston produces motors for industrial equipment. Toshiba currently produces its automotive propulsion motors in Mie Prefecture in Honshu, Japan. Production of the automotive motors in the new site is planned for 2012.

“Toshiba recognizes the importance of localizing production within North America to ensure long-term growth and make a commitment to the North American market,” said Shinichiro Akiba, president of Toshiba International Corporation.

Toshiba withheld details of the drive motors supply contract with Ford (Nasdaq:

FORD

) for the latter’s hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles. 

But as the automotive industry shifts to greener vehicles, Toshiba estimates that the global market for motors for electric vehicles will grow to 50 billion Japanese yen ($551 million) in 2009 and expand to 1 trillion yen in 2020.

The conglomerate, with business segments covering digital products to social infrastructure such as power and water systems, aims to capitalize on the EV market, which also drives the batteries industry.

Toshiba’s projections jive with studies conducted by analysts such as ABI Research, which said in a recent report that the global market for plug-in electric vehicles will reach $11.75 billion by 2015.

Another study by Pike Research concludes that Asian manufacturers will dominate the market for batteries of electric vehicles and will take up half of the $8 billion industry by the same year.

To prepare for the growth of these markets, Toshiba is focusing on developing key components for electric vehicles, such as inverters and drive motors. It is also promoting automotive technology advances in dedicated on-board control systems for batteries and intelligent traffic systems.

The Houston facility is expected to lead the company’s marketing of automotive systems and components in the United States while strengthening collaboration with other automobile manufacturers and increasing auto companies’ local procurement of key components.

Toshiba (TOKYO:

6502

) is currently involved with over 740 companies and has annual sales of about 6.3 trillion Japanese yen.  


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Shanghai GM Aims to Reduce Fuel Consumption 15%

Shanghai GM has outlined the next phase of its “Drive to Green” product strategy—launched in 2008 (earlier post)—for 2011-2015. The joint venture between GM and SAIC intends to reduce fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions by 15% while improving performance 14% by 2015.
The Drive to Green strategy is based on improving and optimizing the performance of traditional internal combustion engines and transmissions; continuing the roll out of hybrids; promoting electric vehicles; and supporting the development of hydrogen and other zero-emission products. Several targets announced in 2008 have already been achieved.
Advanced Powertrains. Shanghai GM will introduce 12 new engines through 2015, including several with small displacements, such as a 1.5-liter VVT engine and 1.4-liter turbocharged engine. Vehicles with engines that have displacements of between 1.4 liters and 2.5 liters will account for 95% of Shanghai GM’s total sales in the future.
Engine technologies such as SIDI (spark ignition direct injection) and turbocharging, as well as new transmissions such as the S6, will be applied in Buick, Cadillac and Chevrolet products offered by Shanghai GM. They will cover all market segments, from compact vehicles to luxury products. Shanghai GM’s current lineup of engines with medium displacements and turbocharging will also be upgraded.
In addition, Shanghai GM will intensify the application of energy-saving technologies in its new models. New products will feature a lower drag coefficient and more aerodynamic design, be lighter in weight, and incorporate automatic start-stop engine technology to further improve fuel efficiency. By 2012, all models sold in China will have the capability of being upgraded to comply with the Euro V (China Phase 5) emission standard.
Hybrid and Electric Vehicles. Additional hybrids and vehicles powered by electricity will be rolled out by Shanghai GM over the next five years. The automaker will show a Chevrolet New Sail (earlier post) electric vehicle prototype this year.
[A hatchback version of the Chevrolet New Sail went on sale 1 June, with 1.2-liter SE and 1.2-liter SX versions currently available. The 1.4-liter EMT with an electronic manual transmission is expected to be available in three months. Since its launch earlier this year, the New Sail sedan has posted average monthly sales of about 7,500 units.]
In 2011, the new Buick LaCrosse Hybrid, which will have 20% better fuel economy than the standard model, and the Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle with extended range capability will be introduced. The Volt will be able to run solely on electricity for up to 60 kilometers (37 miles). Its 1.4-liter on-board engine will give the Volt a maximum driving range of more than 480 kilometers (298 miles).
“Drive to Green”. Since the Drive to Green strategy was initiated, between 2008 and 2009, Shanghai GM invested almost US$1.1 billion in powertrain development, 
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