Gas 2.0

Turbo-Diesel Mustang For Europe? Maybe Some Day
MIT Researchers Make Significant Advance in Lithium-Air Batteries
Do New Fuel Economy and Emissions Rules Treat Electric Cars Unfairly?
Report: Renault-Nissan and Daimler to Swap Car Tech in Face of Increasing Environmental Regulations

Turbo-Diesel Mustang For Europe? Maybe Some Day

Posted: 06 Apr 2010 04:43 PM PDT

The 2011 Ford Mustang is without a doubt my favorite petrol-powered car out right now. At least among those I can afford… I mean, who wouldn’t want a Bugatti Veyron if they could afford it? It has gotten more powerful, and more fuel efficient, and as many media outlets are reporting, it can also handle in the twisties quite well.

But despite all of this, if Ford is truly serious about its “One Ford” strategy of sharing parts and components between different global markets, that means the Mustang won’t be exclusive to America for much longer. But in order to meet stringent European emissions standards, Ford would have to make some drastic changes like… a diesel engine?!?

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MIT Researchers Make Significant Advance in Lithium-Air Batteries

Posted: 06 Apr 2010 04:32 PM PDT

Lithium-air batteries are one of those technologies that could be truly revolutionary. With a theoretical maximum energy storage capacity 10 times greater than your garden variety lithium-ion battery, lithium-air batteries could be much smaller and lighter but still provide a huge range. How’s 500-700 miles per charge for you?

Unfortunately, as is usually the case with these sorts of things, the lithium-air revolution has hurdles aplenty. But fortunately, lithium-air batteries have some big guns doing research on them. For instance, IBM has been doing research on lithium-air batteries for the better part of a decade.

And just this week, scientists at MIT have announced that when they substituted gold and platinum for the standard carbon electrodes in lithium-air cells, they were able to obtain much higher efficiencies. The find was significant enough for MIT to claim that their research could lead to lithium-air batteries with 3 times the energy density of lithium-ion. That alone would be a big step forward.

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Do New Fuel Economy and Emissions Rules Treat Electric Cars Unfairly?

Posted: 06 Apr 2010 01:59 PM PDT

After more than a year of wrangling, the new fuel economy and emissions standards that have emerged from the coordinated efforts of the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, all of the major automakers, environmental organizations, and dozens of various other stakeholders are truly an amazing accomplishment. As my fellow Gas 2.0 contributor, Chris Demorro, said, it’s been a long time since we’ve made any changes to these CAFE regulations… and it’s long overdue.

But are electric cars being treated fairly in all of this?

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Report: Renault-Nissan and Daimler to Swap Car Tech in Face of Increasing Environmental Regulations

Posted: 06 Apr 2010 11:39 AM PDT

As we come out the other end of this global recession, automakers are struggling to adapt to a new world in which fuel economy standards are getting increasingly tighter and environmental regulations are taking center stage. One way for carmakers to quickly do that is by sharing what they know with other companies so that all the research and development can be pooled and the cost spread out among several players.

Towards that end, a few weeks ago I reported on a rumor that Renault, Nissan and Daimler were in talks to cooperate and form some sort of mega-alliance in which they would save greatly on research and development costs by swapping technologies that each company is specialized in but that the others may be lacking.

It now appears that a tie-up announcement between the three companies will be coming as soon as tomorrow.

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