Ford Scoops $6 Mil Out Of $55 Million Vehicle Efficiency Pot
DOE taps Ford for a massive new $6 million carbon fiber technology project, part of a $55 million round of funding for advanced vehicle efficiency.
carbon fiber
DOE Offers Up $11 Million For Bio-Acrylonitrile – What Is That Stuff, Anyways?
The Energy Department has just awarded $11 million in R&D grants to manufacture
acrylonitrile from biomass for renewable high-performance carbon fiber.
Is Bamboo The Next Carbon Fiber? Lightweight Cars Made Of Renewable Bamboo
Could bamboo replace carbon fiber in many common auto-industry applications in the near future? Could the cheap, lightweight, renewable material preempt the mainstream use of the high-tech but expensive material? Could the economic advantages inherent in the material prove themselves too good to pass up? Hard questions to answer, but some … [continued]
Solar Impulse 2: Solar Electric Plane That Will Fly Around World (Exclusive Videos)
As we’ve shared a few times now, the Solar Impulse 2 was unveiled earlier today in Payerne, Switzerland. I was lucky enough to be present (courtesy of ABB, one of Solar Impulse 2’s four main partners) and I even got to interview the Solar Impulse co-founders, Bertrand Piccard and André … [continued]
Renault Plug-in Hybrid That Gets 141 MPG Could Be Unveiled In Geneva
Originally published on EV Obsession. I guess this is primarily a story for our European readers, but with the numbers Renault is throwing around, it’ll likely interest everyone. The French automaker is reportedly going to unveil a 141 MPG concept car at the Geneva Motor Show that isn’t a 100% … [continued]
Women In Green Forum 2013 | Ford’s Future Plastics
At the Women in Green Forum, we had the pleasure of not only watching Dr. Ellen Lee give a presentation on the work Ford is doing to end their dependency on petroleum-based materials, but also sat down with her to get to the tofu of the matter…
Dr. Ellen Lee and her team spend their days devising new ways to make plastic more sustainable. She does this at Ford, so it’s not just about renewable resources, but also about reducing weight. She’s always on the lookout for the lightest materials with the lowest environmental impact at Ford prices.
BMW i3 Shifts EV Market With Composites
Originally published on RMI Outlet. by Greg Rucks Fuel economy is greatly affected by an automobile’s weight. Nevertheless, for years our automobiles got heavier. In the U.S. the average curb weight of a passenger vehicle climbed 26 percent from 1980 to 2006. Advances in powertrain technology have not lead to drastically higher … [continued]
Toray’s Green Sports Car Is Invitation For Collaboration
Toray’s TEEWAVE AR1, on display at the IAA 2011, seems to be a very rare thing – an environmentally friendly sports car. The next-generation EV concept car was made with environmentally friendly materials developed by Toray itself, with the hope that it could serve as an example for other automakers.
