https://techxplore.com/automotive-news/ en-us Tech Xplore covers the latest in car tech The growing popularity of Chinese sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks has shaken up Mexico's luxury car market, hitting sales of traditionally dominant brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-mercedes-chinese-cars-mexican.html Automotive Fri, 27 Dec 2024 03:55:29 EST news654494122 Electric vehicles had another whirlwind year around the globe, driven by buyers in China, and growth in parts of Europe and the United States, despite headwinds. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-facts-electric-vehicles.html Automotive Thu, 26 Dec 2024 11:51:53 EST news654436302 Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan will attempt to merge and create the world's third-largest automaker by sales as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-merger-nissan-honda-automakers-industry.html Automotive Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:22:15 EST news654178930 Volkswagen's chief executive welcomed a deal to slash jobs and reduce production capacity in Germany without the need to close factories, but the car giant's shares fell heavily on Monday. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-volkswagen-boss-hails-fall.html Automotive Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:21:46 EST news654178903 Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced plans to work toward a merger that would form the world's third-largest automaker by sales, as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-nissan-honda-merge-world-automaker.html Automotive Mon, 23 Dec 2024 04:01:23 EST news654148874 Stellantis confirmed Saturday it was reversing a decision to lay off 1,100 workers at its Jeep plant in the US state of Ohio, following the ouster of embattled chief executive Carlos Tavares. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-stellantis-backtracks-lay-jeep.html Automotive Sun, 22 Dec 2024 05:28:40 EST news654067716 Freight trains criss-crossing the country carry cars of coal and tanks of oil and natural gas to power plants to help keep the nation's electric grid going. Could freight trains haul electrons generated by renewable energy sources for the same purpose? https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-startup-aims-rails-power-lines.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 19 Dec 2024 06:52:25 EST news653813539 Taiwan's Foxconn is in talks with French auto giant Renault to buy its major stake in Japanese carmaker Nissan, a report said Thursday, after the Japanese firm rebuffed its inquiries about an investment. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-taiwan-foxconn-renault-nissan-stake.html Automotive Thu, 19 Dec 2024 04:21:01 EST news653804456 China will soon see a massive expansion of electric vehicle battery swapping, as global battery maker CATL said Wednesday it is investing heavily in stations there next year. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-china-big-electric-car-battery.html Automotive Thu, 19 Dec 2024 04:17:35 EST news653804247 The world's largest maker of batteries for electric vehicles said Wednesday it will get into battery swapping in China in a big way starting next year. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-china-catl-major-expansion-battery.html Automotive Wed, 18 Dec 2024 10:15:49 EST news653739344 Researchers at Tohoku University's Institute for Materials Research and New Industry Creation Hatchery Center have made a breakthrough in a multi-material 3D printing technique, demonstrating the process for creating a lightweight yet durable automobile part. The results were published in Additive Manufacturing on November 19, 2024. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-car-high-multi-material-3d.html Engineering Wed, 18 Dec 2024 04:02:48 EST news653716962 Japanese auto giants Honda and Nissan are in preliminary merger talks to help them compete against Tesla and Chinese electric vehicle makers, media reports said Wednesday. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-japan-honda-nissan-merger.html Automotive Tue, 17 Dec 2024 15:56:15 EST news653673335 If you've noticed more e-bikes zipping past you on Metro Vancouver's off-street paths, you're not alone. UBC researchers have found that e-bike use has skyrocketed in the past four years. In 2019, e-bikes made up less than 5% of users on these pathways. Now, they account for more than 16%—a fourfold increase. Meanwhile, traditional bikes, though still dominant, have dropped from 91% to 74% of users. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-skyrocketing-bike-metro-vancouver-pathways.html Automotive Tue, 17 Dec 2024 13:28:51 EST news653664528 The holidays are in full swing and people are shopping, wrapping and packing to visit loved ones. Along with the extra fees for checked baggage and seat upgrades, some airlines are also considering weight-based pricing. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-weight-based-airfares-eco-friendly.html Business Tue, 17 Dec 2024 13:28:41 EST news653664516 Within five years, transport is expected to be Australia's top source of greenhouse gas emissions. While renewables and storage are bringing down emissions from the electricity sector, emissions from transport are still growing. Our fleet of cars, trucks, diesel trains, planes and ships now emit almost 20% more than they did two decades ago. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-cars-australian-cities-emitting-regions.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 17 Dec 2024 12:00:01 EST news653658188 The first open-source digital twin of the Mcity Test Facility—the University of Michigan's test center for connected and autonomous vehicles and technologies—is now available to the public, giving researchers around the world a new free tool. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-facility-unveils-digital-twin-physical.html Automotive Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:11:06 EST news653584261 Recent disruption to Britain's rail network, caused by a fault in its outdated nationwide radio system, was more than just an inconvenience for thousands of commuters. It was a stark reminder of how far the UK has fallen behind in its critical infrastructure. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-rail-disruption-uk-common-economic.html Automotive Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:07:00 EST news653569615 Dominant in the electric car sector, Chinese companies have been quietly consolidating their position in the lesser-watched trucking scene—but foreign tariffs and a perceived quality gap could signal roadblocks ahead, experts warn. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-chinese-firms-ev-truck.html Energy & Green Tech Sun, 15 Dec 2024 05:44:17 EST news653463841 Stanford economists Michael Ostrovsky and Frank Yang have some suggestions for improving the Big Apple's congestion pricing plan, which is set to launch in January 2025. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-bad-option-york-traffic-woes.html Automotive Thu, 12 Dec 2024 11:06:07 EST news653223959 The most effective way to prove a new idea is to start small, test, learn, and test again. A team of researchers developing an atmospheric probe at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, are taking that approach. The concept could offer future scientists a potentially better and more economical way to collect data on other planets. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-atmospheric-probe-flight.html Engineering Thu, 12 Dec 2024 09:12:11 EST news653217126 Railways, the most climate-friendly mode of transport bar long-distance buses, are bound to play an important role in the fight for net zero. The total emissions of railway travel are currently 31 grams of CO2 equivalents (CO2e) per passenger kilometer, half the amount as for the most economical electrical vehicles. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-sleepers-recycled-plastic-railways-eco.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 12 Dec 2024 00:20:01 EST news653139481 The largest group in the European Parliament, the conservative EPP, joined calls Wednesday to "reverse" a ban on combustion engine vehicles starting in 2035, citing the struggles of the automotive industry. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-eu-stall-combustion.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 11 Dec 2024 14:33:25 EST news653150002 The Environmental Protection Agency is awarding $135 million in grants to fund 13 projects in California to help the state wean off fossil fuels and phase out big rigs that run on diesel. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-epa-awards-million-california-phase.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 11 Dec 2024 14:30:11 EST news653149808 At first glance, Jaguar's new electric Type 00 concept car is surprising, shocking or perhaps even jarring to some. This is largely due to its bright pink color (it also comes in blue). https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-jaguar-controversial-pink-car-brand.html Business Wed, 11 Dec 2024 11:28:46 EST news653138918 Developing vehicles that can operate safely without a human driver has been a key goal of many teams in the AI research community. As only testing autonomous vehicles on real streets would be both unsafe and unfeasible, their underlying algorithms are first trained and tested extensively in simulations. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-method-scene-reconstruction-autonomous.html Automotive Wed, 11 Dec 2024 08:30:02 EST news653071749 General Motors said Tuesday it will retreat from the robotaxi business and stop funding its money-losing Cruise autonomous vehicle unit. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-gm-retreat-robotaxis-funding-cruise.html Automotive Wed, 11 Dec 2024 04:54:14 EST news653115247 Electric vehicles (EVs) represent a promising mode of transportation that can help the United States reduce its carbon emissions. But barriers such as the high cost of installing and using EV Charging Stations (EVCS), their limitations in supplying emerging demand, and their uneven distribution throughout the country limit access for many Americans. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-ev-station-usage-patterns-nationwide.html Automotive Tue, 10 Dec 2024 13:30:01 EST news653058694 Southwest Research Institute successfully customized and conducted a full-scale evaluation of a novel fire mitigation method designed to safely store damaged electric vehicles and batteries. SwRI engineers demonstrate customized research and development support for government and industry clients with novel projects and challenges related to emerging technologies where no standardized testing exists. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-showcase-capabilities-safety-method-customized.html Engineering Tue, 10 Dec 2024 13:11:11 EST news653058666 Image classification is one of AI's most common tasks, where a system is required to recognize an object from a given image. Yet real life requires us to recognize not a single standalone object but rather multiple objects appearing together in a given image. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-multi-classification-ai-path-recognition.html Automotive Tue, 10 Dec 2024 12:57:07 EST news653057825 Self-driving cars rely on artificial intelligence to predict where nearby cars will go. But when those predictions don't match reality, that discrepancy can potentially lead to crashes and less safe roadways. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-cars-ai-safer-journeys.html Automotive Tue, 10 Dec 2024 12:52:54 EST news653057570