Category Archives: fuel economy or emissions

Winterkorn off Porsche Exec Board over VW Diesel Cheating

This is the latest development in the growing and company-threatening crisis at Volkswagen Group because of its deliberate diesel emissions fraud perpetrated on several continents by now disgraced engineering and management groups. Continue reading

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Shark Lawyers Circling VW Call for Buyback of Diesels

The Hagens Berman and Quinn Emanuel law firms filed a motion today in their national lawsuit against Volkswagen asking the court to order Volkswagen to provide owners of the VW diesels an immediate buyback offer at the Kelley Blue Book value Continue reading

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Usual Posturing at VW House Hearing on Dirty Diesels

Panel members were skeptical to hostile during their questioning of Horn. It was clear that they expected not only significant fines to arise, but for VW to buy back the cars at the pre-scandal price. Continue reading

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Canada Opens Query on Volkswagen Diesel Emissions

Corporate officials can be prosecuted if they authorize, accept or participate in any violation of CEPA, 1999, or its regulations. A range of sentences may be available upon conviction, including fines and possible imprisonment. Continue reading

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Volkswagen Investigation underway for Deliberately Violating Diesel Emission Rules – $18 Billion in Fines Coming?

A sophisticated software algorithm on VW and Audi diesel engines detects when the car is undergoing official emissions testing, and turns full emissions controls on only during the test. Continue reading

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Pork Alert! Dump Ethanol Say Voters in National Poll

Likely 2016 voters have serious concerns about ethanol’s unintended consequences as a fuel, including damage to engines, land conversion and food prices, according to a new national poll. Continue reading

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Toyota Hybrid Sales Surpass Eight Million

Toyota has now sold more than eight million hybrid vehicles, with only 10 months between this and the nine million sales milestone. Continue reading

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Volkswagen Downsizes Engines Once Again

Volkswagen was an early leader with the use of small displacement; highly efficient turbocharged and direct-injection engines in the U.S. Volkswagen first used the now common combination of turbocharging and direct injection in the U.S. with its TDI diesel engines in the Passat in 1996 Continue reading

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Automakers Protest European Laws Targeting Diesel Use

The automakers reason, not without some basis in fact – that the most effective way to improve air quality is getting older cars and trucks off the road. New vehicles less than one year old are roughly 5% of the road population in the EU. As more of the older diesels are replaced, it looks like fewer of them will be diesels, no matter how clean the newest ones are. Continue reading

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NADA, American Truck Dealers Oppose Cleaner Trucks

The groups say that the rule will add $14,000 to the cost of a new truck through mandates based on potentially untested technologies. Similar accusations, of course, by the industry go back to the beginnings of the Clean Air Act and fuel economy regulations where cleaner was thought, dubiously, as too costly. Continue reading

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More Taxpayer Subsidies for Rich Automakers Proposed

It is another raid on the U.S. Treasury sponsored by U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Gary Peters (D-MI), along with Lamar Alexander (R-TN), all from auto making states. Continue reading

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Renewable Biodiesel Fuel Scam from Washakie in Utah

During 2010, Washakie issued more than 7.2 million Renewable Identification Numbers, aka RINs, and reported to EPA that it produced biodiesel associated with those RINs at its Plymouth, Utah refinery. During that time, Washakie did not produce any biodiesel at the Plymouth facility. Continue reading

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Toyota Testing SiC Power Semiconductors for Efficiency Gains

Power semiconductors are in power control units (PCUs), which are used to control motor drive power in hybrids and other vehicles with electric powertrains. PCUs have a significant role in the use of electricity, supplying battery power to the motors during operation and recharging the battery using energy recovered during deceleration. Continue reading

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Hyundai Debuts 2016 Sonata Hybrid with Higher MPG

Today Hyundai introduced the Hybrid version of its seventh-generation Sonata at NAIAS. The 2016 Sonata Hybrid fuel economy is expected to improve more than 10%. Sonata Hybrid is projected to achieve up to 39 mpg in the city, 44 mpg on the highway and have a combined EPA mileage rating of 42 mpg. Continue reading

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EPA Says US Fuel Economy at All Time High – 24.1 MPG

New vehicles achieved record fuel economy in 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency announced today. Model year 2013 vehicles achieved an average of 24.1 miles per gallon, a 0.5 mpg increase compared with 2012 previous year and an increase of nearly 5 mpg since 2004. However, year-over-year it was only 2%. Continue reading

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