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Vehicles
From fuel efficient trucks to electric and fuel-cell vehicles, our experts examine the role of transportation in tackling climate change and cutting U.S. oil use.
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Latest Vehicles Posts
The battery pack of a Nissan Leaf such as this one can have a second-life application like at Nissan’s European headquarters which features a system composed of 12 second-life Nissan Leaf batteries. Gereon Meyer/Wikimedia Commons
The Second-Life of Used EV Batteries
May 27, 2020 3:42 PM EDT
When an electric vehicle (EV) comes off the road, what happens to the vehicle battery? The fate of the lithium ion batteries in electric vehicles is an important question for manufacturers, policy makers, and EV owners alike. The economic potential for battery reuse, or second-life, could help to further decrease the upfront costs of EV batteries and increase the value of a used EV. Given the growing market for EVs, second-life batteries could also represent a market of low-cost storage for utilities and electricity consumers. But in order to enable widespread reuse of EV batteries, policy will play an important role in reducing barriers and ensuring responsible, equitable, and sustainable practices. Read more >
CDC
COVID-19, Air Pollution and Health Impacts: An Interview with Pediatric Pulmonologist Dr. Denise Serebrisky
Maria Cecilia Pinto de Moura, Senior vehicles engineer
May 21, 2020 12:00 PM EDT
Maria Cecilia Pinto de Moura, a senior vehicles engineer for the Clean Vehicles program interviews Dr. Denise Serebrisky, a frontline pediatric pulmonologist at Jacobi hospital in the Bronx, to learn about how pre-existing diseases affect her COVID-19 patients, and how air pollution causes or worsens several of those very same diseases. Read more >
Eilis Garvey/Unsplash
On the Heels of Rollback, Auto Makers Seek Another Hand Out
Dave Cooke, senior vehicles analyst
May 13, 2020 10:03 AM EDT
While the administration just finalized its reduction in vehicle efficiency from 5 percent per year to no better than a measly 1.5 percent per year (despite their own evidence showing how bad it is for the country), that hasn’t stopped the auto industry from seeking even further reductions. In a new proposed change to how passenger cars and trucks are tested, the Trump administration is trying to give automakers a carve-out that would further increase global warming emissions from new cars by 1.6 percent.
Admittedly, this change is a little wonky so let me lay it out as best as I can. But the bottom line is that automakers are seeking even further, permanent reductions in the stringency of global warming emissions standards, right on the heels of a massive rollback of emissions standards.
J. O'Dea/UCS
The Biggest Step To-Date on Electric Trucks
Jimmy O'Dea, senior vehicles analyst
April 29, 2020 9:07 AM EDT
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) released the final draft of the Advanced Clean Trucks standard, a policy that will require truck manufacturers to make electric trucks. Under this policy, a given percentage of truck manufacturers’ sales in California must be battery or fuel cell electric vehicles beginning in model year 2024. The policy applies to truck manufacturers that sell more than 500 trucks annually in the state. Ten companies currently meet this threshold (brands in parentheses): Daimler (Freightliner, Thomas Built Buses, Western Star), Paccar (Kenworth, Peterbilt), Navistar (International, IC Bus), Ford, GM (Chevrolet, GMC), Fiat Chrysler (Dodge), Nissan, Isuzu, Toyota (Hino), and Volvo Group. Read more >
