Holden Unveils First Electric Vehicle Charging Station in Melbourne
Holden and ChargePoint recently unveiled the fist electric vehicle (EV) charging station for Holden Volt drivers in Port Melbourne.
Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency, Industry and Innovation, the Hon Greg Combet AM MP was the first member of the public to plug into the petrol pump of the future with one of Holden’s first Volt vehicles.
Joining the Minister for the unveiling was Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, ChargePoint CEO James Brown and Holden’s Executive Director Engineering Greg Tyus.
Mr Tyus, whose engineering team is responsible for preparing the Volt for Australia, said Volt would change the way Australians think about sustainable transport and Holden.
The Holden Volt will be on sale in Australia later this year and is a game-changing EV, explains Holden.
With extended-range capacity it can recharge in less than four hours using the dedicated level two, 3.3kW charging station.
Charge point is supporting the launch of the Holden Volt by providing six additional green energy charging stations in Holden’s engineering and design headquarters and at its Proving Ground in Lang Lang for all employees driving the Volt evaluation vehicles and working on the program.
Goodyear and Volvo Break Two World Records
Volvo’s Mean Green hybrid truck has broken two hybrid truck world records at Wendover Airfield in Utah, US.
Fitted with Goodyear tyres, the Mean Green broke the standing kilometre and flying kilometre international speed records on April 27, 2012.
In order to withstand such forces it was essential to have good tyres and Goodyear worked closely with Volvo to develop tyres especially for the Mean Green.
Based on 495/45R22.5 Marathon Long Haul Drive truck carcasses, the tyres were hand-built in order to cope with the enormous torque and speeds of the Mean Green.
The Mean Green compels 2,100 horsepower (1,566kW) and almost 5,000lb-ft (6,770Nm) torque. 200 horsepower (149kW) and 885lb-ft. (1,198Nm) of torque come from the electric motor.
The team also had to take into consideration aerodynamics as well as the altitude of 1,280 metres (4,200 feet) above sea level which impacts the cooling of the engine.
For the stand still record, the truck starts from zero along a 1,000 metre track in one direction and then back in the other direction. The average speed from both runs is recorded as the official figure.
The Green Mean reached 153.252km/h (95.245mph), thumping the record it previously held of 152.253km/h (94.605mph).
For the flying kilometre record, the truck was given a short distance to build up speed before a 1,000 metre span of track in each direction as with the stand still.
It averaged 236.577km/h (147.002mph), breaking the previous record of 218.780km/h (135.943mph).
The records have to be recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) in order to be official, this will happen in approximately 60-90 days.
For more information visit:
http://www.volvotrucks.com/trucks/na/en-us/news_and_events/_layouts/CWP.Internet.VolvoCom/NewsItem.aspx?News.ItemId=122954&News.Language=en-gb
German Researchers Unveil ‘Intelligent’ Tyre
A research team at the University of Applied Science Leipzig (HTWK Leipzig) unveiled the current status of one of their research projects about an ‘adaptive tyre’ at the industrial fair in Hannover, Germany.
The “adaptive tyre” is able to adjust itself to changing road conditions as they occur.
Professor Detlef Riemer who is leading the project said: “Today’s choice of tyres is always a compromise between the ability to brake and petrol consumption.”
“The driver has to take every sort of weather condition into consideration and you can’t change tyres while you’re driving.” Professor Reimer said.
The ‘adaptive tyre’ independently adjusts to changing surface such as motorways and gravel as well as changing weather conditions sun, rain or snow.
Depending on the conditions, the tyre’s profile is raised or widened accordingly – even whilst driving.
“Through this new technology the driver doesn’t have to think about changing tyres, but the tyre will do the thinking. At the same time wear, noise and petrol consumption will improve,” said Professor Riemer.
The change of the tyre profile will be activated by a device that is integrated in the carcass or tread. The contact patch will contain surface changing components which are activated by a control device, this makes tread groves (horizontal and vertical) flexible.
Professor Reimer said: “At the moment we are working with several flexible materials, but it’s still a long way to the finished product. It’s an excellent idea and we already secured the patent for it, just in case.”
For further information, go to (German media release): http://www.htwk-leipzig.de/de/presse/pressemitteilungen/artikel/detail/reifenwechsel-waehrend-der-fahrt/
New Zealand Announces Initiative to Recycle Tyres
The New Zealand Government has announced it will provide $133,000 in funding to support the Product Stewardship Foundation in exploring options to recycle used tyres.
Environment Minister Dr Nick Smith said: “This funding will be used by the Foundation to work with tyre industry importers and retailers to identify the best way for New Zealand to recycle and re-use our used tyres.”
With approximately 3.5 million passenger tyres and 400,000 truck and other tyres reaching their end of life in New Zealand annually, the country is seeking economic ways to prevent long-term contamination as 85% of those tyres end up in landfills.
The Product Stewardship Foundation has created Tyrewise, a nationwide product stewardship programme for the safe disposal of end of life tyres in New Zealand.
Several stakeholders, including major tyre companies, car importers, tyre recyclers, motor services, motorists, local governments and supported by the central government have agreed to work towards a formal stewardship programme for end of life tyres.
For further information, go to http://www.tyrewise.co.nz
Bridgestone’s Water Management Initiatives
Bridgestone Corporation has announced initiatives to ensure the Bridgestone Group plays a proactive role in efforts to realise a sustainable society.
The Group has a clear long-term aspiration for environmental activities through its Environmental Mission Statement, which calls on the Group to focus on three important objectives: ecological conservation, resource conservation and carbon emissions reduction.
In accordance with this mission, the Group is promoting globally a wide variety of projects and business processes that benefit the environment.
Bridgestone has highlighted its water management initiatives in conjunction with World Water Day on March 22, 2012, as declared by United Nations General Assembly.
These initiatives promote the sustainable use of water resources in its manufacturing processes including using water in an efficient manner, thoroughly managing waste water, as well as disclosing the results of these and other initiatives.
Further details and examples of Bridgestone’s water management initiatives, click here .
Pirelli Signs Sustainability Agreement During International Conference
Pirelli 
recently hosted an international conference on safety and the environment, during which the company’s chairman, Marco Tronchetti Provera signed a voluntary agreement with the Ministry for the Environment and Land and Sea Protection to reduce the climate impact deriving from activities related to the production and use of its tyres.
The conference, was entitled “Driving Sustainability: a safe road to the future” and marked Pirelli’s own Sustainability Day.
Pirelli says the agreement underscores its commitment to develop production systems and products that reduce environmental impact, while increasing quality and consumer safety.
It also states these ideas will help to increase its efficiency, with significant economic benefits and “an additional competitive lever on international markets, above all in those where these features are called for by law and appreciated by the consumer”.
“To speak of sustainability today,” said Provera, “means first of all to speak of technologies which permit the constant improvement of our quality of life. The ‘old’ Europe cannot compete with emerging countries from the point of view of production costs and internal demand, but something which can ensure our future, without doubt, is being more advanced in our search for sustainable models of industrial growth. In this sense, Italy and Europe have developed points of excellence which they export to the rest of the world.”
The conference addressed the theme of sustainability; understood, according to Pirelli, as “an indispensable condition for a company’s future, which thanks to avant garde technologies is able to develop more sustainable and efficient models of growth”.
The company said the debate also encompassed the theme of the consumer’s role within an economic system, which in recent decades has seen profound changes in the models of development and market dynamics.
For Economist Jeremy Rifkin, the “prosumer”, the new producer-consumer, is the figure who will become ever more prevalent thanks to “distributed” capitalism, a complex figure who incarnates different and apparently conflicting interests with which companies must more frequently engage. Reconciling these interests will be a stimulus for companies to identify new models of more sustainable growth.
For Pirelli, growth also means responsibility towards the consumer, both through the protection of the environment and the development of ever safer products. Safety was, in fact, one of the conference’s central themes, with contributions from senior institutional, association, academic and corporate officials.