Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: sustainability – Page 91

Gas stoves emit nanocluster aerosol that may get deep into your respiratory system, study shows. Cooking on your gas stove can emit more nano-sized particles into the air than vehicles that run on gas or diesel, possibly increasing your risk of developing asthma or other respiratory illnesses, a new Purdue University study has found.

Combustion remains a source of air pollution across the world, both indoors and outdoors. We found that cooking on your gas stove produces large amounts of small nanoparticles that get into your respiratory system and deposit efficiently, said Brandon Boor, an associate professor in Purdue’s Lyles School of Civil Engineering, who led this research.

Based on these findings, the researchers would encourage turning on a kitchen exhaust fan while cooking on a gas stove.

Read more | >

The benefits of fleet electrification are well-known, but the question of feasibility is still very real in the minds of many heavy fleet managers. To help fleets understand how electric trucks can fit into their operations, Mack Trucks is offering a mobile off-grid charging system.

Mack made the announcement earlier this week at the American Trucking Associations Technology and Maintenance Council Annual Meeting, where they showed off renderings of a Mack MD Electric carrying a “renewable propane” powered generator and 120 kW charger. While somewhat clunky as a concept, it should do a reasonable enough job of pretending to be permanent infrastructure to give a fleet manager a sense of whether or not an electric solution will work for them.

“This system will allow the customer or dealer to charge trucks – whether it’s a demo unit or a multi-unit ride-and-drive event at the dealer – without having charging infrastructure readily available at their site,” says Ryan Saba, energy solutions manager for Mack Trucks. “Mack hopes that this option will help customers more easily experience the benefits of e-mobility and a more sustainable transportation option.”

Read more | >

Things are different when you charge your EV from a Level 3 DC fast charger, as there is no need to convert the current from AC. Data to verify how much lower losses are when DC fast-charging isn’t readily available, but they should be about 10 percent.

Our own Tom Moloughney calculated DC fast-charging losses while topping up his Tesla Model 3 a few years back from an Electrify America station and using a CHAdeMO to NACS adapter. He charged the Model 3 from a 7 percent state of charge to 57 percent, which put about 35.5 kWh back into its battery pack, and he calculated that about 3.5 kWh of that were losses. He estimated that had he charged from flat to full, total losses would have been around 7 kWh, or about 10 percent of the vehicle’s usable battery capacity at the time.

If the fast charger in question is designed to run at 800 volts and it charges an 800-volt EV, then losses should be lower, although this needs to be tested and verified before actual loss numbers are presented.

Read more | >

Ford’s EV sales climbed 80% year-over-year (YOY) in February following aggressive price cuts last month.

After EV sales slipped 11% last month in EV sales last month, Ford saw a big improvement in February with 6,368 all-electric vehicles handed over, up 80.8% over last year.

Ford sold 2,930 Mustang Mach-E models in February, up 64.3% YOY. However, Mach-E sales were down 20% through the first half of 2023 as Ford retooled its Cuatitlan, Mexico plant, where the EV is assembled.

Read more | >

Daimler Truck North America just launched a dealer certification program to ensure a “world-class” experience for its electric truck buyers.

The Battery-Electric Vehicle (BEV) Dealer Certification Program isn’t intended to be just another badge for dealers to hang in their showrooms; it DTNA working to ensure quality control at its Freightliner dealerships.

DTNA’s heavy-duty Freightliner eCascadia and medium-duty eM2 trucks are already operational in over 50 fleets across the US, amassing more than 4 million electric miles, so the dealership certification program is timely.

Read more | >

Tesla owners might soon be able to control their car using their Apple Watch, at least if Elon Musk is to be believed. In response to a question on social media about whether Tesla could add Apple Watch integration, Musk responded: “Sure.”

Whether Tesla follows through on this remains to be seen. There’s no timeline on when the feature might be added. In fact, it sounds like this wasn’t something in the works until Musk responded to this particular social media post.

Ideally, Tesla’s app for Apple Watch would allow Tesla owners to unlock their car and do things like precondition the cabin, enable/disable Sentry mode, remote start their car, and more. But again, Tesla hasn’t confirmed anything about what to actually expect.

Read more | >