Question of the Month: How are conventional light-duty vehicle fuel economy ratings determined and reported?

Answer: It’s important to understand the who, what, when, where, and why (and how!) of fuel economy testing and labeling. In particular, you may be interested in the recent changes described below (see “When” section).

“Who” is tested?
Most light-duty vehicles must be tested for fuel economy. Exceptions include motorcycles, pickup trucks and cargo vans with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) above 8,500 lbs., ...

On November 3, 2016 the Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration announced their designated Alternative Fuel Corridors under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST). These corridors must be:

1) Signage-ready: Corridors that have sufficient alternative fuel facilities to warrant highway signage developed by the FHWA.

2) Signage-pending: Corridors that do meet the conditions for signage at this time. The FHWA will work with corridor sponsors to identify the steps to change the corridor’s status to signage-ready.

Virginia is ...

Today’s Actions include the Designation of 48 National Electric Vehicle Charging Corridors on our Highways

The Obama Administration is committed to taking responsible steps to combat climate change, increase access to clean energy technologies, and reduce our dependence on oil. Already, in the past eight years the number of plug-in electric vehicle models has increased from one to more than 20, battery costs have decreased 70 percent, and we have increased the number of electric vehicle charging stations from less than ...

Sheetz is celebrating the impact of the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) Biofuel Infrastructure Project Grant with the opening of its 10th E85 and E15 Biofuel station in Virginia.
The Biofuel station opened on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016. Through the Biofuel Infrastructure Partnership, which aims to increase the availability of domestic biofuel in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Sheetz located at 11774 Sudley Manor Drive in Manassas, Va. became ...

Six transit fleets including Alliance partner Van Go Transportation of Richmond VA received the 2016 award for Top User of Propane Autogas from the Propane Education & Research Council at the BusCon Expo in Indianapolis this month. The award celebrates fleets creating healthier environments for riders and cities with clean, cost-effective, and domestically-produced propane autogas. Receiving the award for Van Go was Travis Snellings, General Manager.

Van Go Transportation have been partnering with Alliance AutoGas and users of propane autogas since ...

Heavy-duty vehicle idling, or running a vehicle’s engine while it is not in motion, occurs for a number of reasons, including temperature control during required rest stops, powering electronic equipment, and to avoid cold starting the vehicle. According to Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne), more than 6 billion gallons of diesel and gasoline fuel are wasted by vehicle engine idling—with half from medium- and heavy-duty vehicles alone. Argonne estimated that a heavy-duty long-haul truck generally idles around 6 hours per day, ...

ITT Inc., through its Cannon brand, says it will introduce a next-generation, ultra-fast DC charging solution that dramatically reduces electric vehicle (EV) charging time from hours to minutes at eCarTec 2016 in Munich, Germany, Oct. 18-20 – a business-to-business trade show for electric and hybrid mobility.

ITT will debut its high-performance, cooled ultra-fast charging DC solution and an improved contact system for its global portfolio of AC charging solutions. The company notes that its custom design and engineering capabilities will also ...

The California Energy Commission and the U.S. Department of the Navy have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will help the state and the Navy and Marine Corps develop alternative energy resources and increase national energy security and reliability. As part of this effort, the Navy and Marine Corps announced its intention to lease 205 new electric vehicles for use at several of its California installations.

According to the California Energy Commission, this electric deployment is the largest integration of ...

Cummins Westport Inc. has announced that production of the ISL G Near Zero (NZ) NOx natural gas engine has officially commenced and orders are now being processed.

According to the company, the ISL G NZ is the first mid-range engine in North America to receive emission certification from both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Air Resources Board (ARB) in California to meet the optional 0.02 g/bhp-hr NZ NOx Emissions standards eight years in advance of the 2023 California ...

It might sound like an obvious thing to most people, electricity is cheaper than gas, but I find that people are not really aware of the electricity rate discrepancy around the US and the world. It’s understandable. Who has time to track electricity and gas prices outside of your own market? Plugless has time and did it.

The company came up with a neat study looking at gas prices and electricity rates – without taking into account time-of-use rates where available ...