Transportation

Could Methanol Become an Important Fuel for Energy and Mobility?

Louis Brasington
Posted on by Louis Brasington
With a global demand of more than 80 million metric tons and a growth rate of 5.4%, methanol is gaining acceptance. The market is projected to be worth $54 billion by 2021. Its uses vary greatly – from adhesives and PET bottles to fleece jackets, packaging, paints and solvents. A key application is the energy market. China alone, as the largest producer and consumer, accounts for 54% of world demand. Alongside oil, gas and hydrogen, methanol is an important fuel... Read More »

How Digitization is Transforming Logistics Services

Leo Zhang
Posted on by Leo Zhang
The increasing volume of global trades will put more pressure on the existing supply chain, with the logistics services sector estimated to reach a value of $16,445 billion by 2026 with a CAGR of 7.4%. A confluence of forces – Amazon and Alibaba, electrification and sustainability, autonomy and robotics, among others – are changing the logistics industry to become more resource efficient, faster, and responsive to customer needs. Digitization is a key enabler. Get additional insight into the latest trends... Read More »

China and Cleantech in 2019: The Innovation Ecosystem and Paths to Market Entrance

Leo Zhang
Posted on by Leo Zhang
Our recent Next-Gen Energy & Cross-Border Innovation Summit in Nanjing looked at cleantech investment trends, market dynamics and commercialization opportunities in China. This was our ninth event in China and a focal point of our efforts to guide and connect western innovation companies to Chinese partners and customers. Here, you’ll find insights into power, energy and mobility, as well as pointers on market entrance from the summit. China's cleantech lay of the land China’s market potential is perhaps the biggest... Read More »

Blockchain in Energy & Mobility: A report from the scale-up frontlines

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
Last month, we held our second executive summit on blockchain in New York. Like last year, leading corporate executives gathered to meet some of the most promising innovators in the space. But the state of play has changed radically over the year, and so has the mood. Last November was full of hype, in the middle of the peak ICO wave. 2018 had a crisp “rubber hits the road” flavor. This was echoed in the rich content planned for the... Read More »

Driving to the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles are Changing the Automotive Landscape

Leo Zhang
Posted on by Leo Zhang
Safety first. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 94% of US traffic accidents are caused by human errors. Removing the human in human error will go a long way toward eliminating traffic accidents. The challenge: moving from driver assistance to full automation will take time, investment, and a lot of testing. Getting there will be a combination of hardware sensors and software algorithms to process the data and make decisions, hopefully better and faster than humans and with... Read More »

Infinite Drivetime: Talking Solar Cars With Lightyear

Louis Brasington
Posted on by Louis Brasington
Solar-powered cars have been mostly experimental vehicles trying to break records at competitions like the World Solar Challenge in Australia. On the commercial side, the efforts have tended toward Solar Assisted Electric Vehicles (SAEVs). These vehicles have proven impractical and expensive, providing nothing more than small incremental gains to mileage. Ford and Toyota have had shots at products and to date, no system has managed to gain traction. With the coming of low cost-efficient solar cells alongside the transformation of... Read More »

Autonomous Datasets and V2X Transactions: Blockchain in Mobility Pilots Getting Traction

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
With connected, electric, autonomous and shared mobility on the way, systems that can handle increasingly complex data and transactions have to be built. In the last couple of years, automakers and blockchain companies alike have been exploring ways to apply distributed ledger technology to the mobility space and tackle some of these challenges. Ahead of our executive summit on Blockchain in Energy & Mobility taking place in New York on October 24th, we talked to some of the major market... Read More »

Intelligent Traffic Systems: Implementation and What’s Down the Road?

Leo Zhang
Posted on by Leo Zhang
According to INRIX’s 2017 Traffic Scorecard study, the estimated total economic costs from traffic congestion for the US, UK, and Germany amounted to almost $461 billion in 2017. The dollar value increases when the calculation includes data from the other 35 countries in this study. Furthermore, several major developing countries were excluded from this study, so total global economic impact from traffic congestion could be significantly higher than what INRIX has reasonably estimated. In other words, the economic cost of... Read More »

We Wanted Flying Cars, and They Gave Us… Flying Cars! Catching up with Lilium

Josh Gilbert
Posted on by Josh Gilbert
Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) cars have been in the public’s imagination from the cartoon The Jetsons in the 60s to movies like Blade Runner, Star Wars and even the Weasley’s Flying Ford Anglia in Harry Potter. Where imagination leads, innovators create - and now we have growing competition to commercialize electric VTOL (eVTOL) vehicles that will change the face of individual transportation. At our Cleantech Forum Europe last month in Antwerp, we had the pleasure of welcoming Patrick Nathen,... Read More »

A Trillion Dollar Prize – Who will be the winners and losers in the new mobility paradigm?

Josh Gilbert
Posted on by Josh Gilbert
Business models in the transportation sector have stayed largely consistent over the past century, but today we are seeing a paradigm shift that is challenging the established order. Incumbents, both the old guard of auto OEMs and the nouveau riche TNCs, are facing a confluence of new systemic models and technologies challenging their core offerings. One of the key drivers of these systemic changes are autonomous and self-driving technologies. The brains of a vehicle, in the form of either radar or... Read More »