The report was unveiled at Universal Studios Hollywood where Back to the Future’s electric car was first introduced 25 years ago.

“It’s a bright, clean new world when automakers, electric utilities, infrastructure providers, regulators, public health organizations and others join hands to support a new transportation plan for California,” said Diane Wittenberg, Executive Director and Chairman of the California Plug-In Electric Vehicle Collaborative. “We’re determined to pave the way for healthier, cleaner and cheaper transportation options for the 21st century.”

The new plan, “Taking Charge: Establishing California Leadership in the Plug-In Electric Vehicle Marketplace,” was developed by an uncommon alliance and offers 30 suggested actions to build a successful electrified transportation system in California.

Key recommendations from the plan include:

• Simplify the process to get home charging stations installed quickly
• Develop solutions to enable charging at apartments and condos
• Structure electricity prices to encourage off-peak charging
• Increase consumer demand through education and awareness programs
• Develop new service industries to make charging a car easier than fueling at a gas station
• Encourage tech-based solutions (e.g. smart phone apps) to help drivers find existing public charging stations
• Ensure local governments help establish the strategic placement of a public charging network
• A full list can be found at www.pevcollaborative.org/strategic-pla

“We aim to address all the questions. It must be simple, simple, simple for consumers to choose plug-in electric vehicles,” added Wittenberg.

This plan will serve as a roadmap for developing a specific course of action. The Collaborative will support ongoing work and start up new efforts to address the 10 major recommendations in the report.

The California Plug-In Electric Vehicle Collaborative endorses a systematic, customer-focused approach to creatively overcome challenges in this new California marketplace where consumers enthusiastically adopt clean, cutting-edge technologies. Go to www.pevcollaborative.org for more information.

Members include:

Diane Wittenberg, California Plug-In Electric Vehicle Collaborative; Robert Babik, General Motors; Aram Benyamin, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; Janice Berman, Pacific Gas and Electric Company; James Boyd, California Energy Commission; Elisabeth Brinton, Sacramento Municipal Utility District; Catherine Dunwoody, California Fuel Cell Partnership; Mark Duvall, Electric Power Research Institute; Anthony Eggert, California Energy Commission; Bonnie Holmes-Gen, American Lung Association in California ; Nancy Gioia, Ford Motor Company; Roland Hwang, Natural Resources Defense Council; Enid Joffe, Clean Fuel Connection, Inc.; Don Karner, ECOtality; Christine Kehoe, California State Senate; Doug Kim, Southern California Edison; Andreas Klugescheid, BMW Group; Barbara Lee, Northern Sonoma County Air Pollution Control District; Alan Lloyd, International Council on Clean Transportation; Bonnie Lowenthal, California State Assembly; Richard Lowenthal, Coulomb Technologies; Patricia Monahan, Union of Concerned Scientists; Mary Nichols, California Air Resources Board; Diarmuid O’Connell, Tesla Motors, Inc.; Alex Padilla, California State Senate; Dan Pellissier, Office of Governor Schwarzenegger; Nancy Ryan, California Public Utilities Commission; Nancy Skinner, California State Assembly; Dan Skopec, San Diego Gas and Electric; Daniel Sperling, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis; Eileen Tutt, California Electric Transportation Coalition; V. John White, Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies; Jason Wolf, Better Place; Tracy Woodard, Nissan North America, Inc.; Toshio Yoshidome, Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America.

SOURCE Plug-In Electric Vehicle Collaborative

Transport for London (TfL), the local transit authority, is supporting this climate improvement goal through promotion of sustainable travel, operating vehicles more efficiently as well as using improved vehicle and fuel types.

"There are more than seventy thousand buses operating in Europe today and this announcement is a sign of the growing trend toward clean energy technology," said Michael Goldstein, Ballard’s Chief Commercial Officer. "We are pleased to further extend our long-term relationship with Transport for London and enable the reduction of CO2 emissions in that city."

For the London deployment, Ballard is providing modules to a consortium that includes transit bus supplier Wrightbus, bus operator First Group, as well as Transport for London. Three additional zero-emission buses will join five existing buses, also powered by Ballard’s FCvelocity ^® fuel cell modules and scheduled for deployment in revenue service in TfL’s fleet by the end of 2010.

All eight buses will be deployed by the end of 2011, enabling TfL to operate its central Covent Garden-Tower Gateway route entirely by means of hydrogen hybrid fuel cell buses. These buses will be served by a new central hydrogen refueling station, with fuel provided by Air Products.

Project funding is being provided as part of the European Union’s Cleaner Hydrogen in Cities (CHIC) project.

About Ballard Power Systems
Ballard Power Systems (TSX: BLD; NASDAQ: BLDP) provides clean energy fuel cell products enabling optimized power systems for a range of applications. To learn more about Ballard, please visit www.ballard.com.

SOURCE Ballard Power Systems Inc.

The Green Truck Summit is the leading educational conference on green technology for vocational trucks, including utility, construction, delivery, landscaping and governmental vehicles. Produced by the National Truck Equipment Association (NTEA) and CALSTART, the Green Truck Summit is held in conjunction with The Work Truck Show® 2011 and 47th Annual NTEA Convention. The Work Truck Show runs March 8-10, 2011, and includes a Green Truck Ride-and-Drive.

At the Green Truck Summit, industry leaders provide insights into current green truck technology, as well as their vision for the future. There are 26 educational sessions, including “Moving Forward: Truck Technologies Leading Us to the Future,” “Planning for 2016 Fuel Efficiency Regulations: An OEM and Supplier Discussion,” and “A Sneak Peek at the Trucks of the Future.”

“The vocational truck industry is in an exciting period of evolution,” says Doyle Sumrall, NTEA senior director of business development. “Innovative manufacturers continue to develop new technology that can improve fuel utilization, reduce idling and lessen a fleet’s carbon footprint. Fleets and the businesses that help specify and equip their vehicles must understand how and when to use that technology to improve their operations and environmental impact. The Green Truck Summit is a unique opportunity to learn from technical experts and peers.”

For more information and to register for The Work Truck Show 2011 and Green Truck Summit, visit www.ntea.com or call 1-800-441-NTEA (6832).

About the NTEA

Established in 1964, the NTEA is the leading association supporting the work truck industry. The Association maintains its administrative headquarters in suburban Detroit and a government relations office in Washington, DC.

About CALSTART

CALSTART is North America’s leading advanced transportation technologies consortium. It is a participant-supported organization of more than 140 firms and organizations worldwide. For more information about CALSTART, visit www.calstart.org or call (626) 744-5600.

SOURCE National Truck Equipment Association (NTEA)

Extensive testing and field use indicates that Parker’s RunWise® advanced series hydraulic hybrid technology is the most effective system available for dramatically reducing fuel consumption and emissions even as it improves drivability and performance.  The system is capable of reducing fuel use and emissions by as much as 50 percent depending upon the application and duty cycle.  

Developed and tested with support from the EPA at its National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the technology is already in use on refuse vehicles in three South Florida communities and cities across the country are considering the new system.  United Parcel Service (UPS) and Fed Ex have become the first companies to order a variation on the technology for use on delivery vehicles scheduled to be on the road in 2011.  Parker is already developing further advancements in the technology for use on an advanced bus platform that is targeting a 45 percent reduction in fuel use over average diesel powertrains and which would be  more than double the fuel reduction achieved with hybrid-electric systems.

“This is the first ever series hydraulic hybrid technology in commercial use and this technology is the highest efficiency powertrain that exists,” Charles Gray, director of the EPA’s Advanced Technology Division, said recently during South Florida ceremonies to deliver the first refuse vehicles to use the technology. “This technology can also produce the highest reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in these applications in urban environments of any technology we know.  This is just the beginning and the future is bright for this technology.”

Parker’s advanced series hydraulic system is unique in that it disconnects the engine from the rear wheels of the vehicle.  This de-coupling offers several advantages including: the ability to recover and store as much as 70 percent of the energy from braking, reduced brake wear, which extends brake life; an engine management system that optimizes the vehicle’s engine for reduced fuel consumption; the ability to drive the vehicle with the engine off for short distances, significantly reducing carbon emissions in depots and contributing to reduced fuel consumption.

Extensive field testing of the technology since 2008 has been conducted in severe operating conditions, including high loads and repetitive start-stop cycles.  The system performed well in extreme hot and cold weather, up and down mountain grades, over rough-roads, and through a variety of other severe-duty tests.  

“Regardless of what standards end up being mandated, Parker has readily available technologies that dramatically reduce vehicle fuel use and emissions – that can yield truck operators significant savings over time,” said Jeff Cullman, Group President, Hydraulics for Parker Hannifin. “The beauty of this system is that it makes use of well-proven technology that has been in use in rugged truck applications for many decades.”

With annual sales of $10 billion in fiscal year 2010, Parker Hannifin is the world’s leading diversified manufacturer of motion and control technologies and systems, providing precision-engineered solutions for a wide variety of mobile, industrial and aerospace markets. The company employs approximately 55,000 people in 46 countries around the world. Parker has increased its annual dividends paid to shareholders for 54 consecutive fiscal years, among the top five longest-running dividend-increase records in the S&P 500 index. For more information, visit the company’s web site at http://www.parker.com, or its investor information web site at http://www.phstock.com.  For additional information on the RunWise advanced series hybrid drive system visit http://parkerhybrid.parker.com

Key elements of the new regulations include:

Requiring any persons placing batteries on the market to register as a producer of batteries, and report on waste batteries collected and sent for recycling;

Requirements for the treatment and recycling of waste batteries

The Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009 complement the existing Batteries and Accumulators (Placing on the Market) regulations 2008, which set out the requirements for introducing new batteries onto the market from 26 September last year.

These regulations also introduce a ban on the landfill disposal or incineration of waste industrial and automotive batteries.

Ian Lucas, Minister for Business and Regulatory Reform, said:

“These regulations are designed to complement the excellent recycling rates traditionally achieved for industrial and automotive batteries. In simple terms, business users of industrial batteries, and final holders of automotive batteries, such as garages, End-of-Life Vehicle authorised treatment facilities, and Civic Amenity site operators, will no longer be faced with the costs that may be incurred through recycling scrap batteries. These costs will now be met by the producers.”

This success was mirrored in the ALMS series, for which Zytek has developed a hybrid drive system in partnership with Continental (which supplies the lithium battery pack), when Corsa Motorsports made the podium at Lime Rock (USA) with its Ginetta-Zytek GZ09HS LMP1 car.

“Turning the concept of kinetic energy recovery into a race-winning reality was a major breakthrough and Zytek made a vital contribution to this achievement,” observed Awards judge and freelance motorsport technology writer Charles Armstrong-Wilson.

Chairman of the judging panel and editor of Professional Motorsport World magazine Graham Heeps agreed: “It’s too early to know to what extent KERS will be adopted across other forms of motorsport, but the pioneering work of companies like Zytek – which also has a strong pedigree in road-car hybrid technology – will be of benefit to everyone who follows behind.”

The 270-horsepower Highlanders will be converted into K-9 units, supporting bomb-sniffing dogs and counter-terrorism specialists. With the addition of these SUVs, the Cincinnati Police Department will have a total of eight Highlander Hybrids in its vehicle fleet.

Toyota has a special connection with Cincinnati’s K-9 team. A couple of years ago, the automaker helped the police department acquire and train a patrol dog. The dog, affectionately named “Tundra,” after Toyota’s full-size pickup, is considered one of the best canines of its kind in the country. In 2004, the Cincinnati Police Department hosted the 2004 United States Police Canine Regional Trials, and Toyota contributed $15,000 in support of the local competition.

“We are extremely pleased that the Cincinnati Police Department trusts our Highlander Hybrids to the point of adding two more vehicles to their fleet,” said Clyde Dyson, general manager of TMS’ Cincinnati Regional Sales Office. “Toyota has been a strong advocate of local law enforcement for many years, and we feel privileged to be helping them protect and serve the people of the greater Cincinnati area.”

In appreciation to Toyota, the Cincinnati Police Department will be conducting K-9 demonstrations for company employees at the Cincinnati Regional Sales Office on Monday, November 2. These demos are open to the Media and begin promptly at 11:30 a.m. During this event, K-9 officers will conduct simulated scenarios for dogs specially trained in bomb and drug detection and standard patrol situations. A few converted, police-owned Highlander Hybrids will also be on display.

Toyota’s Cincinnati Regional Sales Office is located at 4550 Creek Road, Cincinnati, (513) 745-7500.

About Toyota

Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc. is the marketing, sales, distribution and customer service arm of Toyota, Lexus and Scion. Established in 1957, TMS markets products and services through a network of more than 1,400 Toyota, Lexus and Scion dealers. Toyota directly employs nearly 34,000 people in the U.S. and sold more than 2.2 million vehicles in 2008. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyota.com, www.lexus.com, www.scion.com or www.toyotanewsroom.com.

The first application of Quantum Q-Force is in a JP-8 fuel compatible diesel engine-based, battery dominant, series-hybrid electric military Alternative Mobility Vehicle (AMV). A number of pre-production prototypes that incorporate Q-Force have been successfully developed and built for testing and evaluation by selected commands to assess mission suitability, supportability, performance objectives, and guidance on final vehicle configuration.

In one configuration, the diesel engine produces 75 horsepower, the electric motor, 133 horsepower, and the powertrain yields 5,463 foot-pounds of torque after gear reduction. Features of Q-Force include:

Sophisticated System Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, incorporating Quantum‟s proprietary algorithms

Hybrid control system that minimizes battery size through optimized charge controls and regenerative braking

Optimized engine operation/calibration and generator performance

Advanced traction motor/transmission system

Alan P. Niedzwiecki, President and CEO of Quantum said: “Our innovative diesel hybrid electric all-wheel drive system provides high performance, acceleration and extended range, resulting in significant advantages for the U.S. Army in communications, surveillance, targeting, and reconnaissance missions. We believe that Quantum’s Q-Force drivetrain is also very well-suited for commercial applications including homeland security, border patrol, park service operations, and light-duty automobiles.”

In 2008 Quantum introduced a gasoline plug-in-hybrid electric drive known as „Q-Drive‟ in the Fisker KARMA 4-door sports sedan. Fisker Automotive, a „Green American‟ car company co-founded in 2007 by Quantum and Henrik Fisker, was recently selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for a low interest loan of $528.7 million, under the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program.

About Quantum:

Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc., a fully integrated alternative energy company, is a leader in the development and production of advanced propulsion systems, energy storage technologies, and alternative fuel vehicles.

Realizing the high performance/low emissions promise of the recent Infiniti Essence concept car, the M35 Hybrid has been designed and engineered to add to, not take away from, the driving experience, a key part of any Infiniti’s appeal. The M35 Hybrid is based on the all-new M, which itself picks up styling cues from Essence, the show-stopper that made its debut at the Geneva Auto Show early in 2009.

The M35 Hybrid maintains a high performance luxury sedan profile, overlaying it with the fuel economy and CO2 emissions of a smaller car, while delivering driving flair to please any enthusiast – complete with charismatic V6 and rear-wheel drive handling.

Infiniti’s hybrid system, developed solely within Infiniti’s parent group, is a single electric motor/twin clutch arrangement. Innovatively, the first clutch is installed between the naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V6 and the electric motor. The result of this configuration, where all components act on a single prop shaft to the rear differential, is a consistent driving feel under all conditions with linear performance and the “direct responses” that the engineers sought.

The electric motor acts as both propulsion unit, boosting the V6 in “power assist” mode when maximum acceleration is required, and also as a generator. Along with charging the battery in the normal way, the motor recovers energy otherwise lost during deceleration and braking.

The M Hybrid can also run solely on its electric motor in certain driving conditions, furthering fuel efficiency and optimizing energy usage across the widest possible range of driving conditions. Details of driving range, performance and transmission will be released later.

As expected of Infiniti, several new technologies are introduced in the new M35 Hybrid, including a “laminated” lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery pack that is the same size as conventional batteries but offers twice the power. Lamination enhances the pack’s cooling performance, while temperature stability is further improved by the use of manganese positive electrodes. An end result of this is exceptional battery reliability.

The M35 Hybrid joins conventional engine-equipped 2011 M versions – including a new high-performance diesel V6 for Western Europe – as the first Ms to be sold across all of Infiniti’s world markets, currently 33 countries. All of the new-generation Infiniti M models are on target to beat their predecessors on fuel consumption and emissions – despite across-the-board performance improvements – thanks to a range of efficiency-enhancing measures.

 The Electric Power Research Institute is coordinating the project among several ports and will also compile and analyze project data related to the tractor’s performance, including emissions, charging, diesel fuel reduction and other aspects. The equipment will be tested at SSA Container Terminal on Pier A at the Port of Long Beach for 3 months.

US Hybrid Corporation converted the diesel powered vehicle, which is similar in appearance to a tractor cab, into a hybrid which has the ability to be refueled from the electric grid. As a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) the tractor will be able to move containers weighing up to 95,000 pounds as its diesel counterparts can, but unlike diesels will not idle its engine when inactive. Over a year of full-time operation it is expected that the PHEV tractor would use 3,000 gallons of fuel per year less than a similar diesel and significantly reduce emissions.

 “Terminal tractors are the most prevalent piece of equipment at container ports and they typically idle 50 percent to 80 percent of the time they’re in use,” said Andra Rogers, senior project manager of Electric Transportation at EPRI. “It’s feasible that by converting their tractor fleets ports could reduce emissions from this source by 80 percent for nitrogen oxides, 50 percent for carbon dioxide and significant amounts of other criteria pollutants. These vehicles can make a big impact on lowering a port’s overall emissions.”

 “One of the central directives in our Green Port Policy is the adoption of new, environmentally friendly technologies,” said Heather Tomley, Port of Long Beach Assistant Director of Environmental Planning. “We encourage private industry to develop, test and evaluate technologies such as this hybrid-electric terminal tractor.” Currently there are approximately 754 diesel tractors at the Port of Long Beach.

 The three-month Port of Long Beach demonstration project is part of a one-year demonstration, during which the tractor will also be tested and evaluated at ports in Savannah, Ga., Mobile, Ala., Houston, and New York City.

EPRI will document the tractor’s performance and operation including electric grid system impact, vehicle system efficiency, emissions, costs and vehicle performance. EPRI also will evaluate performance and benefits relative to conventional diesel vehicles. The research is part of a broader program EPRI conducts on “non-road” electric applications for transportation, which includes forklifts, airport vehicles and power supply options for ships at dock, airliners at the gate and trucks at truck stops.