By info@greentechmedia.com
Quartz: Mercedes’ Next Vehicle Is a 20-Foot Luxury Electric Maybach That You’ll ‘Want to Drive Yourself’
The future of luxury cars isn’t all about flashy vehicles that drive themselves — at least that’s what Mercedes and Maybach want the super-rich to believe.
The Daimler-owned company unveiled a new electric-car concept, the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6, on Aug. 19. The “6” actually represents how many meters long this car is, just shy of 20 feet — which is a pretty standard size for speedboats, if not sports cars. Mercedes showed off the concept in a bright shade of red, but if it repainted the Vision in black, it probably would not look out of place in a mid-1990s Batman feature.
CNBC: After Solar Impulse Flight, Solar Power Getting Its Day in the Sun
By helping to propel an airplane around the world recently, solar power took what some would consider a quantum leap into the future — one that includes less use of fossil fuels.
The flight of Solar Impulse 2, which this week completed a 25,000-mile journey across Europe, Asia and North America, captured the public’s imagination and raised a tantalizing question that has long been the source of mere speculation. If the sun can play a role in aerial circumnavigation, can it live up to its billing as a large-scale energy source?
The answer, according to some, appears to be yes.
PV-Tech: Mixed Views Over Australian Energy Strategy Plans
The Council of Australian Governments Energy Council has met to discuss Australia’s energy future, prompting mixed reactions from the industry.
The Energy Network’s Association welcomed the council’s decision to expedite the assessment of a new interconnector between New South Wales and South Australia, which could strengthen the energy system.
The last month saw the country embroiled in a fierce debate of South Australia’s electricity price hikes, with many blaming renewables and others citing an interconnector being down for maintenance and gas prices as the key factors.
InsideClimate News: The Steel Magnate Helping Trump Assail Pollution Regulations
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been trying to appeal to voters in the Rust Belt by claiming that environmental regulations and one-sided trade deals are the primary culprits in the decline of U.S. manufacturing jobs. And he has chosen an economic adviser who’s been preaching that narrative for years, even as his business was booming.
As the chief executive of America’s biggest steelmaker for 13 years, Dan DiMicco repeatedly went to battle against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. His company, Nucor, fought the EPA in court over its moves to curb greenhouse gases, and it was assessed one of the EPA’s largest penalties ever against a steel company for clean air violations. Nucor also funded climate change denial efforts. DiMicco has argued that U.S. efforts to control carbon emissions would further strengthen China’s unfair hand in winning business — and jobs.
Back Channel: Self-Driving Cars Will Improve Our Cities — If They Don’t Ruin Them
It took 50 years to transition from the horse to the car. Surely few could have imagined the impact the car would have as it tore through cities, countries, and economies worldwide. Today, average Americans spend almost two of their eight hours at work paying off their car, which they need to get to that job. Last year in the U.S., more than 38,000 people died and 4.4 million were seriously injured due to motorized transport. Farther afield, in Singapore, 12 percent of the island nation’s scarce land is devoted to car infrastructure. In Delhi, 2.2 million children have irreversible lung damage because of poor air quality.
Incredibly, we might actually get a chance at a do-over — of our cities, our fossil-fuel dependence, and the social contract with labor — thanks to the impending advent of autonomous cars. Yes, their arrival is inevitable, but how they will impact us is yet to be determined.
Source:: Mercedes Has a New Concept Electric Car: ‘This Is Something You Pass to Your Children’
