Federal regulators warn customers of Takata airbag problems
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is urging owners of certain Toyota, Honda, Mazda, BMW, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors vehicles to act immediately on recall notices to replace defective Takata airbags. Nearly 8 million vehicles are involved in recalls issued since early 2013.
The message comes with urgency, especially for owners of vehicles affected by regional recalls in the following areas: Florida, Puerto Rico, limited areas near the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana, as well as Guam, Saipan, American Samoa, Virgin Islands, and Hawaii.
“Responding to these recalls, whether old or new, is essential to personal safety and it will help aid our ongoing investigation into Takata airbags and what appears to be a problem related to extended exposure to consistently high humidity and temperatures. However, we’re leaving no stone unturned in our aggressive pursuit to track down the full geographic scope of this issue,” says NHTSA Deputy Administrator David Friedman.
NHSTA came under sharp criticism from lawmakers and public advocacy groups in October and November who said the agency acted too slowly as the number of recalls associated with defective airbags grew.
When the Takata bags fail, metal sharps can be expelled from the bag during gas expansion, potentially harming drivers and puncturing the bags, making them less effective as cushions to prevent injuries.
Honda vehicles are responsible for the bulk of Takata problems, accounting for more than 5 million of the 7.8 million cars and trucks recalled. www.nhtsa.gov
EPA revises 2014 Mini Cooper fuel economy estimates
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials performed a fuel economy audit on the BMW Mini Cooper and obtained values that differed from those BMW submitted to EPA for certification. With oversight by EPA officials, BMW engineers conducted new emissions and fuel economy testing, while EPA scientists conducted their own tests at the National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As a result of this subsequent testing, BMW must relabel four of its 2014 Mini Cooper models with lower fuel economy values.
“Fuel economy values matter to consumers and automakers,” says Christopher Grundler, director of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality. “To provide consumers with the most accurate, reliable, and repeatable fuel economy values, we are continuing to strengthen our oversight to ensure fair competition among automakers.” www.fueleconomy.gov
$1 million hydrogen fueling challenge prize
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) $1 million H2 Refuel H-Prize is a two-year competition that challenges America’s engineers and entrepreneurs to develop affordable systems for small-scale, non-commercial hydrogen fueling. Successful entries will install and test systems that generate hydrogen from resources available at most homes, such as electricity or natural gas, and provide the hydrogen to fuel passenger vehicles. This competition plans to offer a $1 million cash prize to the team that demonstrates the best system.
Hydrogen infrastructure remains the most critical barrier to the widespread adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). Government and industry are focused on identifying actions to encourage early adopters of FCEVs by conducting coordinated technical and market analysis and leveraging other alternative fueling infrastructure to enable cost reductions and economies of scale. For example, infrastructure being developed for alternative fuels such as natural gas – and fuel cell applications including combined heat and power, backup power, and fuel cell forklifts – can help pave the way for mainstream hydrogen vehicle infrastructure.
With support from the DOE, its national laboratories, and private industry, significant progress has been made in reducing costs and improving performance for fuel cell and hydrogen technologies. These research and development efforts have helped reduce automotive fuel cell costs by more than 50% since 2006. At the same time, fuel cell durability has doubled and the amount of expensive platinum needed in fuel cells has fallen by 80% since 2005. The H-Prize competition aims to leverage these advances towards designing refueling systems that reduce the barriers to widespread infrastructure development and FCEV adoption.
In the first year of the competition, teams are tasked to find partners, design a system, find a site to install the system, and register for the competition before submitting data and designs to a team of independent judges. The judges will select the top teams as finalists to advance to the testing phase. During the second year, finalist teams have seven months to build, install, and prepare their systems for testing. The winner will be required to meet both the technical and cost criteria as outlined in the final guidelines. The Hydrogen Education Foundation for the DOE will administer the program.
Registration to compete in the H-Prize and more information is available on the H2 Refuel website, www.hydrogenprize.org.