Transportation

A group of Segway riders pass in front of U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on November 4, 2009.
UPI/Kevin Dietsch
Date Taken: November 5, 2009

ALTOONA, Pa., Oct. 5 (UPI) — The Norfolk Southern Corp. says a new locomotive in Norfolk, Va., is emissions-free thanks to its energy source of 1,080 batteries.
Norfolk Southern Chief Executive Officer Wick Moorman said the NS 999 is a 1,500-hp switching locomotive that uses rechargeable 12-volt batteries in a lead-acid energy storage system, The [...]

DEARBORN, Mich., Oct. 4 (UPI) — U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co. has filed scores of patents in an effort to protect its EcoBoost engines from copycats, documents indicate.
The engines, which were first used in mainstream vehicles by German carmakers, combine turbo-charging with direct fuel-injection to coax up to 20 percent better fuel economy than [...]

IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 23 (UPI) — The U.S. Energy Department said it would loan California’s luxury automaker Fisker Automotive Inc. $529 million to develop two alternative-energy vehicles.
The low-interest loan is the fourth grant to come out of the $25 billion automotive retooling loan project passed into law in September 2008, The Detroit News reported [...]

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Sept. 22 (UPI) — Purdue University researchers say they have perfected an understanding of precisely how fluid boils in tiny “microchannels” in hybrid and electric cars.
That discovery, said the researchers, has led to formulas and models that will help engineers design systems to cool high-power electronics in electric and hybrid cars, [...]