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PSA: Recall & stop sale on all BMW i3s sold in US

BMW has issued a voluntary non-compliance recall and stop-sale on all new i3s until the issue of the recall can be remedied. So if you’re looking to buy a BMW i3, you might be in for some bad luck.

According to NHTSA testing, there’s an issue with frontal crash protection for drivers of the “5th percentile female” in the driver’s seat, if they don’t wear their seatbelt. Basically, that means that, in the event of a frontal crash, females of about 5-feet tall and 110 pounds have a “marginally higher risk” of sustaining neck injuries than is allowed.

@bwilson4web I hope you and yours are safe and having a happy Thanksgiving!
Recall and stop-sale to be issued on all BMW i3 models sold in America

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

pilotgrrl Nov 23, 2017 Read More Replies: 4

Georgetown Ky Toyota Plant

Source: Toyota Tells Camry Plant Employees to Cut Costs — Now | TheDetroitBureau.com

Employees at Toyota’s largest plant in North America were just delivered a message from Japan: cut costs or lose jobs.

The company’s plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, produces the Camry, which is the best-selling sedan in the U.S., was told in a video from the company’s plant manager that currently it is cheaper for Toyota to build the Camry in Japan and ship it to Kentucky than it is to simply build it in Kentucky.

I've taken two tours of this plant and it is 'Disneyland for Engineers.' I hope they get the problem(s) resolved.

Bob Wilson

bwilson4web Nov 22, 2017 Read More Replies: 1

Industrial hydrogen

Source: Green Car Congress: UC Santa Barbara team develops catalytic molten metals for direct conversion of methane to hydrogen without forming CO2

In their study, the UCSB researchers prepared liquid alloys of active metals in low–melting-temperature metal “solvents” (Sn, Pb, Bi, In, and Ga) using known equilibrium phase behavior to produce catalysts that melt at <1000°C. The melts are used in molten-metal bubble columns, where carbon continuously floats to the surface where it can be removed.

The carbon produced—mostly graphite—accumulated as a fine powder at the top surface of the melt.

In addition to the problems of high-pressure hydrogen, a hard problem, steam reformulation of methane generates CO{2} and consumes water. This process eliminates the water and generates carbon in a form that can easily be sequestered.

Bob Wilson

bwilson4web Nov 21, 2017 Read More Replies: 20