Aircraft Industry - Alternative Energy: Electric flying taxi service - Lilium poaches key hires from Audi, Airbus - by Jonathan Shieberby

Major Changes Are Coming In The Aircraft Industry

Lilium, the developer of a new electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle for a novel flying taxi service, has poached some pretty big former executives from Airbus and Audi as it builds out its technology and gets ready to bring its service to market.

Mirko Reuter, the former head of automated driving at Audi, has come on board as the head of autonomous flight at Lilium. Jakob Waeschenbach, who worked as the head of equipment installation at Airbus, and Rochus Moenter, former vice president of Airbus’ finance and leasing group, have joined Lilium as head of aircraft assembly and general counsel and head of legal, respectively.
 

Co-founded in 2015 by Daniel Wiegand, Sebastian Born, Patrick Nathen and Matthias Meiner, 

Lilium’s vision is to create a network for its proprietary vertical take-off and landing vehicles that will slash the costs of air travel and can ostensibly take a passenger from Paris to London in about an hour.

Read more: Electric flying taxi service Lilium poaches key hires from Audi, Airbus | TechCrunch

European Automobile Industry: Audi SQ7 SUV Confirmed To Get Electric Turbocharger In 2016

Efficiency-minded carmakers are turning to turbocharging in droves, but Audi may be about to do them one better.

The German automaker will put an electric turbocharger into production, and now it has revealed more about its plans for that technology.

According to a new report from Autocar, electric turbocharging will debut on the SQ7, a performance version of the next-generation 2015 Q7 SUV.

A previous report hinted that the technology--dubbed "e-boost" by Audi--would be ready in time for the debut of the standard Q7. The second generation of Audi's biggest current utility vehicle is expected to appear at the 2014 Paris Motor Show this October and go on sale next year.

However, it appears the German carmaker will save the electric turbocharger for a somewhat later debut.
Speaking to Autocar, Audi board member for technical development Ulrich Hackenberg confirmed that the electric turbo would launch on the sportier SQ7, which will likely arrive during calendar year 2016.

Read more: Audi SQ7 SUV Confirmed To Get Electric Turbocharger In 2016: UPDATE

European Car Industry: Munich, Germany Parlays Reputation for Car Culture into Electric Vehicle Leadership

Munich, Germany and luxury car culture are concepts so intertwined, it is difficult to imagine one without the other. With Munich as the capital of the Bavarian home of BMW and Audi, among many other automotive-sector leaders, it is not surprising to discover that Munich is also leading the way in innovating on electric car technology and is introducing consumer-ready electric cars to the market.

Designated as a 2009-2011 model region for electronic vehicles by the German government, Munich participated in a federal funding initiative promoting and supporting electromobility. Some of the programmes implemented as a part of the project included Munich public transport experimenting with hybrid buses, and most notably, automakers BMW and Audi launching fleet tests of their prototype BMW Mini E and Audi A1 e-tron vehicles.

The current BMW ActiveE is a demonstration electric car based on the BMW 1-series and the second after the Mini E to be developed under BMW's Project i. BMW is set to launch its first electric car, the long-awaited i3 Megacity Vehicle in 2013.

The Audi project puts the carmaker into partnership with Munich's municipal utility company Stadtwerke München (SWM) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) who have worked together to launch 20 Audi A1 e-tron car models onto Munich's roads. In addition to getting these electric cars on the road, the project also dealt with data transfer and smartphone interface technology to make the human-machine interface issues more seamless. As a part of the infrastructure to support the scheme, E.ON and SWM have installed the charging stations required to keep the electric auto fleet up and running. (And the project would not be complete without ensuring that all electricity supplying the fleet came from renewable sources!) With the data gathered from the trials, the partners can make the case that it is not a matter of if electromobility is adopted but when - and Munich is at the forefront of the mass-market electromobility adoption efforts.

Read more: Munich, Germany Parlays Reputation for Car Culture into Electric Vehicle Leadership

Automotive Industry: Using wind power, Audi aims for carbon-neutral motoring

Audi plans to use wind power as a source of clean energy for its upcoming electric and natural gas vehicles. The combination of clean power and zero- and low-emissions vehicles is a first step by the manufacturer toward making its entire lineup carbon-neutral.

To make its carbon-neutral goal a reality, the car maker is financing the construction of four wind turbines off the North Sea that will generate annually up to 53 GWh of electricity. Wind-generated electricity will be fed to the public power grid, and Audi plans to use a portion of the wind power to charge its electric e-tron vehicles. It will also use wind-generated electricity to produce hydrogen and something Audi calls e-gas.

Harnessing the power of wind to produce hydrogen through electrolysis, Audi can power fuel cell vehicles, including the Audi Q5 HFC. But until fuel cell vehicles enter production, the hydrogen will be combined with CO2 to produce e-gas, a synthetic form of methane. Audi will use the e-gas to power a CNG version of the A3. The A3 TCNG's four-cylinder TFSI engine is designed to run on e-gas, natural gas, or conventional gasoline.

To make the A3 TCNG even more environmentally friendly, Audi plans to break ground on its own synthetic methane facility in July. Using CO2 from a connected waste-biogas plant, Audi's facility will produce annually 1,000 metric tons of e-gas. This fuel will be added to Germany's natural gas network, which serves 900 CNG stations.

For more: Using wind power, Audi aims for carbon-neutral motoring | The Car Tech blog - CNET Reviews