Extract:

Hydrogen is considered to be an ideal energy carrier for low-carbon vehicles in the near future. It can be produced from water by using a variety of energy sources, such as solar, wind and nuclear, and it can be converted into useful energy efficiently and without detrimental environmental effects. The only by-product is water or water vapour in fuel cell vehicles, but small amounts of NOx are produced in combustion systems. Hydrogen can be used in any application in which fossil fuels are being used today, especially cars, buses and trucks. This paper considers how hydrogen can be combined with two other technologies; online vehicle monitoring and computer maps to give significant reduction in carbon emissions from combustion engines, especially on trucks.

To read more, please download our PDF

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to offload its car and van leasing business Lombard Vehicle Management (LVM) to ALD Automotive in a five-year deal.

The business will still operate as LVM under a white label deal being managed by ALD Automotive, which is owned by Societe Generale

Managing director of ALD Automotive Keith Allen said: “We’re delighted that RBS and Lombard have chosen ALD to provide contract hire and fleet management solutions for Lombard.

“The new proposition will have access to all the vehicle leasing business generated through RBS banking and Lombard relationships, reinforcing the success of the multi-sales channel strategy we have adopted to grow our business and driving the business further forward to become a top three player within the UK leasing industry.”

The new arrangement will be officially launched in June/July this year.

Fleet News reported more than a year ago that RBS, which is 84%-owned by UK taxpayers, was willing to listen to offers for the company as part of a programme to sell non-core assets.

But, with GE Capital understood to be close to acquiring the business, Sky News reported that RBS had pulled the plug on talks after failing to agree on the price and structure of a deal.

Lombard Vehicle Management had a risk fleet of 70,621 vehicles and a number five ranking in last year’s FN50, while ALD Automotive had a number six ranking with 63,561 vehicles.

A joint operation would give a combined risk fleet of more than 130,000 vehicles and would effectively put it in the number two spot, behind Lex Autolease but above LeasePlan, based on 2011 figures.

A new generation of police vehicles sporting common electronic underpinnings should be available within two years, according to officers on an ACPO-led initiative.

They maintain that the introduction of Single Vehicle Architecture, which gives cars a generic platform for new kit to be seamlessly integrated, is performing well in tests and will ultimately deliver better efficiencies plus cost savings.

Speaking at the Security and Policing Exhibition at the FIVE venue in Farnborough, ACPO ITS Project Officer Sgt Jonathan Pope told PoliceOracle.com that the Home Office was now preparing its own tests on the SVA concept.

He also highlighted that assessments of new Driver and Vehicle Management Systems that would be used in the architecture were also underway in a number of forces.

It is envisaged that this tool – which can determine how efficiently and safely a vehicle is being driven by measuring data such as fuel consumption, acceleration and braking – can be used to improve driver behaviour.

Sgt Pope revealed that these tests are likely to run until June – but early results suggested that significant savings could be made, particularly on fuel and wear-and-tear.

He added: “We would expect the market to start delivering vehicles that are fit for purpose for the Police Service in around 18 months if all goes according to plan.

“There has also been some significant international interest in what we have doing – in particular from officers in Denmark and Germany as well as the French Gendarmerie.”

In addition to showcasing the current generation of equipment in an SVA-ready Vauxhall Insignia, there was also a glimpse of the future at the Security and Policing event with new equipment in a concept Ampera electric vehicle.

The kit included an ANPR-style facial recognition camera, which has been delivering some impressive results, as well as next generation GPS equipment.

Ch Supt Jim Hammond, who heads up the ACPO ITS Project, told PoliceOracle.com: “It is going to take the facial recognition initiative a while to get into the car.

“We need to look into some of the legal aspects of it in the next 12 months.”

As previously reported on PoliceOracle.com, the SVA concept came from planned revisions to the earlier Incident Data Recorders fitted to vehicles.

It was realised that there was great potential create a new common electronic underpinning through the use of Control Area Networks in cars.

Click here to read the full article on the website of the Department for Business Innovation & Skills…

Stage One Complete

Following on from our previous post ‘Airmax Group HQ is converting to Microgeneration‘, we can now say that stage one is complete! 40 solar panels are now installed generating up to 10kW peek electricity.

The follwing image shows one of the frames to hold the panels and the concrete slabs to stabilise them against the wind:

Here is a video of the completed installation: