The General Electric/Safran partnership CFM International has been renewed to 2050, and the company has announced a game changing engine program that promises to deliver 20% lower CO2 emissions compared to current state-of-the-art turbofans. The engine will use advanced materials and notably, an open rotor design. High bypass turbofans may yet give way to propellers.

BYD has made the first move in the long-awaited entry of Chinese electric vehicle makers into Western markets. 100 Tang SUVs have been shipped to Norway, which is emerging as the European testing ground for new vehicles on the continent. If BYD succeeds, they may open the floodgates for multiple Chinese brands in an already crowded market.

General Motors and railway equipment heavyweight Wabtec have joined forces to build a hydrogen fuel cell powered locomotive. The green initiative will use GM Ultium batteries currently under development with LG and slated for production at a joint-venture factory in Tennessee. Fuel-cell modules be produced by a GM Honda JV. If it works, the new powerplant might change the paradigm in electric railway and urban transit design.

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