Lighter vehicle research

Significant change also is expected for light vehicles through the SuperTruck program, as six projects — totaling more than $71 million in grants — are focused on developing engine technologies that will improve the fuel economy of passenger vehicles by 25 percent to 40 percent by 2015 using an engine-only approach. The projects and funding being underwritten by DOE include:

• Chrysler Group received more than $14.4 million to devise a flexible combustion system for its minivan platform based on a downsized, turbocharged engine that uses direct gasoline injection, recirculation of exhaust gases, and flexible intake air control to reduce emissions.
• Cummins received $15 million to develop a fuel-efficient, low emissions diesel engine that achieves a 40 percent fuel economy improvement over conventional gasoline technology and significantly exceeds 2010 EPA emissions requirements.
• Delphi Automotive Systems obtained more than $7.4 million to design a new low-temperature combustion system, coupled with technologies such as continuously variable valve control and engine “down-speeding,” to improve fuel economy by at least 25 percent. 
• Ford Motor got $15 million to achieve a 25 percent fuel economy improvement with a gasoline engine in a 2010 mid- to large-size sedan, using technologies including engine downsizing, turbo-charging, direct injection, and a novel exhaust after-treatment system.

If breakthroughs developed by the entire program — for heavy-duty trucks and light vehicles alike — are adopted broadly across the country, they could save more than 100 million gallons of gasoline and diesel per day, and reduce carbon emissions from on-road vehicles by 20 percent by 2030, says Ramin Younessi, Navistar group vice president for product development and strategy.

Near term, however, he believes ongoing work with composite materials and new aluminum components will be more rapidly applied to current truck designs, as well as aerodynamic advances, to help vehicle makers improve fuel economy ahead of the federal mandates.

"The improvements we strive to achieve will not come in leaps for the most part, but will be the sum of many smaller but important measures," says Elmar Boeckenhoff, DTNA's senior vice president for engineering and technology. “Don’t expect a silver bullet, but expect us to hit the target.”

In the end, the cost of the new technology could be the biggest challenge the participants in the SuperTruck project must surmount, says Wayne Eckerle, vice president for research and development at Cummins.

“Our biggest technical challenge is really getting the costs for any and all of the technologies and systems we’re working on down to where the fleets will want to buy them,” he says. “They need to be durable and reliable, of course, but in the end they must offer a way to reduce total cost of ownership in order for the customer to use them.”

Sean Kilcarr is senior editor for Fleet Owner, an American City & County sister publication.