Archive for Technology

Lotus Engineering displayed their Integrated Exhaust Manifold technology at the 2007 Geneva International Motor Show. Basically, it is an exhaust manifold integrated into the cylinder head. A demonstration of this was shown as a cylinder head design for a small 3-cylinder engine, which I would say would benefit much from this technology. Integrating the exhaust manifold into the cylinder head brings numerous benefits which I will outline below.

An integrated exhaust manifold reduces parts count, which reduces costs throughout the development cycle. Other areas where this will reduce costs include the inventory, assembly and aftermarket parts supply areas. Less parts, less to stock.

Through the use of a cooling jacket design, heat is retained in the engine (which is cooled via the radiator system) rather than letting it radiate into the engine bay. This improves the performance of the air conditioning system, thus reducing it’s power consumption. A cooler engine bay also means cooler air into the air intake, which boosts performance. The engine also warms up more quickly. Coolant can also cool the engine more evenly, reducing engine block stress.

Engine durability improves, as thermal stresses usually occur at points where different materials meet. In an engine with a conventional exhaust system design, an aluminium cylinder head meeting a cast iron exhaust causes thermal stress.

The integrated exhaust manifold also allows the catalytic converter to be positioned very near the exhaust output, thus reducing the amount of exhaust heat lost in travelling from the cylinder to the catalyst. This improves catalyst performance, thus reducing emissions to an ultra-low level without incurring higher costs.

Proton is not the only one with a sedan modified to go the hybrid way – the Koreans have their Kia Rio Hybrid for display at he 77th Salon de lAutomobiles in Geneva as well. This Kia Rio Sedan has it’s 1.4 liter CVVT petrol engine mated to a 12 kilowatt, 95Nm electric motor, and like the GEN2 EVE, uses a CVT gearbox, a first in any Kia car.

The CVVT engine makes about 90 horsepower and 120Nm of torque, and is hooked up to the electric motor which is placed between the flywheel and the gearbox. This electric motor ‘assists the petrol engine during starting, accelerating and hill-climbing. The electric motor switches off at cruising speeds, and also has ‘regenerative braking to store energy and re-charge its Ni-MH 144 volt power pack. There’s also a start-stop system for shutting off the petrol engine when not needed and restarting it automatically.

Zero to 100 km/h takes 12.2 seconds, top speed is 180km/h, and compared to a standard Kia Rio, air pollutants are reduced by 37% (down to 126g/km) and fuel efficiency is improved by 44% (now rated at 4.4 liters per 100km). To help with the fuel consumption, the body of this Kia Rio Sedan has also been changed slightly, saving about 220kg of weight through the use of an aluminium bonnet, boot lid and front seat frames, plus lightweight road wheels, low-friction tyres and an electric power steering.

Three more photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Kia Rio Hybrid introduced at Geneva 2007

Hybrid 7-series within the next 3 years?

DaimlerChrysler and BMW will be extending their hybrid drive system collaboration, developing a unique hybrid drive module for rear wheel drive cars, with commercialization of the module expected within the next three years. This joint venture is in the interest of saving costs in R&D as well as manufacturing.

Lexus has gone the mild hybrid way for quite some time now, with offerings like the Lexus RX450h luxury SUV, Lexus GS450h mid-sized luxury saloon and the flagship Lexus LS600h. Now when I say mild hybrid, that refers to hybrid powertrains that focus more on helping acceleration, and save a bit of fuel especially in stop and go traffic. Large displacement engines usually prove to be guzzlers in stop and go situations. It is not meant to focus on massive fuel savings like the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight.

Now most of you who have been observing hybrid/electric car specs should have noticed most of them have crazy acceleration times thanks to the electric motor’s perpetually maxed out torque at all RPMs. Imagine a BMW 3-series coupled with a hybrid drivetrain system accelerating out of a corner, now that has got me licking my lips, though this technology will most likely first be used on both Mercedes Benz and BMW’s larger vehicles like the 7-Series (shown above) and S-class, as well as SUVs, as the relatively larger displacement engines in these two classes of vehicles would benefit the most from the fuel savings of an electric motor in stop and go traffic.

First of all, thanks to Mat Kamil Awang for the pointer to these documents. The source for the data I am going to use in this article is from a Japanese site hosting presentations from the 4th Asian Petroleum Technology Symposium. This particular presentation is entitled “Clean Fuels for A Clean Malaysian Environment”, by Harlina Firdaus Marzuki and Fazil Mat Isa of PETRONAS Research & Scientific Services.

This is heavy reading but insightful, so bewarned! Continued after the jump…

Click here to read the rest of Analyzing fuel quality in Malaysia – 3 out of 6 already Euro II compliant for petrol!

Volvo will debut it’s new hydraulically controlled dual-clutch gearbox in diesel variants of it’s Volvo S40 sedan and Volvo V50 stationwagon models, coinciding with a mid-life facelift of the two cars. Parent company Ford also plans to introduce the dual-clutch gearbox to other models like the Ford Focus and the Ford Focus C-MAX, which currently also offer CVT gearboxes, as well as the Land Rover Freelander and some Mazda models. Ford Focus ST or MazdaSpeed 3 with a dual-clutch gearbox, anyone?

While Volkswagen’s extremely good Direct-Shift Gearbox (DSG) is supplied by BorgWarner, Ford gets it’s units from Getrag, and the system is called Powershift.

Malaysian-registered cars will receive the equivalent of the MyKad system early next year – number plates called e-plates which will contain RFID tags which will contain information about the vehicle and it’s owner. The e-plate system was conceived as a strategy to curb car theft. It will supposedly prevent car thieves from getting away by merely changing stolen car’s plates. The system will be implemented in stages, starting with new cars, followed by those already running on the road. Range is 100 meters. The e-plates have a battery lifespan of 10 years.

How much will this new system cost us? Who will be bearing the cost of the new tagged numberplates, and will the prices be overinflated due to someone making a fat profit in the middle of the supply chain?

The plates are supposed to be tamper-proof, but then again with technology, there are many ways to get around security. There is always a way – think RFID “burner” devices to create a massive amount of electronically “plate-less” cars to confuse the police in the area, making it easier for you to get the car out of the theft zone, etc.

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Blogger Peter Tan might be very interested in this. While the rest of the automotive industry is focusing on applying fuel cell technology on cars, Suzuki is applying the technology in the powered wheelchair market – and its latest prototype, the MIO, features a fuel cell that uses methanol as a fuel source to generate hydrogen and therefore electricity, which is then stored in a Li-ion battery which also acts as a backup power storage.

The Suzuki MIO has a 4 litre tank that gives it a range of approximately 25 miles. Theres also an LCD display showing fuel level and power sources. Therefore, unlike wheelchairs that rely solely on mains charging of the battery, it addresses users fears of being stranded at some distance from their home.

This is the Volkswagen Nanospyder. A two seater Ariel Atom-like car that runs on hydrogen fuel cells powering in-wheel electric motors. It has a strong spine, on which other components is bolted on, and the body panels are constructed from latticework of billions of tiny programmable nano devices each measuring less than half a millimetre in daimeter. These devices can individually be programmed to be as strong or weak as required, meaning the vehicle could have active crumple zones.

These nanopanels are also coated with materials which can inflate to provide further cushioning upon impact, and also doubles as a solar power panel, which assists the hydrogen fuel cell in powering the in-wheel motors.

Of course, such a vehicle doesn’t exist. The Volkswagen Nanospyder is actually the vision of three Volkswagen designers, their idea of what the future car would be. It was conceptualised as an entry for the Design Los Angeles conference. The challenge was to design a car that can make the most of California without harming the environment.

One more photo after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Nanospyder Concept

A research team from the Tokyo University of Science and the Japan Science and Technology Agency has managed to use gallium nitride (GaN) crystals to extract hydrogen from water, which might lead to the development of more efficient processes of extracting hydrogen for the use in fuel cells.

A GaN wafer is connected with platinum using a wire, and immersed in water. Light is applied, and current flows through the water which causes electrolysis, hence producing hydrogen. The efficiency of converting light energy to hydrogen energy using this method is a mere 0.5%, however efficiency was improved 1.3 times by introducing the narrower bandgap material such as InGaN. According to Professor Kazuhiro Ohkawa of the Tokyo University of Science applied physics department, this can be raised to more than 20%.

I’m just wondering if this is the magic metal used in LMG’s Hydroxene

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Chery Automobile Co., Ltd, J&K Technologies Inc and Tsinghua University has developed a hydrogen fuel cell car which can reach a top speed of 80 km/h and like a traditional hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, emits no exhaust fumes other than water vapor.

The joint venture has announced that the car was developed entirely on their own, and China now has fully independent intellectual property rights to a fuel cell vehicle. But then again, considering Chery’s definition of intellectual property… hmm.

Think we’ll be seeing a fuel cell Chery QQ soon?

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