There are people who see the rebel collective averagefuel economy(CAFE ) standards – 54.5 mile per gallon ( 23.2 kilometers per liter ) by 2025 – as unsound news . They bewail the death of the bigengines , the V-8s that delivered slews of power and suck up a lot ofgas . They say that driving wo n’t be fun any longer , that we ’ll all be forced to bribe slow cars with high fuel saving scores . Booooring , these people say .
Then there are others who have get laid the CAFE standards would have to rise , give the price of oil , U.S. dependency on alien rock oil and the effects of engine discharge onclimate change . They saw the gamy fuel thriftiness requirement as a challenge , and they begin to work on newfangled engineering science that would be good for the planet , good for our wallets and still cool . These masses are phone engineers .
Here are five railway locomotive technologies usable today or in the very near future tense , at a variety of price points . These examples – and there are more like them being invented every day – anticipate that the future ofdrivingwill still be fun , whether it ’s in a petite city car with a direct - injected engine or a supercar with a " push to pass " hybrid booster release .
5: Higher Compression Ratios
One way to amend carrying into action andfuel economyis to increase the compression proportion inside theengine . The densification ratio cite to the amount of fuel and air squeezed into the burning chamber . When this proportion is mellow , it apply fuel more efficiently .
Mazda is using this glide slope to its previous generation of vehicles , bothdiesel- andgasoline - power . The SKYACTIV - G gasoline engine , for lesson , practice a 13:1 condensation ratio in North America , where the norm is 10:1 . SKYACTIV - G vehicle in Europe have a 14:1 ratio , since more people in Europe utilize high-pitched - octane gasoline regularly .
The problem with eminent compression ratios is commonly a knocking sound in the engine , which pass when temperature and pressure are too high in the bedchamber and the air and fuel mixture ignites too betimes . high octane accelerator pedal on its own can solve some of this problem , but Mazda has acquire a longer exhaust manifold that reduces the temperature and the chance of engine smash . The SKYACTIV - G system also has a fast burning meter , which means the air - fuel mixture ignites by rights before the temperature can build up and knocking Begin .
All this engine applied science – as well as weight - saving material and a newtransmission– mean 15 percent humiliated fuel uptake and emissions and 15 per centum more torsion . And increased torque translates into more driving fun .
4: Direct Injection
Most of theengineson the road today mix the fuel and airwave before introducing them to the burning chamber . In a direct - inject railway locomotive , highly pressurized fuel is force out instantly into the combustion bedroom at the top of the Walter Piston ’s stroke , near the spark cud .
Since this creates quite a bit of press in the combustion chamber , direct injectioncan cause knocking , too , just like higher compression ratios . Ford Motor Company has solved this problem by combining direct injection withturbo charging , which use exhaust accelerator pedal to advance execution .
By bringing these two establish engineering together , Ford has built railway locomotive that are more powerful than their forerunner , even though they ’re small and use less fuel . Ford call these engine EcoBoost .
The 2011 Ford F - Series shows how EcoBoost keeps drive from being dull . You could buy the Super Duty with its optional 6.8 - liter V-10 with 362 H.P. and 457 lb - ft of torsion – plenty for work or act . Or you could buy the F-150 with the EcoBoost 3.5 - cubic decimetre engine with 365horsepowerand 420 lb - ft of torsion – and that ’s in a smaller , light hand truck . That kind of horsepower per pound ratio is going to deliver fortune of fun with fewer fill - ups .
3: Flex Fuel
This engineering , which allows a driver to choose betweenregular gasolineor anethanolblend , has been around for a while . Ethanol blend are designated by the missive vitamin E play along by a numeral ; E85 mean the fuel is 85 percentage ethanol and 15 pct petrol . The Flex Fuel badge ordinarily mean the vehicle can use up to E85 , as well as blue - portion blending like E10 .
Often , you ’ll recover that Flex Fuel vehicles are big hand truck and sport utility that drink fuel like a fish tope water supply . Ethanol has a high octane rating , but you get fewer miles per gallon when using it . On the plus side , ethanol can be made from biological reservoir .
But for expensive execution motorcar , that ’s the perfect mix . Bentley Motors is mold to make its entire fleet of car Flex Fuel - equal to , beginning with the Bentley Continental SuperSports , the fastest Bentley ever work up .
The engineer at Swedish supercar company Koenigsegg used ethanol to hike both tycoon and dark-green certification . The company ’s very limited edition CCXR model had an 806 horsepower engine – when it was power by gas . But fill the cooler with high - octane ethyl alcohol , and the engine could zigzag out an awesome 1,018horsepower .
2: EV Power Boost
Over the past decade and more , electric - gasoline intercrossed systemshave become commonplace . There is n’t a urban center in America that does n’t have aToyota Prius , Ford Escape , or any other hybrid tooling around its streets . The engineering work , the battery last and the gas milage is some of the effective in the world .
But the fun factor for many loan-blend is admittedly low . Jaguar is set to remedy that , with its " button to pass " release in the C - X16 construct express at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show . It ’s powered by asupercharged3 - liter V-6 gasoline engine and anelectric motor , just as most hybrids are .
The difference of opinion is in the " push to pass " button on the steering cycle . Pressing this accesses the galvanising motor for a 70 horsepower boost , much like the KERS organisation used in Formula 1 racing . Put it all together , and the Jaguar C - X16 can go 186 miles per hr ( 299.3 kilometers per hr ) and reach 60 miles per hour ( 96.6 kilometre per hour ) from a standstill in less than four and a one-half seconds .
1: Cylinders on Demand
This case ofengineonly uses the cylinders it needs , when it needs them . For instance , when the Audi S8 is speed up from 0 to 62 land mile per hour ( 100 kilometers per hour ) in 4.2 seconds , it requires all eight of its cylinders to be firing .
But when it reaches cruising speed a few seconds later , it no longer has that heavy work load to maintain . Four of those eight cylinders curve out completely , so the locomotive engine acts like a four - cylinder . If you need to go by , the other four cylinders complain in again , and then cut out when the car ’s speed is steady again . This technology improvesfuel efficiencyby about 10 per centum when cruise along at speed .
Audi also uses an alive haphazardness control condition system to keep the speech sound of the engine and eat consistent and participating engine mounts so passengers wo n’t note when the cylinders cut out or kindle up . All told , the unexampled V-8 railway locomotive has more power than the V-10 it replaced – and it gets good gas mileage .
For more information about new engine technologies and other related to subject , follow the links on the next page .
