Although Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has been widely lambasted for his 2008 comment about driving U.S. gasoline prices to levels like those experienced in Europe—a comment that he has subsequently said he no longer believes to be germane—the fact of the matter is that gas prices in Europe are rather stiff. A liter of gas in Germany costs about $2.15, so with 3.7 liters in a gallon. . . .

One consequence of this high price of fuel is an announcement just made by Ford of Europe that it is more than tripling the number of EcoBoost engines in its lineup, going from 141,000 units in 2011 to some 480,000 by 2015.

What’s more astonishing is that of total annual output, more than 300,000 vehicles will be equipped with 1.0-liter EcoBoost engines.

Yes, a 1.0-liter engine.

A three-cylinder engine.

Between 2012 and 2015, they plan to produce 800,000 cars with the 1.0-liter engine.

This small EcoBoost—the smallest engine built by Ford anywhere—was developed at Ford’s Dunton Technical Center in the U.K. (gas is ~$2.27 a liter in the U.K.). It is direct injected and features a turbocharger. The exhaust manifold is cast into the cylinder head. The block is cast iron rather than aluminum; the reason is they want to reduce the amount of energy for warm-up, with the heat transfer being facilitated by the ferrous material. There are two versions, a 99-hp and a 118-hp 1-liter.

The 1.0-liter EcoBoost is produced at Ford’s plants in Cologne, Germany, and, at a new plant in Craiova, Romania. The 1.6-liter EcoBoost is manufactured at Bridgend, Wales, and 2.0-liter EcoBoosts are built in Valencia, Spain.

Clearly, efficiency matters when gas prices are high.

It’s worth noting that there are some 180,000 EcoBoost-powered cars running in North America. One can only assume that that number will rise right along with the need for improved fuel efficiency.

While a multitude of lofty OEMs from Rolls-Royce to Lamborghini used the recent Beijing Motor Show as a venue to display vehicles of astonishing opulence, there was another effort made that is probably more significant that the grandiose vehicles, one that had some of its results displayed at Auto China 2012: The Volkswagen “People’s Car Project.”

VW setup a website for this China-based project 11 months ago. There were more than 33-million visitors to the site. There were more than 119,000 ideas submitted for vehicles and technologies that the participants were interested in seeing come to life.

“The creative ideas from the ‘People’s Car Project’ give us a valuable insight into the wishes of Chinese drivers,” said Simon Loasby, head of Design at Volkswagen Group China. “The trend is towards safe cars that can easily navigate overcrowded roads and have a personal, emotional and exciting design.”

VW developed three of the ideas.

There is the Hover Car, a two-seater that would hover over the surface of electromagnetic roads:

The Music Car, which has organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) on its exterior surface so that the color of the car changes with the music being played by the driver:

The Smart Key, a 9-mm thick fob with a high-resolution touch screen that provides a variety of information, including the fuel in the vehicle and the weather:

VW had planned to run the People’s Car Project for a year, but given the activity, is extending it indefinitely.

Said Luca de Meo, director of Marketing, Volkswagen Group and the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand, “The ‘People’s Car Project’ in China marks the beginning of a new era in automobile design. We are no longer just building cars for, but also with customers and at the same time initiating a national dialog which gives us a deep insight into the design preferences, needs and requirements of Chinese customers.”

Still, VWs will retain the character of VWs. De Meo went on to say, “In a long-term context, the findings of the ‘People’s Car Project’ will influence Volkswagen’s product strategy. The design of our models will, however, continue to reflect the tradition of the Volkswagen brand. If at some time in the future we are to produce a vehicle from the ‘People’s Car Project,’ it will be a combination of customers’ opinions and brand tradition.”

Technorati Tags: crowdsourcing,automotive design,China auto market,Volkswagen  

The 2013 Stage 3 Mustang from ROUSH Performance features a supercharged 5.0-liter engine under its hood that provides 565 hp and 505 lb-ft of torque. The supercharger in question, the R2300, features Eaton TVS (Twin Vortices Series) tech, which combines thermal efficiency, high volumetric capacity, and the ability to achieve higher supercharger speeds, all of which results in neck-snapping speeds, but fuel efficiency, too (but would you really care?).

There are 18-in cast aluminum wheels wrapped with the ROUSH/Cooper co-developed RS3 ultrahigh performance tires. And they sit beneath the R6 aerobody package that incorporates a newly designed ROUSH upper grille; high-flow lower grille; corner fascia aero pockets with driving lamps and front chin splitter; a new ROUSH hood scoop; rocker panel and rear fascia side splitters; a three-piece rear decklid spoiler; and a new ROUSH rear aero valance featuring race-inspired diffusers and integrating new dual chambered, chrome exhaust tips.

Chances are, you’re not likely to run into one of these models just anywhere, which is why we recommend that you mark your calendar right now to attend amerimold, which is being held June 13-14 at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, MI, because not only is the ROUSH Stage 3 going to be there, but Gary Jurick, vp and general manager of ROUSH Performance Products, will be presenting a keynote address on ROUSH’s “start-to-finish” approach to product development, which goes from design through engineering, prototyping and manufacturing.

In addition to which, Mark Bringle, technical sponsor and marketing director, Joe Gibbs Racing, will be providing a presentation on how the NASCAR team uses technology ranging from advanced computer-aided engineering to additive manufacturing to take an idea on Monday that becomes a physical part of a car by Wednesday.

amerimold will have various technical sessions dedicated to additive manufacturing and mold making products and processes.

The focus of the event is on doing things more quickly, so in that spirit know that if you sign up before May 15, you can get a discount on your registration.

This is a serious technical event for those involved in tool and moldmaking, molding, and additive manufacturing.

But seriously: to learn about how that Stage 3 Mustang comes to be and how Joe Gibbs Racing manages its tech resources with a high-quality, high-velocity approach is worth it—and then some.

Check it out at www.amerimoldexpo.com

Technorati Tags: Mustang,Joe Gibbs Racing,ROUSH Performance,amerimold,mold making,additive manufacturing  

Although “hybrid” for many people has come to connote things that are both small and not particularly peppy, that wasn’t the case late last month at the Wendover Airfield in Utah.

On April 27, a vehicle named “Mean Green” set a speed record—in a run sanctioned by the United States Auto Club—of 147.002 mph (236.577 km/h) for a flying kilometer and 95.245 mph (153.252 km/h) for a standing kilometer. Mean Green is a hybrid.

You’re probably thinking—and correctly so—that those speeds aren’t all that astonishing.

But there’s something else that you need to know: Mean Green is a hybrid semi-truck tractor.

It is primarily based on Volvo Truck elements, including a Volvo VN cab and frame—aero modified for the speed run. It has a Volvo D16 engine with a modified version of Volvo’s automated IShift gearbox. There is an electric motor that supplements the diesel engine.

All together, the engine and motor produce approximately 2,100 hp and 6,750 Nm (5,000 lb-ft) of torque.

Yes, a hybrid.

The absurdity is striking: The natural gas-powered Honda Civic delivered to Autofieldblog.com HQ has California license plates on it. I was concerned with driving across town in it. I can’t imagine a road trip with the car.

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the vehicle per se. The problem is that there are too few places to get compressed natural gas (CNG) pumped in the Detroit metropolitan area. Go to http://www.cngprices.com/station_map.php and type in 48170, our zip code. And you’ll find that you have to keep making the map bigger and bigger to find stations.

So I went to what appeared to be the closest one. A 42-mile round trip. An hour of pointless driving. I went into the service station building, planning to prepay. “Oh, we don’t take money for that pump”—I should point out that in a plaza full of numerous islands, there was one lone pump (two nozzles) for compressed natural gas—“that belongs to DTE, so you have to use a credit card.” DTE is the prevailing energy utility in these parts. Yes, there is a credit-card reader. No, it isn’t at all like the one you’re familiar with on gas pumps. After getting that to work—sort of—it was hooking up the nozzle of the pumping device to the vehicle.

The coupling for fueling the Civic is a precision turning. It is a piece of serious hardware. So you might assume that the business end of the fueling unit would resemble something from NASA rather than from one of those carnival rides that show up in church parking lots. Visual feedback of proper hookup would have been nice. I tried it a few times to make sure that it was just so. And hoped.

At first, nothing happened. I figured that it was a problem with the credit card device again. Nope. Suddenly it started pumping. Admittedly, with a low comparable price vis-à-vis gasoline (about $1.10 per equivalent gallon difference) the numbers didn’t roll as high. It stopped. It started. It stopped. It was, I concluded, done.

While it may seem trivial and possibly petty, bringing a new technology to the market is one that ought to have a Disney-level experience associated with it.

And this is something about the infrastructure, not the car. We’ll get to that. But this is a problem that consumers and OEMs alike are going to have to face, not just vis-à-vis CNG, but other alternative energy sources, be it electricity or hydrogen.

It is a little chicken-and-egg. Do you put up a number of “regular” CNG pumps when there is little demand or do you wait for greater demand? Do you build cars that run on a fuel that isn’t everywhere and always regularly available?

And think about this: Chances are good that you have a natural gas line running to your house for your furnace or stove, hot water heater or dryer. It is so reliable that it is transparent.

Think about hydrogen, which you don’t have pumped to your house. Isn’t that infrastructure build-out going to be an even greater undertaking?

Or think about electric vehicles. Even though my refueling experience was tedious, it was still measured in minutes, not hours. And even though there was but one island in an archipelago of gasoline and diesel pumps, imagine the situation of a charging station or two. . .already hooked up to vehicles as your energy meter indicates depletion is nigh.

Starts making Big Oil look good, doesn’t it?

OK. The car.

This is a new Civic.

And as seemingly everyone knows, the critical reception to that car—ranging from Consumer Reports to Car Magazines Du Jour—has been, well, critical, particularly as regards the materials used on the interior (a passenger suggested to me that the skin of the instrument panel resembled an old person’s skin) and dynamic performance. The materials are what the materials are. Although lacking a test track or instrumentation, it is my sense that the ride and handling of the Civic is just fine—based on what this particular model of the car is meant to be, which is a car that runs on something other than gasoline. One might think that it is meant to be a “fuel-efficient” vehicle, but if one is looking for that, then other models in the Civic lineup can fit the bill better—and I’m not talking about the Hybrid.

That is, while the “regular” Civic has a 1.8-liter engine that provides 140 hp and 128 lb-ft of torque, the CNG Civic has a 1.8-liter engine, too, but it provides 110 hp and 106 lb-ft of torque. And according to Honda’s own numbers, whereas your Civic LX sedan has fuel efficiency numbers of 28/39/32 mpg city/highway/combined, they are 27/38/31 mpg for the CNG car. Go figure.

In addition to which, whereas the Civic sedan has a 12.5-cu.-ft.-capacity trunk, due to the packaging of the CNG tank, the other one has a 6.0-cu.-ft. space. Sort of tiny.

The CNG Civic was named the 2012 Green Car of the Year. So unless (1) you live next-door to a CNG station, (2) you live in a state where the car will get you a pass for the HOV lanes, (3) you are a staunch supporter of not using imported fuel, or (4) you are an overall green partisan, I don’t know why you’d opt for this variant of the Civic when there are more appealing possibilities in the lineup.

Selected specs

Engine: 1.8-liter I4

Material: Aluminum block and head

Horsepower: 110 @ 6,300 rpm

Torque: 106 lb-ft @ 4,200 rpm

Transmission: Five-speed automatic

Wheelbase: 106.3 in.

Length: 177.3 in.

Width: 69.0 in.

Height: 56.5 in.

EPA gasoline equivalency: 27/38 mpg city/hwy

Technorati Tags: CNG,Honda,Honda Civic CNG,electric vehicles,hydrogen