New Gas Saving Tech, Part 2
Jul 28th, 2008 by gmoran
Today’s blog based on Steve Kichen’s piece for Forbes, “Automakers explore gas-saving technology”, looks at motors that run on gas but combine features of gas engines (fuel ignited by a spark) and diesel ( fuel ignited be compression of fuel and air) . Both General Motors and Daimler are researching this technology. Daimler version, called Dies Otto, utilized gas tech at low to moderate speeds and switches to a diesel-like mode at higher speeds. Daimler has a 1.8 liter V-4 Dies Otto in its F700 luxury show car which utilizes other advanced technology including 2 turbos which puts out 238 horsepower. An electric hybrid motor adds another 20 hp. Fuel efficiency figures were not presented however getting that much horsepower out of a 1.8 liter engine (likely at a mpg rating comparable with other 1.8 4 cylinders) is encouraging, especially in powering cars with full seating capacities. Technology like this can continue the destruction of oil demand but does not eliminate it because it still relies on fossil fuels.