Monday July 10, 2006

Vehicles can be more energy efficient

A modern car's engine, idling, driveline, and accessories dissipate seven-eighths of its fuel energy. Only one-eighth reaches the wheels. Of that, half heats the tires and road or heats the air that the car pushes aside. Only the last 6% accelerates the car (then heats the brakes when you stop). And since about 95% of the mass being accelerated is the car, not the driver, less than 1% of the fuel energy ultimately moves the driver - unimpressive, considering it is the fruit of 120 years of engineering effort. Thus, making cars radically lighter has huge fuel-saving leverage.

Lighter weight formerly meant costly metals such as aluminum and magnesium. Now, ultralight steels can double a car's efficiency without extra cost or decreased safety. Advanced polymer composites are even stronger and lighter. They can halve a car's weight and fuel use, yet increase safety, because carbon-fiber composites can absorb up to 12 times as much crash energy per kilogram as steel. A new manufacturing process can even make a carbon-fiber car cost the same to produce as its steel version.

Meanwhile, adding more batteries to conventional hybrid cars, if cost effective, could displace fuel now used for short and perhaps medium trips. Hybrids, invented by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche in 1900, were reengineered nearly a century later by Japanese automakers with strong leadership and balance sheets. These popular hybrids now offer up to doubled efficiency.

(2006-07-10 07:10:37 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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