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 THE STAT 26Percentage of wireless customers who use their cell phones to take picturesMore Vitals
| | MAY 1, 2003 SPECIAL REPORT: ENVIROTECH Where High-Tech Cars Still Sputter For all the amazing innovations in automotive technology, auto fleets are hardly any cleaner or more fuel-efficient than they were years ago
The new crop includes two cars headed for big production runs within the next 18 months -- the revamped Toyota Prius and the soon-to-debut Ford Escape. The latter holds particular promise: The Escape will be the first hybrid sport-utility vehicle on the U.S. market -- starting in early 2004. Around the same time, DaimlerChrysler (DMC ) will roll out a hybrid diesel-electric version of its popular Dodge Ram pickup, targeted at contractors seeking better fuel economy from their monster vehicles. Surprisingly, though, environmentalists left the show with a bitter taste. That's because at the same time many U.S. auto makers are pushing their environmentally friendly vision of the future they're also delaying commitments to alternative fuels or super-efficient vehicles. For instance, executives at Ford (F ) backed away from a ballyhooed pledge to boost the fuel efficiency of its popular but profligate SUV line by 25% by 2005. HARSH ASSESSMENT. Ford also postponed the mass-market launch date of its Escape hybrid. Likewise, General Motors (GM ) backed off a pledge to sell 1 million hybrid vehicles by 2007 and instead said it would produce that many vehicles -- if customers proved willing to pay for them. "There's technology to provide ongoing refinement in cars along lots of parameters, but fuel consumption isn't one of them," complains John DeCicco, a former automotive engineer who's now a senior fellow with New York City-based green group Environmental Defense. That assessment may be a bit harsh, but the proof is in the tank and the tailpipe. While Detroit, Tokyo, and Munich have incorporated all manner of new gizmos into their cars over the past decade, they've failed to improve the overall fuel economy of their fleets. Even the two Japanese companies that lead the hybrid technology race, Toyota (TM ) and Honda (HMC ), haven't raised the average mileage of their cars. In many ways, they seem to be headed in the wrong direction. Both now are concentrating on pushing big SUVs to the U.S. market. And Toyota in particular is moving ever upward -- beyond light trucks into the land of monster pickups, where it's now targeting the hammerlock Dodge, Ford, and GMC have long had on this market. POWERFUL PACKAGE. On the emissions front, carmakers have made few real improvements in the past five years as activism at the state level has waned, and the federal government has decided not to emphasize green cars. The irony of all this is that the current generation of hybrids are impressive. The new Toyota Prius is much roomier than its predecessor and has the lowest drag coefficient of any large-scale production car. It also packs a wallop, with a step-up converter that sends 500 volts of power to the engine from super-efficient battery packs and generators (see BW, 5/5/03, "Toyota Is Way Ahead of the Hybrid Pack"). The hybrid Honda Civic has won raves for its feel and drive, which reviewers claim are similar to that of the gasoline-only version. Behind the improvements in the Japanese hybrids is a cluster of improved onboard electronic systems that uses sophisticated power-management chips to coordinate the electric and gasoline engines, and maximize their efficiency by determining when only one or the other should run. DeCicco notes that Toyota built its own chip-fabrication plant to create the precise characteristics it needed to manage these power systems. FINER MOVEMENTS. At the same time, a host of improvements in traditional internal combustion engines promises to add incremental efficiency to a legacy technology. Auto manufacturers are now incorporating systems that more finely control valve movements compared to earlier engines that simply used the crankshaft's spinning to actuate the opening and closing of valves. Now, electronics control the timing of intake and exhaust valve openings and closings to enhance power and efficiency. Today's fuel-injection systems are also vastly better. The latest generation uses electronically controlled injectors to spray fuel directly into each cylinder individually rather than into an intake manifold (more like a chamber that's then connected to the cylinders). Likewise, this allows auto makers to better regulate fuel use. In the not-too-distant future are engines that can use only as many cylinders as needed for specific driving situations. For example, a truck could use four cylinders to cruise down the highway once it reaches the speed limit, then switch to eight cylinders to pull a heavy load up a hill.
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