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Automotive Industry

2000 Engine Trends

Automotive Industries, March, 2000 by Lindsay Brooke

NEW ENGINES NEW TECH NEW MATERIALS

How do powertrain engineers see their role, as the auto industry enters the 21st century?. "It's like playing on the offensive line of a football team," an engine program manager recently lamented. "We get hit harder than anybody else on the field, and we get hit more often. And like those linemen, we don't get credit for winning the game, either."

Spotting the Engine Trends of 2000, we clearly can understand his viewpoint. If you're charged with developing tomorrow's powerplants, the battle to stay ahead of government-mandated worldwide emissions and fuel economy standards must resemble an opposing tackle that's 100 pounds heavier than you are. Only your wits and speed will carry you through the next scrimmage.

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There are formidible heavyweight tackles facing engine teams this year. In the U.S., powertrain planners have been served Tier 2, the EPA's next level of Clean Air Act regs. Scheduled to go into effect in 2004, the Tier 2 upgrades will reduce tailpipe emissions of passenger cars by up to 77 percent. And the loopholes that protected the heaviest of light trucks from tighter emissions control are gone. After a long fight with automakers, the government is forcing light trucks and SUVs up to 10,000 pounds to meet the same stringent Tier 2 standards as passenger cars. The truck standards have a longer phase-in period and the result will be truck emissions that are about 95 percent lower than today's.

The Tier 2 regs mirror California's LEVII standards, which are being adapted by other U.S. states to supercede the Federal standards. And the rest of the world? They're following North America's lead, albeit at varying paces. Europe's Euro IV regs are roughly similar to Tier2/LEVII, while first-step emissions standards in Asia, South America and other regions are finally bringing most of the so-called third world into unleaded gasoline and simple catalyst-based emissions controls.

Everywhere on the planet, the environmental impact of the automobile is becoming a hot political issue. European cities experiment with "no car" days. Japanese mayors call for banning diesel engines. Who would've thought that Houston, Texas, would inherit the dreaded "most polluted city in America" badge -- and that favorite son George W. Bush would be heard on TV blaming "too many cars" for the problem?

Amidst the rhetoric, the hard work that's making new vehicles cleaner is being used to attract shareholders and customers alike. Automakers are devoting more pages each year to their annual reports' Environmental section. Companies are clawing at each other to claim "firsts" -- the first to offer a SULEV production car, the first ULEV sport-utility, the first hybrid-electric. It's not by chance that Ford, Honda and Volvo own the industry's environmental high ground.

But there's still plenty of surprise along with the delight, as our cover story reveals. Who would've thought that a big V-8 with hemispherical combustion chambers would again make a solid business case for mass production? DaimlerChrysler's American engineers deserve a lot of credit for resurrecting what may be the strongest single engine "brand" in history. If the 2002 Hemi can prove it's got headroom to meet Tier 2 truck regs, then why does anybody need the complexity of four overhead cams and 32 valves anymore?

Automotive Industry

2000 Engine Trends

Automotive Industries, March, 2000 by Lindsay Brooke

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