Five Energy Innovations Dazzle at Detroit Auto Demonstrate
Chevrolet unveiled electrical car models, including a lighter version of its Volt (above), and the Bolt, its fresh electrified vehicle that the automaker says will have a longer driving range than similar cars on the market.
Photograph by Bill Pugliano, Getty
Vehicles in the future will be lighter, able to drive themselves, and run longer on a single battery charge, based on models in the spotlight at this year’s North American International Auto Demonstrate in Detroit.
The innovations demonstrate an auto industry in energy flux. With electrified cars that can travel two hundred miles inbetween charges, trucks made of lighter material that boost fuel efficiency, and advances in self-driving vehicles, the picture of road travel on display suggests a world of ever decreasing fuel use even as U.S. gasoline prices hit six-year lows.
The auto extravaganza at the Cobo Center features both legacy automakers and California-based electrical vehicle maker Tesla Motors, which cannot operate retail stores in Michigan because of dealership franchise rules.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, in his very first appearance at the demonstrate in two years, said his company’s upcoming Model three car and its Model X SUV will boost annual sales to 500,000 units by 2020—up from fewer than 35,000 of its only current model, the luxury Model S sedan. (See related story: “Tesla Motors’ Success Gives Electrified Car Market a Charge”)
Electrified cars are hardly the off the hook domain of upstarts and outsiders these days. General Motors, too, has its eye on a broader EV market. The automaker announced plans to produce a fresh, all-electric hatchback, the Chevrolet Bolt, in 2017—the same year that Tesla’s similarly priced Model three is expected to inject the market. Bolt prices will embark at $30,000.
Here’s a look at key innovations and introductions at the Detroit Auto Display that could form the energy needs and environmental influence of cars in the future.
Ford’s best-selling F150 has a lighter, aluminum chassis that aims to boost its fuel efficiency.
Photograph by Scott Olson, Getty
1. Nips and tucks for greater fuel efficiency and more practical plug-ins. Sometimes, even at an event marked by glitz and fantasy, it’s what’s inwards that counts. That’s the case with Ford’s EcoBoost engine technology, an efficiency-minded combination of turbocharging and fuel injection that the company says will be available in every fresh Ford car and truck sold in North America this year.
General Motors, meantime, has bald two hundred pounds off the curb weight of its Chevy Volt, helping the latest version of this plug-in hybrid vehicle go thirty percent, or fifty miles, further on a single battery charge before its puny gas engine kicks in.
Two. Electrified Vehicles: Lower prices, longer range. In unveiling the Bolt, General Motors envisions a fully electrical vehicle capable of traveling two hundred miles inbetween charges, compared with fewer than a hundred miles for most plug-in cars on the road today. Industry watchers say Bolt’s relatively low price will create serious competition for Tesla in the race to produce a practical and affordable EV for mainstream car buyers.
Musk welcomed the Bolt concept. “I don’t see it as a competitive threat,” he said, “because I think all cars will go electrified.” Tesla’s plans for an affordable Model three rely powerfully on the success of the company’s “gigafactory,” a five-billion-dollar battery plant in Nevada that is meant to drive down battery costs. “If it doesn’t, I should certainly be fired,” Musk said last week.
Trio. Aluminum’s big test. So long steel, hello aluminum—at least in the best-selling F-150 pickup truck. Ford exchanged out steel for aluminum in the assets of its latest F-150, helping to cut about seven hundred pounds and enable an estimated twenty six miles to the gallon—while adding cost and potentially challenging ideas of harshness. (See related story: “Ten Energy Breakthroughs of two thousand fourteen That Could Switch Your Life”)
Honda kept the fantasy of hydrogen-powered cars alive with its FCV concept car, which it plans to sell in Japan next year.
Photograph by Richard Lautens, Toronto Starlet/Getty
The truck won the North American Truck of the Year award last week, but Ford says aluminum is unlikely to take over its total lineup anytime soon.
“One of the big benefits you get from light weighting,” Ford president Joe Hinrichs said last week in a speech, is that “you can tow more and haul more.” Truck buyers, he said, “will pay for more capability, car buyers will pay for better fuel economy, but there’s other ways to get fuel economy in a car without the need to provide more capability.”
Four. Moving toward self-driving cars. Fully autonomous vehicles, which hold the promise of reducing accidents and boosting fuel efficiency, remain years away from mainstream availability. Still, car companies in Detroit are sharing their latest visions for that technology.
General Motors announced that its two thousand sixteen Cadillac sedan will include a system that keeps the car in its lane and automates both braking and acceleration. By 2017, the company plans to suggest other models that can communicate speed and location data with other vehicles.
Mercedes-Benz demonstrated a more long-term vision, unveiling a concept for a self-driving car that looks more like a swanky lounge on wheels. The U.S. Army demonstrated off a self-driving electrical transport shuttle called the Aribo, and China’s Guangzhou Automobile Group displayed an electrified autonomous concept vehicle called the Witstar.
Five. Fuel cells press on. Fuel cell vehicles (FCV) are not yet taking over roadways, but automakers proceed to nudge the technology toward pragmatism. (See related story: “Fuel Cells Power Up: Three Surprising Places Where Hydrogen Energy Is Working”)
Honda unveiled its latest fuel cell concept, a five-seat model that can refuel in three minutes when hydrogen is dispensed at the pressure typical for still hard-to-find packing stations and can travel up to three hundred miles, compared with about two hundred forty miles for Honda’s previous fuel cell model. The company plans to begin selling the car in Japan next year.
The story is part of a special series that examines energy issues. For more, visit The Fine Energy Challenge.