gavriil

GM to employ new fuel-saving starter system on upcoming models - - By DAVE GUILFORD | Automotive News - - Source: Autoweek


DETROIT -- Two mid-sized General Motors cars will combine the starter and alternator to improve fuel economy.

The 2008 Chevrolet Malibu will get what GM calls a belt-alternator starter system, says Tom Stephens, group vice president for powertrain. The system eliminates the traditional starter. It uses a reworked alternator to start the engine with a belt.

To save fuel, the system shuts off the engine during stops and restarts it when the driver steps on the accelerator. It uses a 36-volt battery but keeps the 12-volt electrical system.

GM estimates it will boost fuel economy by about 12 percent if used with a fuel-saving continuously variable transmission.

In Europe, PSA/Peugeot-Citroen SA says it will equip some of diesel-powered cars this year with a starter-alternator similar to the Malibu's.

A mid-sized front-drive Saturn car with the starter-alternator system will follow the Malibu, Stephens says. The cars are on the Epsilon architecture, which will be used globally.

"We wanted to get (the technology) on our highest-volume car architecture," Stephens says.

GM's strategy is to put fuel-saving technologies into its high-volume vehicles. Toyota, by contrast, is touting huge fuel-economy gains on low-volume vehicles, such as the Prius.

This fall GM will equip 2,500 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-sized pickups with mild-hybrid powertrains. Mild hybrids use an electric motor to assist the gasoline-powered engine, but the motor alone does not drive the vehicle. The trucks will get a modified starter that assists the gasoline-powered engine.

The Saturn Vue sport wagon gets a similar system for the 2006 model year. Production begins in April 2006, a spokesman says.

The Ford Escape Hybrid, which goes on sale this fall, has a full-hybrid powertrain. The electric motor and gasoline engine can power the wheels separately or together.

gavriil

Promising...

Slimey

Interesting focus to compete with the Prius type of car with a 'low volume' impact.

Though, I cannot see this working seemless. I forsee a lot of cars in the shop and a lot of stopped cars on the road.

Hopefully, I'm wrong. Non starting cars can be such a headache, especially in traffic.

Rod

Won't the shutting down of the engine in stop-and-go traffic be detrimental somehow to the electrical system, having the alternator coming on and off while the batery is being drained by the headlights, radio, etc?

Also, how much of a delay, if any, will be noticed from when you press the accelerator and the engine restarts and actually begins to move the car?

nandowong

mildhybrid silverado?

gavriil

From what I have read, less than a second.

titan

This is good news. I hope GM gets all of the bugs and kinks out before 2008.