How Changing CAFE Standards Affect Auto Design

2025 CAFE standards will dramatically increase vehicle fuel economy requirements. How will auto companies comply?

hybrid, Car, Fuel Economy, engine, transmission,PDS, CAFE, fuel standards, upgradeThe internal combustion engine can become a lot more efficient, but it will take a lot of intensely collaborative design work. What improvements can we expect from auto designers as they strive to meet the 2025 CAFÉ standards?

Before we start turning every car into a Tesla, there are a number of incremental, and cost effective changes that can help improve pre-existing technology. According to MIT researchers a few simple upgrades could dramatically improve fuel economy.

hybrid, Car, Fuel Economy, engine, transmission,PDS, CAFE, fuel standards, upgradeIf, for example, a starter-alternator system were upgraded to one that turned a car’s engine off when it’s idling you’d quickly realize a boost in fuel economy. Designers could also use direct fuel injectors to replace conventional injectors, cutting the amount of fuel needed for each cylinder compression.

While part upgrades will get you pretty far down the road, using advanced electronics could optimize a car’s engine efficiency. In fact, next generation electronic systems could enable a car to use continuous valve timing, a process that actively tunes an engine’s compressions to respond to driving conditions.

Moving beyond the engine, research has also shown that replacing the century old, gear based transmission with modern continuously variable transmissions will also improve vehicle mileage.

And that’s just the beginning. For more info check out the “Designing for Emission Control” episode of the Product Design Show: