GM boasts that its prototype 'HCCI' engine will result in 'More miles. Less fuel.' (Havard Gould/CBC)
In Depth
The Auto Industry
Why the internal combustion engine just won't die
Last Updated Oct. 24, 2007
By Havard Gould, CBC News
Forty-five minutes outside of Detroit, at a restricted test track surrounded by hills, fences and guards, a suitably screened guest can get a glimpse of what could be the future of the car.
It isn't the revolution environmentalists say the planet needs, but the continuing evolution of the internal combustion engine — a technology that is going to be awfully hard to displace — because it keeps improving.
"We can achieve up to 15 per cent better fuel economy with this engine," boasts Matthias Alt, who heads up a General Motors research team working around the globe on the HCCI engine — Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition.
Three decades in the laboratory, it's now on the road in a Saturn for road tests.
"We think this is a really big deal after developing the internal combustion engine after a hundred years," says Alt.
Industry analysts also say it is a big deal. It's a basic gasoline engine with sophisticated computer controls, but at various times the computer shuts off the spark plugs and uses compression to burn fuel — like a diesel, but better.
The result? Clean, powerful performance, and less pain at the pump.
"This all is possible because we have very fast computers," grins Alt, after opening the hood of a Saturn test vehicle to show off his prototype. The interior of the car is strewn with wires leading to the computers in the trunk — which Alt won't open.
GM also won't say when the HCCI engine will show up in production cars. Research now is focused on maximizing the fuel savings and making sure the engine will work properly in all climates, under all conditions. It's an all-purpose engine, meaning it could be used in many models.
During a test drive by CBC News it was barely possible to tell when computers switched to the fuel saving HCCI mode. There was a slight clatter — like a diesel, but not as loud.
"Actually, we call it the sound of efficiency," Alt says.
But he also makes it clear GM wants to eliminate that noise, just in case it turns about to be an issue with car buyers.
Others in race
This Saturn runs on a prototype 'HCCI' engine that GM claims will boost fuel efficiency by 15 per cent. (Havard Gould/CBC)
GM isn't alone in the HCCI race — Volkswagen has a similar engine in development — and every major car manufacturer is looking for ways to tweak fuel efficiency.
So what about hybrids, hydrogen and electric vehicles? The major car makers are working on those technologies too (GM is certainly included in that group).
"There are people out in California who want the internal combustion engine to just die," says Tom Murphy, executive editor for Ward's AutoWorld.
But Murphy believes environmentalists everywhere with similar dreams are going to have to wait.
"The internal combustion engine is going to be around for a long time because there is so much research and development," he says.
Murphy is no fan of conspicuous consumption. An American who works in the Detroit area, he openly questions the American demand for massive engines in oversized vehicles. But he says he is also a realist.
"I think the internal combustion engine is going to be around for at least another 50 years," he declares.
In Toronto, Joe D'Cruz teaches business strategy at the Rotman School of Management. Among his areas of expertise — "disruptive technologies" — are game changing developments that create chaos and opportunity in the marketplace.
"The internal combustion engine meets the needs of consumers very well," he concedes. "All the manufacturers involved are continuously improving it."
But D'Cruz says change is coming — even for the not-so-little-engine that can.
"We don't know what is going to kill it but we know at some stage it is going to be killed," he says.
D'Cruz believes another technology could take over at any time. Just as digital photography has overtaken film-based photography.
"What is certain that at some stage a new technology will emerge," he says. "We need a source of power for cars which is more than twice as efficient, or four times as efficient."
D'Cruz doesn't dismiss the continuous tweaking of the gasoline engine. But he says the law of diminishing returns can't be broken.
"The problem is that those improvements in performance get smaller and smaller over time," he says. "At a certain stage, the performance of this disruptive technology will overtake the performance of the internal combustion engine."
But the view from the test track in Milford Michigan is very different. Alt stands in front of his prototype and says the gasoline engine has still has a long way to run.
"When I started studying at college people told me the internal combustion engine was dead," says Alt. "There is still potential to improve this engine."
Havard Gould is a national reporter with CBC-TV. He takes public transit, but on weekends drives a car with an internal combustion engine.
