Chrysler Group is currently developing a business case for a new family of V6 engines based on a single architecture, Chrysler group chief operating officer Eric Ridenour told an industry gathering in Traverse City, Michigan, on Wednesday.
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If approved, this one engine would replace four current Chrysler group engine families while resulting in major investment in three US production sites. The engine would be produced in a variety of displacements, built around an all-aluminium, dual-overhead cam, four-valve-per-cylinder design.
While the company is still developing its business case for the V6 project, its Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance (GEMA) plant in Dundee, Michigan, is setting the foundation for future programmes, Ridenour said.
“With GEMA, we were able to apply economies of scale to component and machine tool purchases to generate big savings that we were then able to invest back into the World Engine – allowing us to add features that improve performance, refinement, durability and affordability,” he noted.
He added that many of the technological lessons and processes learned at GEMA will be applied to any future engine architecture. “We’re very confident that we would be able to achieve the same flexibility in a V6 family as we have in our family of four-cylinder World Engines,” Ridenour said.
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By GlobalDataHe said that the “future” V6 engine is only one part of Chrysler’s powertrain strategy – providing the highest possible fuel economy is another.
For example, four of the 10 new vehicles coming out in 2007 will have better than 30 mpg “highway mileage”, Ridenour claimed. He also said that the Chrysler Group was the first to market modern cylinder de-activation with its Multi-Displacement System (MDS), in its Hemi vehicles. The technology seamlessly alternates between economical four-cylinder mode when less power is needed and V8 mode when more power is demanded, and improves fuel economy by up to a claimed 20%.
Ridenour said that over $US60m worth of petrol will have been saved through the end of the US 2007 model year thanks to MDS technology.
“We have ‘fuel economy teams’ that go through each of our vehicles – piece by piece, ounce by ounce, joule by joule and amp by amp,” Ridenour said. “[For] example: By optimizing our design, we were able to reduce the fuel pump amperage by about 40%. Since fuel pumps run all the time, this results in about 0.1 mpg savings on high-flow applications like flex-fuel and Hemi-equipped vehicles. No tenth-of-a-mile improvement is too small to consider in the battle for fuel efficiency.”
He said that the third part of the automaker’s strategy is to provide vehicles that will help reduce US dependence on oil through increased use of renewable fuels, such as ethanol.
“We believe that flexible-fuel vehicles are part of the answer and part of a complete lineup of options that our customers expect. Ethanol-based fuels like E 85 are a part of a viable long-term strategy for our nation’s energy security,” Ridenour said.
Ten percent of Chrysler Group vehicles produced over the past eight years are flex-fuel capable – a greater percentage than any other company, Ridenour claimed.
In 2007, the company will produce 250,000 more E 85-capable vehicles, and in 2008, it will double that number to 500,000, on top of the 1.5m on the roads today.
However, the challenge is to educate the owners of those vehicles, Ridenour added. He said that, starting next year, the Chrysler Group would share an element of General Motors’ “Live Green, Go Yellow” campaign by installing bright yellow fuel caps on each of its FFVs which will allow consumers, at a glance, to know if their vehicle is flex-fuel capable. Additionally, the company will begin badging its FFV vehicles.
Chrysler also supports biofuels. Each US-market Jeep Liberty (Cherokee for export) is fuelled with B5 (5% biodiesel) at the factory and the programme will continue with the new 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD – the company’s first diesel-powered full-size SUV with a new 3.0-litre V6 Mercedes-Benz engine.
Further out, a new two-mode hybrid system, developed with GM and BMW, “leapfrogs traditional hybrid design by improving fuel economy by up to 25%”. Chrysler will introduce this the Dodge Durango in 2008.
“We are a full-line producer of vehicles, and we intend to compete in multiple powertrain technologies,” said Ridenour. “We know that each has its merits. That’s why we believe in a combination of biofuels, diesels, hybrids, fuel cells and advance gasoline technologies. No one technology will win the day. Bottom line is consumers want choice.
“Our customers will ultimately decide the technologies they want and need to power their vehicles – now and in the future.”
