Wednesday, December 29, 1999
By Associated Press
The challenge to U.S. automakers from the federal government in 1993 seemed daunting: build a car that gets 80 miles per gallon of gasoline without compromises in size, safety and price.
But automakers now say they're closing in on those goals.
Ford Motor Co. has built a test car, the Prodigy, with the space and convenience of a Taurus sedan that gets more than 70 mpg thanks to a long list of high-tech improvements.
The car, which will be unveiled on Jan. 10, at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, "goes a long way toward meeting our goal of an extremely fuel-efficient family vehicle," said Neil Ressler, Ford's vice president of research and vehicle technology, in an interview this week.
The Prodigy was developed under the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, a joint effort by automakers and the federal government to design and build a prototype five-passenger car that gets 80 mpg by 2004 without compromising passenger needs.
The U.S. government budgeted $240 million on PNGV development this year, much of it for research at government and university laboratories. Ford estimates that it, along with General Motors Corp. and the Chrysler division of DaimlerChrysler AG, will spend $980 million of their own funds this year on their PNGV projects.
Engineers said that after studying a wide variety of power sources, only two appear able to achieve the 80 mpg goal.
One is a hydrogen-powered fuel cell, which creates energy through a chemical reaction. But fuel cells have several drawbacks: They cost up to 10 times more than an internal combustion engine with similar power, and handling liquid hydrogen — chilled to 430 degrees below zero — poses all sorts of problems.
The other possibility is an advanced diesel engine paired with an electric motor. The electric motor and a set of batteries in the trunk act like an energy reservoir — adding power when needed for hard acceleration or going up hills, and recharging when the car brakes. The electric motor can also act as a powerful starter, allowing the engine to shut down when it would normally idle.
The Prodigy's power system — a small, four-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine and an electric motor linked to a battery pack in the trunk — was first used on the P2000 test car, which got about 60 mpg.
To get to 70 mpg, Ford's engineers designed a slippery new exterior for the Prodigy. It uses video cameras in place of rearview mirrors, a smooth underbody, special wheel covers and vents in the front grill that open only when the engine needs extra air.
The car also saves energy by weighing less. Built mostly of aluminum, with some magnesium and titanium components, the Prodigy weighs 2,387 pounds — about 1,000 pounds less than production mid-size sedans.
Despite all these advances, the Prodigy is not even close to being ready for production, especially with its high cost, said Rick Wells, the Prodigy's chief designer. Its diesel engine, while far cleaner than those of years past, will not meet the emission targets issued by the federal government earlier this month for cars built in 2005.
But Wells added that pieces of the Prodigy could find their way into Ford factories. With gas prices still affordable, fuel economy alone isn't a strong selling point with car buyers. But some benefits that higher fuel economy offers — such as the Prodigy's 660-mile range on one tank of diesel fuel — might have some appeal.
"What we are looking for are those key ingredients that will move the vehicle up the consumer's purchase priorities," Wells said.