fuel efficiency

Sitting in a Connecticut warehouse, the very first Poulsen Hybrid looks like a standard Honda Civic with immobilizer boots attached to its rear wheels. It is, one would have to say, not the most visually elegant of solutions to the pressing problem of using electric power to extend the range of the internal-combustion automobile. But it's also both practical and affordable.

Ulrik Poulsen and his converted Honda Civic.

Ulrik Poulsen is a mechanical engineer and Danish immigrant whose Shelton, Connecticut-based Bridgeport Magnetics Group makes a range of transformers, power supplies, magnetic cores, audio cables and other products. One new product for Con Edison is an isolation transformer designed to prevent people from getting electric shocks from defective streetlights. But Poulsen is branching out with a bolt-on kit that, he says, can transform ordinary cars into a form of plug-in hybrid. And he's entered his invention as a contestant in the Progressive Auto X Prize, which carries a $10 million purse.

The concept is relatively simple: Two of the company's seven-horsepower (five kilowatt) disc-shaped DC electric motors are bolted onto the rear wheels of the host car, connected by cables to a controller, battery charger and 4.5-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack in the trunk. The system, adding approximately 200 pounds to the car and taking up 20 percent of trunk space, acts as range extender. The motors do not drive the car, but kick in to provide a power boost between 15 and 60 miles per hour. Regenerative braking helps keep the batteries charged.

There are several companies converting Priuses and other hybrids to plug-in status, but Poulsen may be the only contender starting with ordinary gasoline cars. For $10,000, for instance, HyMotion will turn your ordinary Prius into a 100-mpg plug-in with a five-kilowatt-hour battery pack.

Poulsen installation is not a do-it-yourself operation, but an authorized dealer can accomplish it in as little as four hours. If the system works as advertised, a 30-mile-per-gallon car will be raised to 55 mpg.

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Wouldn't it be great if you could buy a device on the Internet for, I don't know, $200, bolt it onto your car and enjoy an instant reduction in emissions and an increase in fuel economy?

Claims like that are as old as the hills. We've all heard about the 100-miles-per-gallon carburetor that "they" don't want you to have, and the scientist whose invention was mysteriously suppressed just as he was about to bring incredibly cheap people's power to the world (think Nikola Tesla).

The Blade: Looks good, doesn't it?

It's inevitable that when fuel prices zoomed up, these devices would see a revival. (Yes, I know gas has come down, but is anyone really happy with $3 a gallon?)

Free lunches are hard to come by, however. Popular Mechanics tested a bunch of "fuel savers" back in 2005 and concluded that absolutely none of them worked. One even started a fire. These devices use miracle magnets, vortex generators, ionizers and water injection. But the only thing they reduced, PM said, was the cash in your wallet.

And this brings us to the latest device, The Blade, which bolts on to the exhaust pipe. It's kind of cool looking in a retro way. Remember those chrome exhaust tips people put on their cars to create a fake hot rod? I've only seen pictures on the website, and I have no idea if the Brazil-sourced Blade actually works. But, given the history, I think caution might be in order.

Don't worry, though, because actress Laura Dern says it works. "Having a Blade on my hybrid car allows me to continue driving with the satisfaction that I am lowering my carbon footprint and burning less fuel," she says.

The Blade is definitely more credible than most. The company paid for independent testing by the respected Automotive Testing and Development Services (ATDS) in Canada. On a 2004 Honda Civic, the Blade allegedly achieved a 57 percent reduction in hydrocarbons, 14 percent in carbon monoxide, 34 percent in nitrogen oxides and six percent in carbon dioxide (the main global warming gas). And on the highway, the numbers show it achieving a five percent fuel economy improvement.

ATDS Vice President Lin Farmer, who conducted the tests, said the Blade "seemed to be doing something on the positive side." He pointed out, however, that the 2004 Civic is a very low-emission car (the numbers for emissions of hydrocarbons, for instance, ranged from 0.0010 without the Blade, to 0.0004 with it).

"It's possible that some of the large improvements in gases are due to test-to-test variability and the fact that we were working with such small numbers," Farmer said. He added, however, that the Blade "performed better than other devices we tested." And the fuel economy numbers impressed him.

William J. O'Brien founded parent company Sabertec in 2005, after he came across the Blade on a visit to Brazil in his role as a venture capitalist. He's a great talker, and I can't pretend to understand everything he said. Luckily, there's a You Tube video that lets you judge for yourself. Here's some of what he said to me when I asked him how a device bolted on to the tailpipe can increase fuel economy. It's unfortunately somewhat paraphrased, because he talks fast:

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When the automobile was new in 1900, there was no clear consensus which technology would triumph. Would it be gasoline, steam or electricity? The smart money was on electricity, which shows that the smart money can be wrong.

We're in a similar period now, trying to find what comes after the straightforward, gas-burning internal-combustion engine. There's still a lot of fog, and it's unlikely to clear soon. But from where I sit today, here are eight leading technologies, listed in priority order from most-likely to could-be-a-contender:

1. Plug-In Hybrids. There's no question that plug-in hybrids, with 40-mile all-electric range and the ability to recharge from standard house current, will be on the market in the next two or three years. The leading (and only) mainstream players are General Motors (which plans on introducing a Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid) and Toyota (with an adapted Prius). Ambitious startups (Fisker, BYD) are also planning to field plug-in hybrids. The big challenge for all of them is developing a lithium-ion battery pack that can stand up to repeated discharge and recharge cycles and still demonstrate the longevity that today's nickel-metal-hydride hybrid battery packs have had. GM and Toyota talk about 2010 introductions, but battery development headaches could delay that.

2. Battery Electrics. Again, it's all about the batteries. Lithium-ion is the current leader, but is it ready to carry four passengers in a fully featured, crashworthy sedan more than 200 miles? It's time to be cautiously optimistic. Nissan has plans to bring an electric car to the U.S. by 2010. Chrysler, which has been lagging in green technology, surprised the world by suddenly announcing a concept car known as the Dodge EV, a sports car with a lithium-ion battery pack. It claimed 150-mile range and blistering acceleration of zero to 60 in less than five seconds. Some Chrysler electric is to be on the market by 2010. The sports car was clearly aimed at the Tesla Roadster, a California-built $100,000 exotic which (like the Chrysler) sports a Lotus-designed body.

3. Range Extenders. General Motors is making a big, bold step forward by building the Chevrolet Volt, with production slated for the end of 2010 (as a 2011 model). The Volt is something new: an electric car with a gas motor whose only function (it's not connected to the wheels) is to keep the electric motor spinning after the batteries are depleted. GM had this field (also known as "series hybrids") to itself, but Chrysler has jumped into the fray with range-extender versions of the Town and Country minivan and Jeep Wrangler. As with plug-in hybrids, 40 miles can be enjoyed in battery-only mode, but the gas engine extends that to 400 miles or more.

4. Very Small Cars. It doesn't have to be a hybrid; in fact, some of our current hybrids, based on SUVs, are actually gas guzzlers. High fuel prices have created a strong American market for very small cars, and carmakers such as Ford have been emboldened to start selling in the U.S. tiny, fuel- and space-efficient cars once relegated only to Europe or Asia. Consider the Toyota iQ. The minuscule car is just 118 inches long, but can carry three adults (plus a child)! It reportedly achieves 60/51 mpg fuel economy. The Toyota of 10 years ago would never have contemplated selling iQs in the U.S., but now it is definitely being considered.

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You might think that all the emphasis on clean and green cars in recent years -- and all the talk about people finally giving up their SUVs -- would have an effect on overall fuel economy. And you'd be right!

A new Environmental Protection Agency report concludes that the average "light duty" vehicle (cars and light trucks) got 20.8 miles per gallon in model year 2008. That's a small but heartening increase over the 20.6 mpg they got in 2007.

SUVs are going begging.

What's more, the EPA says that its study of sales data shows that subcompacts, compacts and midsized cars are the only classes meeting projections. Big gas-guzzling SUVs and pickups are down as much as 25 percent. And -- can this be the United States of America? -- the four-cylinder engine has gained ground over the six and V-8.

The EPA thinks its projections are too conservative, and that the actual increase in mileage is even more.

For those of us who had reluctantly concluded that SUVs were part of America's "sacred way of life," this is very good news. One wishes the improvements were bigger, but this is an incremental shift. The last time we saw it was from 1975 (after the Arab oil embargo) through the early 1980s. Remember Ronald Reagan removing the solar panels from the White House? That was also around the time that gas prices plummeted, and the country went to sleep on fuel economy.

The EPA actually seems passionate about reducing our fossil fuel intake even further. "Fuel economy is directly related to energy security," it says, "because light-duty vehicles account for approximately 40 percent of all U.S. oil consumption, and much of this oil is imported."

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General Motors has some real clunkers for which it waves a green flag. Take the new $71,685 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid, which goes on sale this month. It costs $3,600 more than a standard Escalade, and achieves fuel economy of...20 mpg in town and 21 on the highway. Sure, the conventional Escalade is much worse at 12 and 15 mpg, but even as an innovative dual-mode hybrid, the Sierra Club is not going to be celebrating its release.

The all-new Cruze: 40 mpg?

GM should see waving flags in its sales numbers. The Escalade, for instance, was down more than 40 percent from July 2007 to July 2008. Nobody wants big SUVs.

But GM has some models that do deserve attention, such as the Cobalt Xtra Fuel Economy (XFE). For 2009, that one gets a very impressive 37 highway mpg (one mpg more than in 2008), a feat it achieves via variable valve timing, a new and taller final drive and trick tires with low rolling resistance.

The Cobalt is kind of plain-jane, but it's got bragging rights. When it was introduced last year, the XFE was six percent of Cobalt sales; now it's 15 percent. Through July, the 2008 Cobalt was a whopping 29 percent of total Chevrolet sales. The Cobalt line is only around through the 2010 model year, however, and will be replaced by the all-new Cruze (which rides on GM's compact Delta platform).

Initial reports have said the Cruze, built in Lordstown, Ohio and around the world, will get more than 40 mpg, but there's also news that the car will be larger than the Cobalt -- a danger sign.

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I don't really understand General Motors. The company is totally on the ropes, reporting a three-month loss of $15.5 billion in early August, with North American sales down 20 percent. Some 74,000 workers could lose their jobs in a new round of buyouts and early retirements. And more factories making big SUVs and trucks will close.

The Tahoe XFE: only modest fuel-efficiency gains.

We're still waiting for competitive small cars that would get people excited about going into a GM showroom. Meanwhile, the company's strategy is...to make minuscule improvements to its big Silverados, Sierras, Tahoes and Yukons and paint them PR green.

The new Xtra Fuel Economy (XFE) models (all with two-wheel-drive and the 5.3-liter V-8 engine), deliver a five percent improvement in highway mileage and seven percent in city driving! Wow! A combination of weight loss, aerodynamics and mechanical improvements gets them to 15 city and 21 highway! Standard big boys are at 14/20, so if you do much highway driving you'll hardly notice an improvement.

The same basic problem exists with GM's big hybrids. The '06 Chevy Silverado Hybrid, for instance, delivers 16/19 mpg. Not exactly impressive, and again hardly better than the standard (and cheaper) truck. For '09, GM will put its sophisticated dual-mode hybrid system in the Silverado, for a claimed 25 percent overall fuel economy improvement. But it's still a gas guzzler.

Guess what? GM trotted out its $50,000 dual-mode Yukon and Tahoe hybrids (21 city/22 highway, comparable to a standard four-cylinder Toyota Camry), and sales have been, well, slow. Instead of the projected 10,000 to 15,000 per year, GM has been selling more like 500 a month.

Here's the problem: They're too big! People don't want big cars and trucks anymore! GM argues that it can have more impact on the environment by improving the performance of the big vehicles that "people want to buy" than it can making small, fuel-efficient cars. But that argument is threadbare today.

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