HCCI Video ...

[cfg83]

SVOboy -

Originally Posted by SVOboy

When I was with GM talking about this they mad a big deal about how this would be middle of the road compared to hybrids and normal tech. It's cheaper to do than hybridization, but doesn't have as much of an FE impact. As tech-heavy as it seems, it would be a lot cheap than a hybrid system, especially since there are no crazy battery costs.

Ok, I was thinking this might be the case, but I didn't really know for sure. This makes sense because everything I am reading says it uses a conventional gasser, which lowers development costs.

CarloSW2

[SVOboy]

Yeah, the number the GM guys were tossing around was $2,000 for the price premium, and that it would be mainly targetted to sedans and such that make up the meat of the market and will need to improve to meet emissions and FE standards. I also got to meet the guy who originally thought of the idea back in 79 (or 78?) and is still working with GM on it.

[Christ]

'79 is a long time ago... they've been "working on it" the whole time? Or "Sitting on it" because it's "not in the interests of the public" like so many other ideas have gone?

[SVOboy]

Well, he came up with it as his phd dissertation or some such nonsense and then GM messed with it for a while due to the oil crisis and then shelved it until 2007 or 2008

[RobertSmalls]

A 15% improvement is huge. It would save you $2600 over the life of an Aura (which is worth $1800 up front, at 5% interest, so the beancounters would correctly vote against it), or it would turn your 40mpg into 47mpg.

This is the kind of thing that could be used in addition to a hybrid electric system, like Honda's lean burn hybrids and Toyota's Atkinson cycle ones. In fact, here's an article from 2005 about Honda's HCCI efforts, which I'm guessing didn't lead anywhere:

Honda's Experimental Hybrid May Help in Race With Toyota - WSJ.com

"The aim is to tap, on average, as much as 40% to 50% of the thermal power generated by a gasoline engine per unit of fuel"

Regarding customer acceptance: Just have the car's speakers play a diesely sound when the car's not in HCCI mode. Heck, you could even play it during idle stop, if that's what the consumers want to hear.

[pgfpro]

I just hope that this system actually works.

I have a friend that bought one of GM's Active Fuel Management (formerly known as Displacement on Demand) trucks and its a joke.

The only time it gets great FE is when its in the shop being worked on and hes driving his Honda.

[SVOboy]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

A 15% improvement is huge. It would save you $2600 over the life of an Aura (which is worth $1800 up front, at 5% interest, so the beancounters would correctly vote against it), or it would turn your 40mpg into 47mpg.

This is the kind of thing that could be used in addition to a hybrid electric system, like Honda's lean burn hybrids and Toyota's Atkinson cycle ones. In fact, here's an article from 2005 about Honda's HCCI efforts, which I'm guessing didn't lead anywhere:

Honda's Experimental Hybrid May Help in Race With Toyota - WSJ.com

"The aim is to tap, on average, as much as 40% to 50% of the thermal power generated by a gasoline engine per unit of fuel"

Regarding customer acceptance: Just have the car's speakers play a diesely sound when the car's not in HCCI mode. Heck, you could even play it during idle stop, if that's what the consumers want to hear.

It would probably be easier to noisecancel the engine sounds than to trick people into thinking there was always a diesel sound, eh?

Anyway, I don't have much hope for HCCI since they have been working on it for a while and they never bother to talk about it.