Got gas?

A battle is brewing in the world of fuel for full-size trucks. Ford and GM announced this week that they’ll invest in technology and partnerships to allow their V-8 pickups to run on compressed natural gas, or CNG.

The move is aimed at providing commercial truck users a more economical way to power their fleets and take advantage of the fact the fuel is sourced in North America.

Companies like Roush, Westport and IMPCO have long been huge CNG conversion centers for large and small businesses that have wanted to convert their fleet vehicles to the much less expensive fuel. With Ford and GM jumping into the fuel-system conversion segment, they’ll have more control over installation quality and warranty issues.

Goodyear has been working on just such a solution, and it came up with a tire design that can keep tires properly inflated at all times.

Self-regulating tires are not new — most large semi-trucks have them, the New York Times reports. The difference here is rather than using an external air pump and pressure valve — something that would look odd on a passenger car — the mechanism lies within the tire itself.

The miniature pump and other components would automatically regulate the air pressure, maintaining the proper specifications for the given vehicle.

Right now Goodyear doesn’t know when (or if) the technology would be marketable, but if it can be sold to the public, it could make a big impact on the nation’s gasoline use. And the first applications would likely be in semi-trucks, not passenger cars. 

One out of three cars has severely underinflated tires, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Underinflated tires can reduce fuel economy between 2.5% and 3.3% in passenger cars and commercial trucks. At today’s prices, that equates to 12 cents wasted per gallon of gas, Goodyear says.

Improperly inflated tires also increase a vehicle’s stopping distance and affect the ride and handling and long-term life of the tires.

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Cars.com’s Guide to Tire Maintenance

Chrysler and the Environmental Protection Agency announced today a joint venture to develop a hybrid system that could eventually come to the automaker’s large cars and trucks.

The powertrain is a hydraulic hybrid system, which is similar to those powering hybrid public buses and large commercial trucks today. The system pairs a traditional gasoline engine with a hydraulic pump, electric motor and a two-speed automatic transmission. The hydraulic pump pushes high-pressured fluid from an accumulator to an axle hydraulic motor, which then powers the wheels. Like a more traditional hybrid system, the pump takes pressure off the gasoline powertrain during initial acceleration and deceleration, which in turn increases gas mileage.

While the system will still take some time to scale down — the system currently requires a 14.4-gallon high-pressure accumulator on top of traditional gas tank — it does suggest that Chrysler is taking a new interest toward hybrid technology.

The automaker currently has no hybrid systems, but CEO Sergio Marchionne has said a hybrid model could show up soon. During a Q&A session at the launch of the new 2011 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan yesterday, Marchionne said a hybrid minivan and the Chrysler 300 hybrid would arrive at dealerships by 2013, according to Allpar.com, a Chrysler enthusiast website as well as other outlets in attendance. That would coincide well with Marchionne’s desire to better differentiate the automaker’s two minivans and make them “more versatile.”

The hydraulic hybrid system is slated to go into a 2011 Chrysler Town & Country, which is mated to a 2.4-liter four-cylinder for testing purposes.

Pickup truck sales rebounded in 2010, with significant volume gains over last year's depressed sales levels.

Here's look at the numbers of trucks sold last year, according to sales data provided by J.D. Power and Associates. J.D. Power's “Power Information Network” figures are unique because they break out full-size truck sales into light- and heavy-duty classes. Monthly figures released by Chrysler, Ford and GM aggregate both light- and heavy-duty truck sales (including chassis cabs, when sold) into a single number without revealing class splits.

J.D. Power removes the Ford F-450/F-550 commercial trucks from the tallies, so chassis cab versions aren't included. They do, however, report Ram 4500/5500 chassis sales. GM doesn't sell trucks in these classes. So, to make this fair, we're presenting Ford's full-size truck data with and without chassis cabs, of which 21,134 were sold, according to J.D. Power.

Full-size Pickups

Full-size pickup truck sales rose 20.3 percent last year and were 13 percent of the seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of all vehicles in December, a level not seen since 2008, having increased steadily from the low-10% range of early 2010. Full-size pickups made up 11.6 percent of all vehicle sales in 2010.

While nearly every full-size truck brand grew sales, Ford dominated with a 27.7 percent jump and a 38.6 percent share of the market, the largest share its held since 2001.

The only full-size pickup brand that lost year-over-year sales in 2010 was Cadillac, lending support to the conventional wisdom that casual truck buyers are gone from full-size pickups for good. Cadillac EXT sales fell 14 percent.

Small Pickups

Small pickup sales volume rose slightly last year, ending a slide that's lasted more than a decade in the stale segment but market share amongst all vehicle continued to fall, to just 2.3 percent, its lowest ever share. Most of the volume increase was due to strong sales of the Nissan Frontier, which rose 42.3 percent, the highest percentage sales gain of any high-volume pickup in 2010.

Consumers now can buy Ram heavy-duty and commercial trucks in the same color you’d see on a fire engine and other government emergency vehicles.

Due to popular customer demand, the Ram truck team has added National Fire Safety Lime Yellow to the list of paint options for the Ram truck line. At the beginning of the 2011 model year, Ram 2500 and 3500 HD pickup trucks and 3500, 4500 and 5500 chassis cab trucks are available to order with this low-volume paint color.

“To be successful in this business, you have to listen to your buyers. Not only are Ram trucks hard workers, but because our customers asked for a high degree of personalization, they’re also available in thousands of configurations to meet a wide range of uses,” Fred Diaz, president and CEO of the Ram truck band, said about the decision to add more color options.

Among the 31 colors are yellow, Timberline Green Pearl, School Bus Yellow, Detonator Yellow, Omaha Orange and dark brown.

Paint experts at Ram are bringing even more unique low-volume paint colors to consumers. Soon enough, buyers of Ram HD and chassis cab trucks will have a vast array of colors to choose from. (A new Porsche 911 Turbo S isn’t even available in this many colors.)

Ram worked with manufacturers of heavy agricultural farming and construction equipment, including Case New Holland. As a result, several paint colors are strikingly similar to what you’d see on a big eight-wheel Case farm tractor or a New Holland dirt-digging backhoe, including Case IH Red, New Holland Agriculture Blue, Case Construction Power Tan and New Holland Construction Yellow.

Here’s a list of all of the other colors of the Ram truck color palette:

• D.T. Green
• Green Angel
• S.R. green
• Robin Egg blue
• Bright Silver Metallic
• Bright White
• Light Cream
• Black
• Light Green
• Bright Red
• Brilliant Black Crystal Pearl
• Deep Cherry Red Crystal Pearl
• Hunter Green pearl
• Flame Red
• Rugged Brown Pearl
• Sagebrush (Laramie Longhorn Edition pickups only)
• White Gold Metallic
• Deep Water Blue Pearl
• Mineral Gray Metallic
• Saddle Brown Pearl (Ram pickup trucks only)

Can a small, turbocharged flex-fuel spark-ignited engine perform as well as a heavy-duty diesel engine — but at a much lower cost? Ricardo Inc. and its partners are getting ready to demonstrate exactly that.

Ricardo calls the technology Ethanol Boost Direct Injection and it's said to be scalable from small passenger cars up to large commercial trucks.

As we explained last year when we first looked at Ricardo's EBDI technology, it’s taken spark-ignition technology decades to catch up to diesel efficiency. Diesel is so powerful because it contains more energy per gallon of fuel than gasoline, and it creates energy through compression ignition, which is the tremendous frictional heat generated from the extreme compression of air in the cylinder. Such high temperatures and pressures produce the large amounts of torque that trailer-towers need (and love), but the combination of the two inhibit thorough mixing of the fuel-air charge in the cylinder, which leads to incomplete fuel burns, leading to soot and other pollutants. Conventional gas and flex-fuel engines use spark ignition to detonate the fuel-air mix when the charge is distributed throughout the cylinder chamber. Because of that, the mix burns cleaner and with less relative power than diesel.

Ethanol has a higher octane and heat-of-vaporization point than gasoline, meaning it combusts at a higher temperature and with greater force (and compression) than gasoline, while also having a greater capacity to cool the fuel-air mix in the cylinder before combustion. This allows a larger charge to be drawn into the cylinder before ignition. This inherent efficiency is what enables a smaller-displacement engine to perform with the same power as a bigger motor — if the engine is built to take advantage of it.
Ricardo’s EBDI engine changes its combustion cycle to match the fuel blend and it's built to withstand high compression ratios. This, together with the use of direct injection, exhaust gas recirculation and turbochargers, makes it almost as efficient as a diesel engine, Ricardo says.

For now, Ricardo starts with a 264-horsepower, 222-pounds-feet of torque 3.0-liter direct injection gasoline V-6 engine (from a Chevy Equinox crossover) that's been enlarged to 3.2-liters, by increasing the stroke length. Using that engine, Ricardo will replace the 6.0-liter V-8 gasoline and 6.6-liter Duramax V-8 diesel in two GM Heavy Duty pickup trucks starting in May.

According to Luke Cruff, a Ricardo chief engineer involved in the program, power output will vary depending on the fuel blend used. Running on gasoline only, the EBDI engine is said to produce 400 horsepower and 570 pounds-feet of torque. Using E85 (15% gasoline, 85% ethanol), that figure jumps to 450 horsepower and 660 pounds-feet of torque.

Front view of the EBDI 3.2-liter V-6

Peak torque is available down low, like a diesel, at 1,500 rpm to 3,000 rpm, depending on the fuel mix. The engine's RPM range is diesel-like too, topping out at 5,000 rpm.

“An [EBDI] engine like this doesn't have to run [at] high [rpms]. It can be downspeeded because the torque is so high,” Cruff said.

To realize the best performance balance between mileage and power, the optimal fuel blend to run is somewhere in the middle, using an E40 to E50 mix. That's the point where the engine returns gas-like fuel economy. That's because ethanol has about a 33% lower power density compared to an equivalent amount of gas, meaning it takes roughly a third more ethanol to drive a certain distance than you'd need if you used only gas. This is the reason that today's flex-fuel cars and truck have lower EPA mileage ratings than for gas-only versions.

Downsizing and turbocharging helps reduce some of the lost fuel economy that comes with Ethanol. The smaller engine has lower pumping losses — the power needed to move air in and out of the cylinders — and boosting allows the engine to run at a higher load.

Rear view of the EBDI 3.2-liter V-6

“If you put in an E40 blend, it's like pushing gasoline up to 97 octane,” Cruff said. “Adding ethanol is like adding an octane booster in the tank. You still get most of the performance benefits that you'd get on E85 but without as large of a fuel consumption hit.”

Since ethanol blends like E40 aren't common, Ricardo has teamed up with Growth Energy, a trade group that hopes to see variable-blend ethanol pumps installed at gas stations so that drivers can choose the best blend of fuel for their needs.

“If I'm towing, I'll use a higher ethanol blend for more power,” Cruff said. “But if I'm cruising down the highway, then I'll put in lower-octane gas for better fuel economy.”

The EBDI engine also varies the amount of boost, cam timing, spark timing and fuel injection timing to optimize performance for various blends of ethanol and gasoline. It operates at about an 11:1 compression ratio versus around 17:1 for a diesel.

A future version of the engine will receive adaptable variable nozzle turbos that can optimize boost for low and high-speed operation, to further improve fuel economy and power availability.

This picture compares the standard direct injection 3.0-liter V-6 piston and connecting rod (top) to that used in the EBDI 3.2-liter V-6 (bottom). Note the sturdier construction of the 3.2-liter hardware — particularly the connecting rod — to handle the higher compression ratio and torque of the EBDI engine.

Like a diesel engine, the EBDI engine uses exhaust gas recirculation to control cylinder temperatures. Instead of limiting the formation of nitrogen oxide — which needs to be scrubbed from diesel exhaust to meet tough new federal emissions regulations — the EGR is one more way to help prevent damaging engine knock. This use of EGR means that purchase costs are much lower because it doesn't require an expensive diesel exhaust aftertreatment system. It also adds a charge air cooler to further manage air temperatures before it enters the engine's intake manifold and is combined with fuel in the cylinder.

The EBDI engine uses a simpler fuel-injection system that runs at only about 10% of the pressure required for a diesel fuel injection system. That's because diesels require fuel injection pressures of around 30,000 psi to finely atomize the fuel before it combusts — again, to meet emissions. The fine timing and spark ignition setup of the EBDI engine allows for the lower pressures.

Not using EGR (and urea selective catalytic reduction) for emissions and the simpler fuel injection system means the EBDI engine should cost half as much as a comparable diesel but about $4,500 more than a conventional gas engine.

“We're trying to make a point by choosing to demonstrate this engine in a heavy duty truck that this could help improve the fuel economy of smaller trucks too,” Cruff said. “Fuel economy numbers are going up. If a company wants to keep selling trucks, they'll have to sell lots of small cars or they're going to need technology like this to get there.”

Indian automaker Mahindra could partner with Navistar to build its upcoming TR Series pickups at a Navistar-owned factory in the U.S., according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Such a move would allow Mahindra to avoid the so-called “chicken tax” that adds a 25 percent tariff to pickup trucks produced in most countries outside of the U.S.

“Once we decide to assemble in the U.S., we would look at Navistar’s facilities to see if there’s something available which is right for us and if that works out,” Pawan Goenka, Mahindra’s president of automotive operations, told the WSJ. “We will certainly give priority to using Navistar’s facilities.” A decision is expected be made by December, Goenka said.

Mahindra is about to start production of its first U.S.-bound pickups in India. The trucks are expected to go on sale this spring.

If you remember the movie “Brewster’s Millions,” you might recall how hard it was for Richard Pryor to spend $30 million in 30 days with nothing to show for it in order to later win an inheritance of $300 million. The 1985 comedy showed how hard it was to spend money and get nothing in return, but now the U.S. government has put Brewster to shame. It’s spent $67.5 million in just one day, in the form of its CARS program, aka Cash for Clunkers.

And now you can watch the money disappear, too. The government has added a countdown of how much money is left in the program to its Cars.gov website. It’s 24 hours behind, but shows how much is left in the pot for all consumer vehicles — $858 million as of yesterday morning — and a separate kitty for Category 3 trucks — $74.5 million — those large commercial trucks most consumers won’t be trading in a beat-up minivan for. You can check out the countdown here.