IEEE Spectrum April, 2008 - 20

This issue has pitted French and Italian
carmakers-who specialize in small, fuel-efficient
cars-against German manufacturers, who could
see many of their luxury and sports-car products
become problematic. Now a staggered set of weightbased limits may be instituted, and the deadline may
be pushed all the way to 2015.
Carbon emissions are becoming a standard automotive benchmark in Europe and parts of Asia,
but North American car buyers remain almost
entirely unaware of them. To ref lect the global
discussion, IEEE Spectrum has included whatever
numbers on vehicle CO 2 emissions we could obtain from the manufacturers.
Many of this year's innovations center on
combustion-engine technology-Ford's EcoBoost
turbocharged gasoline direct-injection engines,
Mazda's tiny Miller-cycle engine, BMW's centrally mounted twin turbochargers. Then there's
the diesel engine, which appears set for a revival
following the fuel-economy regulations enacted late
last year in the United States. Both European and
Japanese carmakers are preparing to launch diesels
in North America over the next two to five years.
Even though the engine requires elaborate and
costly emissions controls-like the Mercedes-Benz
Bluetec system-to trap the great number of fine
particulates diesels emit, their lower fuel usage and
CO 2 emissions are unquestioned.
Will U.S. buyers go for diesels? No one knows. It
may be the industry's biggest open question.
The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle is another
puzzle. General Motors is expressing quiet confidence that lithium-ion batteries will clear the
various hurdles needed for a late-2010 launch of its
Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car, projected
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to have a 64-km range on electric power alone.
A plug-in version of GM's Saturn Vue Two-Mode
Hybrid sport utility is due on roughly the same
schedule, with a 16-km range. Toyota, meanwhile,
abruptly changed its tune on plug-ins, launching a
test fleet of Priuses converted to plug-in operation.
It's a conversion that private customers have been
ordering, one car at a time, at small garages across
the United States and in other countries.
The trend extends even to China, where horrific air pollution and increasing dependence on
imported oil threaten to muffle the country's economic boom. BYD Co., a Chinese battery company
that claims to supply two-thirds of the world's
nickel-cadmium batteries and 30 percent of its
lithium-ion mobile-phone batteries, started making
cars in 2002. In January it demonstrated a plug-in
hybrid sedan with a claimed electric range of 96 km,
which the company said would be offered for sale in
small numbers-in China only-by the end of this
year. That said, fewer than 200 plug-in hybrid cars
are on the world's roads.
Finally, the industry is doing something about
the weight of its products. Ford's EcoBoost V6
engine, for example, provides the power and torque
of a much larger V8 with better fuel economy, lower
emissions, and less weight. Even so, a fully accessorized EcoBoost weighs about half as much as an
entire Tata Nano, from India, which at US $2500 is
cheaper than the options packages for many cars.
That low price, and planned production in the millions, make the Nano easily the most important
launch of the year. It is feared by the global auto
industry and eagerly awaited by millions of Indian
families, who now often travel in groups of four or
five on a single scooter. o
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum April, 2008