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Tips: 6 Ways to Increase Your Fuel Economy

Clean Fleet Report

From low-mileage car insurance discounts to reduced wear and tear on your vehicle, low-mileage driving can improve your financial standing. But how can you increase your fuel economy? Surprisingly, the number of items you carry in your vehicle can have a meaningful impact on your fuel economy.

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Fraunhofer characterizes Alphabet Energy thermoelectric PowerCard; up to 5% fuel economy improvement in automotive

Green Car Congress

Alphabet Energy is commercializing low-cost, efficient thermoelectric materials for power generation leveraging technology initially developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Earlier post.). Furthermore, the PowerCard has displayed high reliability through large numbers of thermal cycles and time at temperature in air.

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BorgWarner suggests Valve-Event Modulated Boost system can offer 6-17% fuel economy benefit over already downsized and turbocharged engines

Green Car Congress

Turbo boost can be controlled by changing the timing of the exhaust valves—no waste gate is required. In testing, BorgWarner observed fuel consumption improvements of 2% at low speeds to 12% at high speeds with VEMB, according to Thomas. improvement in fuel economy on an E-class vehicle (e.g.,

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PowerDriver simulations predict thermoelectric exhaust waste heat recovery output of 300W, -2.5% in fuel consumption; prototyping begins

Green Car Congress

The European Union-funded PowerDriver project—a two-year, €3-million (US$4-million) research project initiated in February 2012 to turn exhaust gas waste heat into electricity using thermoelectric generator (TGEN) technology—has completed simulation work on on a potential automotive application.

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Construction starts on “Flybus” demonstrator; low-cost flywheel energy storage hybrid projects 20% savings in fuel consumption

Green Car Congress

Central to the project is the use of a compact high-speed flywheel as an energy store, recycling the kinetic energy that would otherwise be wasted whenever the vehicle brakes. Flywheel hybrids, just like electrical hybrids, recycle the kinetic energy that would otherwise be wasted when the vehicle brakes.

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DOE announces $139M in funding for 55 projects to advance innovative vehicle technologies

Green Car Congress

AOI 02: Low Cost Electric Traction Drive Systems Using No Heavy Rare Earth Materials. Low Cost, High-Performance, Heavy Rare Earth-Free 3-In-1 Electric Drive Unit. Low-Cost Rare-Earth Free Electric Drivetrain Enabled by Novel Permanent Magnets, Inverter, Integrated Design and Advanced Thermal Management.

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US DOE awards $8.4M to 4 projects to improve engine and powertrain efficiency

Green Car Congress

Projects will also validate technologies developed at the engine- or system-level to help ensure that these innovations can advance into broad commercial use at a scale needed to reduce vehicle fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions nationally. The four projects selected for award are: Filter Sensing Technologies, Inc., $2.0

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