SAE World Congress

At the SAE World Congress in Detroit this week, Nissan brought the guts of its new Pure Drive Hybrid System, a four-cylinder gas engine and 15-kW electric motor that has two clutches. The clutches on either side of the motor allows the system to use the motor for propulsion or regeneration and ...

As fuel economy regulations tighten all around the world, each part of the automobile is getting a second (and third and fourth ...) look to see if there is any way to squeeze out a few more yards per gallon. At the SAE World Congress in Detroit this week, Lacks Enterprises was showing off its ...

On the floor at the SAE World Congress at Cobo Hall this week sits a 2.0-liter Tigershark engine. Parts have been cut away and there are pretty colored lights inside, but the cool part – if you're interested in biofuels, anyway – is how the engine has been modified to turn the Dodge ...

Protean Electric is ready for the rubber to hit the road for its in-wheel electric-drive system. With one of those systems powering those tires, of course. The Michigan-based company, which last year secured an $84-million funding round, is showing off the production version of its ...

Nissan and GE shared a booth at the SAE World Congress in Detroit recently to emphasize the way the two companies want to connects your car and various appliances to the emerging smart grid. The common piece of equipment is the new WattStation, which is an electric vehicle charging station that ...

Kept under a glass case like a ship in a bottle, the E-Born3 from Applus Idiada at the 2012 SAE World Congress was never meant to roam free. Instead, this clever concept exists mostly to show off the engineering and design skills that Idiada can offer to automakers. But, hidden in the protective ...

Flex4 may sound like something sold during the 3 a.m. hour on advertorial television, but it's really Magna's part-time all-wheel drive system that offers the benefits of AWD with lower emissions than standard AWD. How? Because Flex4 can disengage the power going to the rear wheels when it ...

The Honda CR-Z Racer is not a new car – a version of it took to Le Mans last summer – but we got to see it for the first time at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit and realized this thing is indeed ready for the track. Compared to the street version of the ...

Protean is back at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress at Cobo Hall this year with a new car showcasing the company's in-wheel motors: a modified Mercedes-Benz E-Class. The car was first seen in Frankfurt last year, and is making its North American debut this week in ...

First displayed at CES earlier this year, GM brought its 4G LTE Chevrolet Volt demonstration vehicle to the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit this week. The car marries GM's OnStar telematics system with Verizon's 4G LTE data network to answer one question, according to ...

The biggest vehicle on the floor of the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit this week is the Fuel Efficient Ground Vehicle Demonstrator (FED) Bravo. As that name might suggest, yes, this is a military project. Also, the term "fuel-efficient" is relative: the FED only gets ...

In 2006, with the Ford Motor Co. losing boatloads of money, little cash on hand and little of interest in its product pipeline, then-CEO Bill Ford, Jr. announced a major restructuring and brought in Boeing executive vice president Alan Mulally as its new president and CEO. One of Mulally's first ...

During the 2011 SAE World Congress, Clark Hochgraf – associate professor of electrical, computer and telecom engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology – presented a study that examined the powertrain and braking efficiency (PABE) and vehicle limited fuel consumption (VLFC) ...

At the 2011 SAE World Congress in Detroit, MI, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) assistant secretary for policy and international affairs, David Sandalow, announced the official launch of EcoCAR 2: Plugging into the Future. This three-year competition, established by the DOE and General Motors, ...

When plug-in vehicles are not cruising down the road, "they're home and they're at work" says Larry Nitz, General Motors' executive director-hybrid and electric powertrain. That's precisely why Nitz told Ward's Auto (sub. req.) at the 2011 SAE World Congress that recharging a plug-in automobile ...

We first met the new G2 from Genovation back in January, when the company formally announced it had completed the first phase of its G2 Electric Car program. This week in Detroit at the SAE World Congress, we caught up with Genovation CEO Andrew Saul to see what's been happening since then and ...

After flirting with Better Place back in 2008, Portugal got serious about promoting electric vehicles in 2009. That's when the first discussions about what would become the Mobi.E charging network took place. These talks encompassed how best to get ready for EVs with new legislation and tax ...

Theodore and Associates has unveiled the Uni-Chassis, a lightweight, frameless body-on-chassis design at the 2011 SAE World Congress in Detroit, MI. The Uni-Chassis is claimed to be a low-cost alternative to both the traditional body-on-frame and unibody designs. Chris Theodore, president of ...

Advanced powertrain developer FEV, Inc., will show off its High Efficiency Combustion System (HECS) diesel engine at the 2011 SAE World Congress. The HECS engine features advanced and conventional technologies to achieve low CO2 emissions and a 17-percent reduction in fuel consumption, while ...

Last week at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit, we spoke with Dr. Pete Savagian of General Motors about what the Chevrolet Volt's fuel economy sticker would look like. Last summer, former GM CEO Fritz Henderson made a big splash when he announced that the Volt was ...