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are developing more efcient engines and, through that, we are getting more horsepower. The technology that we are using to increase the specifc power of engines can, in fact, be used to improve fuel consumption. That's where the downsizing strategy comes in." Employing a smaller, high-output motor to do the same work as a larger engine is not new. Getting it into production in a manner that is both afordable and pleasing to the average car buyer is, however. "My opinion," says Rogers, "is that there is still a lot to gain from the powertrain, but there is a limit as to how far we can go with conventional powertrains." Pushing this technology will require not just downsizing but turbocharging, direct injection, variable cam phasing, cylinder deactivation, stop- start, and transmissions with more ratios, or CVTs. To get more means going further in terms of technology deployment. According to Rogers: "I think the future is going to be more about energy management. That means turning things on when you need them and of when you don't. If there's a way to store energy, like during braking, you do it." The lengths to which suppliers, automakers and others will go to recover energy seemingly knows no bounds. "They're even looking at things like a piezoelectric technology that turns heat from the exhaust system into electricity that can be put back into the battery where it can be used either to take care of the passenger or move the vehicle," he says. It also means adding capability with microprocessor and communication t Gary Rogers, president and CEO of FEV, believes that to achieve better fuel efciency, there must be a comprehensive integration of systems beyond just the powertrain. q Today's in-car information technology can only suggest alternate routes. In the future, they will include information about time and money saved, topography, and provide information to a vehicle's energy management system. technologies. FEV recently acquired DGE, a telematics and infotainment engineering company in nearby Rochester Hills, MI. Just as delivery companies learned that it was more efcient to make three right turns to and keep moving than to slog through trafc to make a single left, Rogers believes that advancements in communications, the mapping of trafc, and adding topographical data to the decision tree will greatly improve realworld fuel efciency. For example, instead of having a hybrid's engine start halfway up a hill, at a point that is least efcient, the vehicle "looks ahead and makes adjustments ahead of time so that you can charge the batteries most efciently." This same technology also can be used by non-hybrid vehicle to determine the best combination of items (turbo boost, gear, valve timing, etc.) necessary to reach the destination quickly and efciently. Though FEV works on hundreds of powertrain programs simultaneously, it is often brought into a project at the concept phase to assess what path the OEM is taking. With FEV's work on compact engines for Europe and Asia, for example, the OEM may want to know if it can get the fve pounds of capabilities it desires into a manufacturable four-pound bag, whether it can do so with its existing block line, and what efciency losses may come with that decision. This independent cost/beneft analysis often results in FEV being asked to make it happen, without the worry that doing so will result in it being sold FEV's in-house technologies. "Even though we often consult with Tier 1s on their products," says Rogers, "we don't manufacture any of our own. Therefore, we don't have a vested interest in selling any particular system." FEV's growing expertise lies elsewhere. Even though there are fewer base engine programs, they are being put into a larger number of vehicles. Thus, says Rogers, "application engineering, the calibration of the system into the vehicle, is becoming a very large and increasing portion of our business. We see much more work happening in the total vehicle system, the total electronic system, and its interface to propulsion." 39