The Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan will honor Mazda next month for the automaker's research into combustion of catalysts in diesel particulate filters (DPFs). Mazda's goal, unsurprisingly, is to design future DPFs that burn up exhaust soot and other particulates better. Mazda's winning research looked at how a catalysts' oxygen exchange characteristics affect particle combustion, and the company has discovered ways to get the DPFs to clean the exhaust better. This is all lab work for now, but Mazda says that the discovery could lead to better DPFs in both automobiles - the Mazda2 diesel, we'd like to think, and whatever vehicles get Mazda's upcoming common-rail direct injection diesel turbo diesel engines - and general diesel engines in the future. More details after the jump.

During a panel discussion at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit today, a group of industry executives projected that diesel engines with grab 20 percent market share in the US by the end of the next decade. BorgWarner CEO Tim Manganello also projected that hybrid powertrains would grab about ten percent of total sales in that same time frame. Toyota Engineering VP Ed Mantey and Ford Product Development VP Derrick Kuzak were were in agreement with those numbers. At their current rate, Toyota alone might be selling a pretty large percentage of those hybrids. While diesel engines are less expensive to produce than hybrids diesel, fuel prices are currently quite a bit higher than gasoline in the U.S. Increased availability of biodiesel in the coming decade may alleviate that problem. It's not clear what percentage of vehicles will end up in both categories as the 35mpg US CAFE standard approaches.

[Source: AutoWeek]

Seems like AutoblogGreen's been on to something these last couple of years as it relates to the greening of the automotive industry. For the first time in fourteen years, the annual DuPont Automotive/SAE survey of OEM and supplier designers and engineers, conducted by Consumer Insights, Inc, found that environmental concerns topped cost as the biggest hurdle automakers must overcome.

Other highlights:

• Fifty-four percent of respondents say that fuel efficient vehicles with reduced environmental impact are important to consumers -- that number seems a bit low to us.
• For the fifth consecutive year, alternatively powered vehicles are predicted to have the greatest impact on the industry.
• Fifty percent of respondents see diesel engine technology as a key focus to help achieve 2020 efficiency regulations, compared with forty-six percent for hybrids
  
• In 10 years, most people predict the majority of vehicles will run on bio-based diesel fuel (27 percent); petroleum-based diesel (20 percent) and E85 (20 percent). Only 18 percent predict gasoline will dominate.

Diesels look to make a strong impact on the American market, according to this survey. We see no real mention of electric cars here, which we believe could makea a big impact in the coming years.

Click the Tahoe hybrid for a high-res gallery

Regardless of your viewpoint on the role that the Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon Hybrid play in the marketplace, the engineering that went into the vehicles is laudable. Seamlessly integrating the dual gasoline and electric drivetrains has managed to win GM's engineering team the award for the Best Engineered Vehicles of 2008 by the SAE International's Automotive Engineering International magazine.

Says Kevin Jost, Editorial Director of Automotive Engineering International, said "The vehicles' advanced technology enables consumers looking for an efficient SUV a choice that does not involve sacrificing a cargo-hauling and trailer-towing capacity in return for improved fuel economy." We agree that for those who really do need the capabilities that only a full-size SUV can offer, the hybrid-duo from GM is the best bet when it comes to gasoline savings. But how many of you are there, really? The press release is pasted after the break for your perusal and click here to read our complete review of the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid.

There has been quite a hub-bub about the dangers of hybrids because they are more quiet than internal combustion motivated vehicles. The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) naturally takes these matters quite seriously and in the Spring of 2007 approached SAE International about the problem. Minds can now be put to rest because, according to a press release issued by the SAE, decisive action has been taken.

Immediately following the request, the SAE International Motor Vehicle Council asked the Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) Technical Committee to look into the problem. It was quickly discerned that they lacked the necessary skill sets to offer an expedient solution so they expeditiously passed it to the SAE Safety & Human Factors Committee. They promptly decided to form the Vehicle Sound for Pedestrians (VSP) subcommittee. The VSP speedily created three different "Task Forces" to further aid in determining the technical issues of who the benefit should target, which sounds would achieve the most desired and least desired effects and "what combination of vehicle conditions, vehicle status, and ambient conditions are required." The Task Forces will be meeting independently and reporting back to the VSP subcommittee on a monthly basis. We can be rest assured that the VSP subcommittee plans to issue a technical report or recommended practice by the end of 2008. You can read the press release after the jump for all the exciting details.

If the speed of the effort being put forth by the SAE isn't reassuring enough you will be happy to hear that various governments are also getting involved. the state of Maryland has already announced it is taking action and just today, Representatives Edolphus "Ed" Towns (D-NY) and Cliff Stearns (R-FL) introduced a bill called "The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2008" which requires the Secretary of Transportation to conduct a study on how to protect the blind and others from being injured or killed by vehicles using hybrid, electric, and other silent engine technologies.

While we wait for the outcome of the various studies, recommendations and legislation we suggest people take care around pedestrian traffic, sighted or otherwise.

The theme of this year's Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress is "A Climate for Change" and the host company is Chrysler. Chrysler's VP of Regulatory Affairs, Deb Morrissett, spoke today at an SAE luncheon in Detroit in advance of the Congress next month. Morrissett spoke about the new fuel economy regulations and what it would take for Chrysler and other companies to meet the standards. She talked about how efficiency has actually been improving at the rate of 1-1.5 percent annually for the past two decades. However the improvements have been consumed by increasingly large and powerful vehicles with more features.

The new energy bill will require real increases of 3.5 percent a year for the next dozen years. To meet that standard, Chrysler and other manufacturers will have to use every available option including more efficient internal combustion engines, increased electrification, diesels, biofuels and new transmissions. While Chrysler may realize what they need to do, actually accomplishing it will be particularly difficult for them given their precarious finances. They also have a more fundamental problem of a vehicle lineup that contains few vehicles people actually seem to want to buy. The full transcript of the speech is after the jump. ABG will be at the SAE Congress the week of April 14 in Detroit.

Click on the photo for a high-res gallery from the competition

Imagine a mashup of a pinewood derby and a tractor pull running uphill and powered by a AA battery. That's the Micro-electric vehicle competition sponsored by the Detroit Section of the Society of Automotive Engineers. This year's event took place at the headquarters of Yazaki North America in Canton, MI. High school students built a battery-powered vehicle that has to pull a weighted trailer up an eight foot long ramp at a 25 degree angle.

As usual with SAE design competitions, the teams have to prepare a written paper on their design and do an oral presentation. Some pretty hefty cash prizes are awarded to the top teams and schools. Overall victory nets the school $1,000 plus $100 to the top team in the design competition. For the performance competition each member of the winning team earns $75. Second and third place schools and teams also win prizes for each of the categories.

Read more about the competition after the jump

Update: The results are after the jump

The Society of Automotive Engineers has been sponsoring design competitions for engineering students for several decades with one of the most popular being the Formual SAE. In that event, teams of college students design, build, develop and race a single seat open-wheel race car, generally powered by some kind of motorcycle engine. In addition to the car itself, they also have to produce technical reports on the car, including cost and performance analysis all of which are judged. Given the realities of the modern world we live in, there is now an offshoot of FSAE called Formula Hybrid.

The Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth got the Formula Hybrid program kicked off when they started working on a hybrid Formula SAE car. The FSAE rules subsequently changed to disallow hybrids but a new competition was started with the first annual event taking place on May 1-3, 2007 at New Hampshire raceway in Loudon NH. The hybrid rules are largely the same as FSAE except for the hybrid drivetrain and not having to build a new chassis every year. They can take existing FSAE chassis and rework them for the new competition. The engines are limited to 250cc displacements and drive-by wire systems are allowed.

This is exactly the kind of thing that's needed to give students some real experience with the kind of technology that's being worked on the industry today. There are nine teams entered for 2007 including a team from McGill University in Montreal. We'll bring you results next week after the competition.

[Source: Formula Hybrid]

Next month, four teams supported by the National Science Foundation will compete in the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge in Michigan. The goal is to develop snowmobiles that leave less of an impact on the environment.

Driving the competition is a growing demand for cleaner snowmobiles. Just as off-roaders are getting shut out of recreation lands for a variety of issues, snowmobilers are finding fewer areas to play. Priorities of the competition include quieter, less-polluting engines that still offer performance. The NSF also sees potential for increased snowmobile use in very sensitive research facilities such as Greenland and Antarctica if the environmental impact can be reduced.

Winners of the competition will be allowed to test their snowmobile in Greenland.

[Source: National Science Foundation]

The annual Supermileage engineering competition begins tomorrow at the Eaton Corporation Proving Grounds in Marshall, Michigan. The competition's goal is to build the most fuel-efficient one-person vehicle based around a small, four-cycle engine. The vehicles are "raced" not against the clock but against the gas meter. 29 college teams and 12 high school teams will compete this year. Defending champion the college teams is the University of British Columbia with 1,608 MPG. The high school defending champions are from Mater Dei High School in Evansville, Ind., with 1,836 MPG.

The Supermileage contest was started by the Society of Automotive Engineers in 1980 and now includes teams from both college and high school engineering classes. The contest has resulted in plenty of sleek prototypes, such as the 2002 winner from UC Berkeley, pictured above. The vehicle was nicknamed the "carbon coffin" and got 1068 MPG.

[Source: SAE]