At the Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Michigan, this week, supplier Siemens VDO is displaying a Mercedes C230 modified with a hybrid powertrain. The system uses two electric motors with one of them mounted on the front of the engine to provide stop-start capability and regenerative braking. The second motor replaces the torque converter between the 1.8L gas engine and the automatic transmission to drive the car. Siemens estimates that the system can reduce the fuel consumption of the Mercedes by twenty percent. The car is also equipped with lithium ion batteries.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. req'd]

Lotus Engineering and Siemens VDO are teaming up for a research and development program to reduce CO2 emissions with a high performance hybrid drivetrain. The two companies will use their combined systems design and integration knowledge to build a technology demonstration vehicle utilizing the best technology that each has to offer. The drivetrain will be based on a new three cylinder that Lotus has developed.

They will use systems like direct fuel injection, emissions after treatment systems, hybrid drives and other systems. So far they haven't said whether they will use a camless valve-train although that would seem like a natural technology to use. Both companies have done a lot of work on electro-magnetically actuate valves, Lotus having first shown their system back in 1993 and Siemens is still actively pushing the system.

[Source: Just-Auto.com - Sub. req'd]

Siemens VDO has announced that for the first time an engine equipped with piezo direct injection gasoline (DIG) technology has featured in Ward's 10 Best Engine List of 2007. The 300 hp / 224 kW BMW 335i Twin Turbo 3-liter engine, which features Siemens VDO DIG technology, was unveiled at the Geneva Auto Show last year.

The piezo technology, in conjunction with advanced engine management systems, is credited for delivering higher torque and improved vehicle fuel economy. Direct injection fuel delivery, which is widely used in diesel engines, injects gasoline directly into the engine's combustion chamber, enabling the vehicle to start with less fuel, while simultaneously improving vehicle drivibility and emissions.

Related:

• Ward's Auto releases annual 10 Best Engines list
• Ballard selling electric drive operations to Siemens VDO
• Suppliers pushing competing diesel injector types to clean up diesels

[Source: Siemens VDO]

Ballard Power Systems has reached an agreement to sell their electric drive operations to Siemens VDO. Ballard indicated back in October their intention to get out of that business and focus on fuel cells. Apparently motor operations were causing a financial drain on the company of about $10 million a year. Ballard will be netting about $4 million for the sale and plans to continue working with Siemens on future fuel cell development programs.

[Source: Ballard Power Systems]

Now check this out. Sister blog Engadget found out about Siemens' cool next-gen car technology that crams all sorts of goodies into the wheel and hub (all right, Engadget found it through our good friends at Autoblog). The goodies include an electronic motor, an active suspension system, Siemens' very own electronic wedge brake and an independent steer-by-wire function. All of these technologies have existed independently for a while, but this is the first time they've been packed together in a wheel. It's a dangerous place for all these components, but if the thing works, the power needed to move a car would be lowered dramatically. You can read Siemens' full press release here.

[Source: Engadget, Hat Tip to Chris Nelson]