Ford Starts Stop-Start Next Year
Despite the fact that current EPA testing methods fail to demonstrate the advantages of “stop-start” systems, which shut down engines at idle, Ford will begin rolling out the technology on 2012 model-year vehicles. Automotive News [sub] reports that “some” four-cylinder models will go idle-free starting with next year’s rollout of 2012 models, and that
Based on the European rollout, the most likely initial vehicles include the 2012 Ford Fiesta and Focus cars, Escape crossover, C-Max minivan and Transit Connect delivery vehicle.
By 2015, Ford will have joined Mazda as one of the manufacturers offering start-stop across its lineup (on manual and automatic models). There was, however, no cooperation between the two firms on their respective stop-start systems. Ford’s newest system can reportedly improve efficiency by ten percent in the city and five percent overall.
With so much focus being put on electric, full-hybrid, and plug-in cars, it’s easy to forget that these kinds of lower-cost and widely-applicable (but less-sexy) methods of improving fleet-wide efficiency will have a much larger incremental effect on overall fuel consumption. Along with its commitment to technologies like gasoline direct-injection, downsized, turbocharged engines and dual-clutch transmissions, Ford’s introduction of start-stop systems should help America’s healthiest automotive manufacturer maintain a technological and environmental advantage over the competition for the foreseeable future.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
Comments
Join the conversation
Yet another stupid gizmo that is only useful to a small percentage of population, will save a user a few cents and is another step that transforms a motor vehicle in a cell phone of some sort - only trendy for a season and totally prone to expensively breaking down once its warranty is over. And all these lemmings, so conscious about a few more drops of fuel they use, do not care about such wasteful use of rare earths and minerals that comes from such a short service life of a car they hail.
I haven't researched the Ford stop/start system, but the BAS (Belt Alternator Starter) system that GM uses (described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAS_Hybrid) has a start/stop function. All of the components are beefed up to to take the abuse a driver can dish out. These won't be the starters and alternators of old.
Great idea but is it completely fool proof.. what happens if your dead @ a light and need to do a split second manoeuvre cause your about to be rear-ended? Will there be a greater tendency at end of component life to see start system failures occur more frequently on road and in traffic rather than in the driveway or parking lot? Where it really counts is in the driving habit - too much gas & brakes to the next red.
Surely this is a relatively trivial design exercise. Toyota has had this system on all Priuses for a decade, and there are many European vehicles with the system. Why Americans, judging by the comments here, would flutter and tremble about starter motor failure is beyond me. Ridiculous. Of course the manufacturers will beef up the starter motor if they have so little imagination as to not to come up with a more elegant solution like Mazda has. Mazda's system from several years ago and still current, stops the engine at a particular point in the cycle. To start it doesn't even require the starter motor. Just add gas and spark and it starts itself. Ford's system sounds the same, even if they do protest too much that they have nothing to do with Mazda. For diesels, this ain't going to work. But since VW in Europe have been making systems for diesels for years, I just cannot fathom the inane comments here. The world does not stop and start in the USA. Obviously. Google "VW start stop system", and you'll get to read about the BMW system as well, which is just a beefed up starter motor and not half as clever as Mazda's. I salute Ford for getting on with the job here in North America, even if the dimwits at the EPA haven't woken up and made it mandatory.