Chrysler Plans Part 1: More Diesels and 4-Cylinder Gas Engines
Video explains Fiat Multiair system that will be used in many of Chrysler's new models to improve fuel efficiency, reduce emissions and boost power.
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Chrysler's new powertrain chief, Paolo Ferrero, says the company will begin widespread adoption of gas and diesel engine technologies from its new owner, Fiat Group, with the first of a family of more fuel-efficient engines due next summer.
The company believes that hybrids and electric vehicles are a longer-term strategy and will concentrate in the "short-to-medium" term on internal combustion engine improvements and downsizing, and introduction of fuel-efficient clean diesels and engines using alternative low carbon fuels such as compressed natural gas.
Chrysler also will be adopting the start-stop system, also called a micro-hybrid system, that is used in some Fiat models to shut down the engine at stop signs and when idling. It can reduce emissions and improve fuel economy by as much as 5 percent, Ferrero said.
The first model in the Chrysler lineup to use it will be the the 2011 Jeep Wrangler.
By 2014, Ferrero said during a morning presentation at the day-long Chrysler product plan meeting, 38 percent of Chrysler vehicles will use small, four-cylinder engines, up from 19 percent today, and 14 percent will use diesel engines, up from 9 percent now.
Conversely, the number of V6 engines will plunge, to 37 percent of the lineup from 54 percent today, and V8s will account for just 11 percent of engines in new Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles, down from 18 percent this model year.
The V6s that do survive, Ferrero said, will be new designs using common Fiat technologies such as twin turbocharging and direct gas injection to enable use of smaller engines with greater fuel efficiency. the first of the new V6s, he said, will debut next summer in the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Four-cylinder engines using Fiat's proprietary "multiair" electro-hydraulic system will start coming on line at the end of 2010, with turbo charged models available at the end of 2011.
The system controls the fuel-air mixture through each stoke of the combustion cycle on a cylinder-by-cylinder basis for improved fuel economy, reduced emissions and greater power output.
He didn't provide a timetable for new diesels, except to say that all of the changes he was discussing would be happening "in a very short time" - a concept that in automotive terms involves the passage of months, even years, rather than days and weeks.
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- John O'Dell November 4, 2009, 10:30 AM
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- Chrysler, Diesel, Dodge, Hybrid, Jeep, Natural Gas, Plug-ins and Electric
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- Chrysler Product Plans, Diesel, Fuel Efficient Engines, Multiair
So multi-air is basically infinitely variable valve lift, timing, and duration. I was wondering when this was finally going to happen.