Chrysler and Alternative Fuels and Energy Saving Devices ("Green Technology")
Projects with their own pages
Automatically shifted manual transmission: extremely significant because manual transmissions have no fluid losses and are generally far more efficient than automatics (if you doubt that, look at any car with both a manual and automatic available with the same engine. A manual tends to be good for about 5 mpg and 1 second off the 0-60 time). Chrysler's automatically shifted manual system is moderately expensive but appears to be smoother than a standard automatic, without any of the normal disadvantages of this kind of system (e.g. hill slippage).
Turbine engines: you can burn anything: wine, perfume, kerosene. But gas mileage at idle is poor. A project that was dropped reluctantly after decades of test cars and research.
Fuel cell vehicles: it seems that Chrysler's project, described here, has been jettisoned in favor of Mercedes research, but it may simply have changed auspices. See the Chrysler Natrium fuel-cell minivan concept.
CNG (Compressed Natural Gas): while we're talking minivans, Chrysler sold natural-gas powered minivans - a factory conversion with multiple-port injection - for sale in 1994. They also sold regular vans on CNG starting in 1992.
Electric vehicles (including TEVan and EPIC): Over 50 electric minivans were produced on a regular assembly line, because minivans provide enough space for lots of storage batteries. Some are still on the road.
Hybrids: hybrid-electric Intrepid ESX and Patriot hybrid racer: the ESX was said to get 70 mpg despite being full-sized, but Evan Boberg's book casts doubt on that figure, and also suggests that the Patriot never actually ran under its own power. The Liberty Group's hybrid program was apparently completely abandoned. Chrysler's actual hybrid is a Dodge Ram, for limited fleet sales (2005-06), and a Durango using a transmission that "plugs in" to provide hybrid-electric capabilities (due 2007 or so, and developed with GM and BMW).
The MAGIC engine: 25% better gas mileage for $500 per vehicle was claimed by the Liberty Group, using a variety of small tricks.
Cab forward - still in use to put a lot of interior space into a small package. Essentially a combination of industry best practices including small overhangs, aerodynamic shapes, and small engine bays.
Variable displacement on the Hemi engine - dramatically cuts fuel use at stoplights, for real-life savings far beyond what EPA would predict (since EPA has very little time at idle in their tests).
Steam-Powered Plymouth The Keen Steamliner!
Aerodynamics: from the beginning to the Superbird, we describe the aerodynamic efforts of the first company to use a wind tunnel to design its cars.
Biodiesel: a better solution than hybrid-electric or, probably, fuel cells, but potentially devastating to large energy companies (equally beneficial to small farmers). This page is presented even though Chrysler has no apparent involvement.
"Classic" innovations
Chrysler invented both electronic ignition and fuel-saving feedback systems using on-board computers. Electronic ignition eliminated points, which had to be cleaned and adjusted frequently; simply doing this eliminated quite a bit of pollution and increased gas mileage and power in reality for most cars on the road, since setting the points required skill that was often lacking. Electronic ignition also provided a hotter, more consistent spark, again helping efficiency.
Lanny Knutson wrote about Lean Burn in the Plymouth Bulletin (reprinted by permission):
A new electronic spark advance module called Lean Burn was introduced by Chrysler [in 1976] on all its 400 and 440 engines. Six sensors monitored the engine RPM, manifold vacuum, water temperature, ambient temperature, intake air temperature and throttle position, sending the data to a small computer unit mounted on the air filter housing. A pioneering version of what is now under the hood of nearly every contemporary car, Lean Burn was designed to avoid the driveability problems usually arising from manually leaned carburetors. Although it gained approximately one mile per gallon, the primary purpose of the system was controlling emissions inside the engine. For a time, it permitted Chrysler to avoid use of expensive power-robbing catalytic converters. In 1977 Lean Burn was extended to the 360 engine.
Lean Burn was later extended to all Chrysler engines. Unfortunately, the engineers at Huntsville who developed the system (along with the first trip computer to calculate gas mileage on a regular basis, which helped drivers who cared to increase their personal economy) neglected to test the system thoroughly, and it had some weak points in durability. Lean Burn was eventually discredited - the idea was sound, but as implemented it tended to fail with time, and many cars had the Lean Burn system removed. It would take time for more sophisticated sensors and controls to be developed, and even these would not solve reliability problems until fuel injection was adopted.
Exciting new projects
Automatic starting and stopping? This 2004-application patent covers a set up controls to automatically stop an engine when it's warm and not needed, and then to start it back up again on demand. This is already done for manual-transmission Opels and Vauxhalls to save fuel; the Chrysler patent appears to cover automatic transmissions. Shutting the engine while coasting would help in conserving energy, but some patent language indicates that the goal is to shut a hybrid-electric's engine at traffic lights and such.
Richard Radu, Robert Nakee, William Eichbrecht, Leon Cribbins, Joseph Kopera, and George Mitchell got together for an oxygen sensor filter which, by recording an average oxygen sensor value and then comparing individual readings to that value, can detect if an oxygen sensor is going off course. It collects the number of greater than average and lower than average readings and by looking at a large number of these, can see whether the oxygen sensor is starting to read lower or higher than it used to. Given the importance of the oxygen sensor and the problems of measuring its output correctly (currently, by comparing it with a second oxygen sensor which may be inaccurate itself!), this is a promising technology that could save gas, increase power, and reduce emissions.
James R. Klotz's patent 6,584,943 (issued in 2003), for variable lift intake valves, could help with increasing economy, emissions, and performance. Patent application 568630 (2000) from Douglas Stander, Sam Liu, Min Sway-Tin, and William Robinson covers a new way to set up air-fuel ratios, rather than using painfully derived lookup charts - basing them on a neural network, using various sensor readings and internal logic to come up with the ideal fuel to air mixture.
See the main technology page | See the engines page | Chrysler and the environment, 1993
