Gates Corp. is taking a run at the rapidly emerging market for fuel-efficient vehicles by producing new products.
A white semi-truck cab equipped with a two-cylinder auxiliary motor that eliminates the need to idle the larger truck engine while the truck is stopped was on display Wednesday outside Gates’ Wewatta Street headquarters.
Drivers can run air conditioning and other cab accessories with the small engine.
“When you think about the fact that about a billion gallons of diesel a year are simply burned by trucks that are idling, this technology has the potential of saving a huge amount of diesel,” said Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who visited Gates.
He sits on the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources committee.
Gates, known for rubber automotive products, is owned by Tomkins, a global engineering and manufacturing conglomerate based in Britain that provides industrial, automotive and construction products.
A Consumer Reports study in May found that 37 percent of national respondents were considering replacing their vehicles with something more fuel-efficient.
“Subsequent sales trends supported the study findings, with four-cylinder vehicle transactions on the rise while large, V8-powered vehicles are on the decline,” the magazine said.
A later Consumer Reports survey found that many consumers are looking beyond conventional gasoline-fueled vehicles and that nearly two- thirds are considering vehicles with alternative powertrains.
The small motor nestled behind the cab, called a cabrunner, is innovative but not unique. Pony Pack Inc., for instance, has a similar product already on the market, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Industrial Technologies.
The cabrunner is an aftermarket device that can be installed on existing trucks, said Meg VanderLaan, Gates’ vice president of business development. It can reduce idling fuel consumption by 60 percent and reduce idling emissions as well.
Several trucking companies are testing the product, which should be on the market soon, said Joel Edwards, Gates’ vice president of worldwide technology.
A start/stop technology for hybrid cars that will be used in the 2007 Saturn Vue and 2007 Chevrolet Malibu can provide fuel savings of more than 20 percent in city driving, the company said. Called the electro-mechanical drive, it stops the engine when the car comes to a stop.
“The engine is literally dead and starts back up when you accelerate again,” said Edwards.
Other companies are using similar technologies. For example, 2007 European BMWs will be equipped with a stop/start feature that turns off the gasoline or diesel engine when the car stops.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-820-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
