Fiat-Chrysler trails the pack in going green
The FCA Group, Fiat and Chrysler, has been a laggard on greening its cars and trucks.
With not-so-mini minivans and big Ram trucks dominating FCA’s gas-guzzling lineup, the Italian/ Detroit conglomerate is a bottom feeder in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy standings.
It offers no hybrids or plug-in hybrids — although a plug-in Town and Country minivan is said to be on the way.
And the only all-battery car in the stable is the Fiat 500e, which the boss, Sergio Marchionne, doesn’t like and is essentially a limitededition model built to comply with zero-emission regulations in California and a few other states.
Still, FCA has just made it clear that it’s in the race to be greener, in its own way. In the recently unveiled rebuild of its successful Pentastar V6 engine, the company is boosting fuel economy with older technology rather than following the current most-popular path to fuel economy’s finish line.
FCA has made substantial changes to the Pentastar’s 3.6-litre Generation 2, which will be available on most Chrysler products.
It features, among many alterations, more sophisticated valve operation, higher compression, reduced friction, improved fuel injectors, stop/start technology and lighter weight.
But the engine continues to employ conventional fuel injection rather than joining the crowd that’s adopting direct injection.
Company officials say the decision is based on direct injection’s issues with cost, noise and vibration and efficiency.
But also involved are three parts of new EPA measures (which Canada follows) to make cars cleaner.
First is the CAFE standard, aimed at cutting fuel consumption by about 5 per cent annually until 2025. It is part of the effort to combat climate change by reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
Second is an emissions regulation — known as Tier 3 — which takes effect in 2017 and is to produce a 70-per-cent reduction in the amount of tiny particles spewing from exhaust pipes.
Third, the EPA is expected to introduce a more accurate process for testing fuel consumption; one that more accurately reflects results in real-world driving.
FCA’s reasoning was explained in a recent session headed by its vicepresident of powertrain engineering, Bob Lee. I wasn’t there, so I’m grateful that Sam Abuelsamid, a senior analyst with Navigant Research, was.
Direct injection, with atomized gasoline sprayed directly into the combustion chamber, can complicate the mixing of fuel and air, which in turn can create soot-like particles. These are hard on the engine. They also get blown out the tailpipe, which won’t fly when the Tier 3 rule arrives.
Other carmakers might need to install particulate filters, similar to those on diesel-powered vehicles. Pentastar should be fine.
The more accurate fuel-consumption tests will likely have the greatest impact on cars featuring turbocharged direct injection, which tend to have the biggest gap between results on laboratory dynamometers and in the real world.
So FCA seems to have avoided that potential setback.
The resulting rate of improvement — 6 per cent better than the original Pentastar launched five years ago — won’t get FCA to the new fuel-economy standard.
It must do far better to even get close.
Perhaps dumping the V6 and installing four-cylinder engines in downsized vehicles might help.
That’s to be seen. For now, the company is making a noble effort to change without really changing. Freelance writer Peter Gorrie is a regular contributor to Toronto Star Wheels. To reach him, email and put his name in the subject line.
The FCA Group has made substantial changes to the Pentastar’s 3.6-litre Generation 2, which will be available on most Chrysler products