vehicles of change

June 24, 2008

New technologies help our cars use less fuel — and reduce emissions.

To Nazeer Bhore, the cars and trucks we drive aren’t just vehicles, they’re opportunities to solve the world’s energy and environmental challenges.

Bhore, 45, a married father of two who was raised in Mumbai, is an engineer at ExxonMobil. Along with other engineers and scientists across ExxonMobil’s many research organizations, he helps develop the advanced vehicle and fuel technologies that will make the cars we drive more efficient.

Some of these technologies are already on the road. For example, ExxonMobil has developed lightweight plastics for car parts such as bumpers and fuel tanks. Lighter vehicles use less fuel; for every 10-percent drop in vehicle weight, fuel economy improves by seven percent.

Working with major tire manufacturers, ExxonMobil also developed a new tire-lining technology that uses up to 80 percent less material in the manufacturing process, making tires lighter and keeping them properly inflated. A car with under-inflated tires burns up to an extra tank of gasoline every year.

Other innovations are still emerging. One is a new engine technology called Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition, or HCCI, which combines the best features of gasoline- and diesel-powered engines. The result: up to 30 percent better fuel economy and lower emissions.

And we are excited to be working on a breakthrough technology that could advance the use of hydrogen fuel cells. This new technology, which will be applied first to industrial vehicles such as forklifts, converts traditional hydrocarbon fuels (such as gasoline or diesel) into hydrogen directly on board a vehicle, eliminating the need for separate facilities for producing and distributing hydrogen. Measured on a “well-to-wheels” basis, this on-vehicle hydrogen fuel system could be up to 80 percent more fuel-efficient, and emit 45 percent less carbon dioxide, than today’s internal-combustion engine.

Ongoing advances in vehicle and fuel technology will be critical to meeting global demand for transportation fuels. They will also help address the risk posed by rising greenhouse-gas emissions.

Bhore’s children are still young — nine and two. But he hopes that when they grow up, they will choose jobs that enable them to make a positive contribution to society — just like he did.

“With these technologies,” says Bhore, “we are working on solutions that make a real difference.”