( Air-Hybrid Blog )
The Scuderi Group Names Bill Wrinn Director of Marketing and Communications
Former journalist, PR agency professional to lead efforts to promote revolutionary engine technology
FAZNET: Cars to Plug (Translated from the German)
By Henning Peitsmeier, July 22, 2008 An idea is electrifying car users: mobility out of a socket. In times of high gasoline prices many car drivers, including commuters and low-income earners, are dreaming of an alternative to the gas-guzzling conventional combustion engine. Who would hold it against them? Since the price of a liter of gasoline has soared to levels above €1.50, calls for plug-in electrical cars have resounded throughout the land. In theory, they not only save the owner money but also the environment – at least if the electricity is generated by wind, sun or nuclear power plants ... Read the full article here.
FAZNET: Cars to Plug (Translated from the German)
By Henning Peitsmeier, July 22, 2008 An idea is electrifying car users: mobility out of a socket. In times of high gasoline prices many car drivers, including commuters and low-income earners, are dreaming of an alternative to the gas-guzzling conventional combustion engine. Who would hold it against them? Since the price of a liter of gasoline has soared to levels above €1.50, calls for plug-in electrical cars have resounded throughout the land. In theory, they not only save the owner money but also the environment – at least if the electricity is generated by wind, sun or nuclear power plants. Although car manufacturers only have about a dozen models of battery-powered vehicles on the street (with 100 electrical Smarts scooting through London) that isn't preventing politicians from announcing the end of the gasoline era. In addition, some managers from the automotive industry (hoping to improve their green image profile) have declared the electrical cars to be the ultimate solution to prevent the climate change. This would change the automotive industry more than any technology before, keeping in mind that car makers haven't fundamentally tampered with the Otto & Diesel engines for more than a century. Bizzare Race In fact, car manufacturers currently compete in a bizzare neck-on-neck race to see who will deliver the first electric vehicle with a range of more than 100 kilometers. Curiously, crisis-struck General Motors, ostracized for their extremely fuel inefficient vehicles, is spearheading in the electrical revolution. CEO Rick Wagoner wants to bring the Chevrolet Volt to the market as soon as 2010, an electric car that should solve the problem of high weight and low mileage. On top of that, the Volt – with a price tag of $30,000 – is affordable for almost everyone. You will hear these promises from other automotive managers as well. "The future, for sure, will be the zero emissions electrical engine fueled via your socket." said Volkswagen’s CEO Martin Winterkorn recently. And the Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche announced that not only the tiny Smart but also models of the luxury brand Mercedes-Benz will get their first electrical powertrains in 2010. The keenest plan has not been developed by an automotive manager but by the former SAP board member Shai Agassi. Branding it with the auspicious title "Project Better Place," Agassi intends to set up a mass-market compliant infrastructure for electrical vehicles. A network of "battery fuel stations" should enable drivers in Israel to exchange their flat battery with a charged one. By doing so, long charging times could be avoided. Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn is so fascinated by that idea that both car brands are now developing electrical vehicles for Agassi. Project Better Place is also praised to the sky by utilities companies. As utilities companies could add millions of car drivers to their client base, they could progress in their economization efforts and maybe they could even justify the bedeviled nuclear energy with the human desire to be mobile. The Batteries are the Problem These are dreams of the future. In reality the difficulties are not yet overcome. The primary hurdle remains the battery itself. Cost-efficient and powerful Lithium-Ion-Batteries are available in cell phones or laptops. But they do not match the requirements of the car industry. They are too heavy, the durability and power efficiency are limited, and they must not explode in accidents. Therefore in all industrial countries, Lithium-Ion-Technology continues to be heavily researched. None of the big OEMs and suppliers can afford to fall back in this race. The high cost of development is a good incentive for manufacturers to cooperate. New cross-country and cross-industry alliances are being formed. For example, the German automotive supplier Robert Bosch has established a joint venture on the development, production & marketing of Lithium-Ion-Batteries with Samsung. Bosch’s major competitor, Continental – which is working with several battery producers – is being acquired by the Schaeffler Group, which also could have an impact on how how electric mobility in the future could be. The euphoria around electrical cars is currently without a doubt very high, but we have to remind ourselves that not long ago, biodiesel from your farmer’s cornfields was hyped as a realistic alternative. Before that, it was cars running on hydrogen that promised independence from fossil energies. Today no one is talking about them any more. Therefore, car drivers should expect that internal combustion engines will still dominate the market for the next twenty years. In the meantime, we wait to be electrified by the electrical cars!
Internal combustion engines not going anywhere soon
For those of you riding the euphoria around the hopes and dreams of the electric car battery, an article from page one of Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung warning you not to hold your breath. The internal combustion engine is going to dominate the engine market for at least another 20 years. But you can breathe easier. Until that great day when the world can discard thier fossil fuel-burning vehicles, the solution is in alternative internal combustion technologies. The Scuderi Air-Hybrid Engine is one technology that will get the world's engines to better fuel efficiency in a less polluting manner. And early studies are showing that while the engine will have significant gains in efficiency, it will produce up to 80 percent less NOx than the current hybrid and conventional vehicles on the road today. The full article is now available in English. Read the full article in German here.With all the talk about electric batteries, some say the diesel engine will always be King
As the debate continues around the merits and drawbacks of the electric hybrid battery, here's an article from Manager Magazin in Germany that discusses the use of diesel engines and their continued dominance over hybrid engines through 2015. From the article: Hybrids Work Only for Niches How does the next generation powertrain look like considering today’s oil prices? Bosch does not believe in a victory of the hybrid concepts, since these cars are in need of carrying two engines on board. And Opel as well does not believe in a fast adoption of electric vehicles. This raises hope for the diesel. The automotive supplier Bosch is convinced that the hybrid technology will only succeed in a niche for a long time. In contrast, will diesel and gasoline engines be the dominant powertrains fort he next 10 years? Bernd Bohr, Global Head of Automotive at Bosch, told the German car magazine Auto Motor Sport, "In the year 2015 we project 2.0mn to 3.0mn new cars with hybrid powertrains and 800,000 plug-in electric vehicles." The amount of new cars to be sold in 2015 is forecasted at 80 million vehicles: "The percentage of gasoline and diesel engines will stay significantly above those of hybrid & electric cars.", Mr. Bohr said. Bosch also predicts that the global market share of Diesels will rise by 5 percent to 28 percent in 2015. Also plug-in hybrid vehicles that are charged via socks are no ideal solution. A hybrid powertrain remains very heavy and expensive, says Bohr: "You have on board a complete combustion engine plus exhaust treatment system, tank and the electric infrastructure like electric power device and the battery." Despite the strong rise in prices for diesel, Bohr does not see stagnating demand for diesel cars. In markets like France, the percentage of diesel cars has even recently risen from 70 percent to 80 percent because of the newly introduced CO2 tax. Diesel engines have a 30 percent better mileage compared to gasoline cars and therefore top even gasoline hybrids. The CO2 saving goals of the European Union are only achievable according to Bohr: "if diesel cars at least remain on the 50 percent mark in new vehicle sales in Europe".... For the full article, click here.Scuderi Group Continues to Enhance Worldwide Patent Portfolio
The Scuderi Group has secured patent protection for five more inventions of The Scuderi Air-Hybrid Engine technology. This enhances The Scuderi Group’s global patent portfolio to more than 62 pending and 35 issued in more than 50 countries. Five core technologies that The Scuderi Group recently patented worldwide:
Scuderi Group on CBS 3 in Springfield
Here's a YouTube version of the June 12, 2008 profile of the Scuderi Group and its Air-Hybrid Engine on CBS 3 in Springfield, available on the Scuderi Group's YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/ScuderiGroup.Scuderi Group: We Are Seeing Historical Changes
By Lutz Deyerling VP European Operations, Scuderi Group The overall worldwide automotive (and engine market) is undergoing a major change unlike ever before. This change affects all players in the market, OEM´s, suppliers, new technologies, consumers and investors. There has been shocking news about the US OEM´s every day. Yesterday, for example, for the first time an analyst from Merrill Lynch said that one of the top three automakers could go bankrupt soon. 
Scuderi European Vice President Lutz Deyerling addresses the crowd gathered to view the first model of the Air-Hybrid Engine at the 2008 Engine Expo in Stuttgart, Germany in May. Wednesday’s auto news was a parade of negative earnings reports, mostly based on consumer reaction to rising fuel costs and engine inefficiency. In June, one US OEM lost 18% in sales, another 28%, while yet another big manufacturer went down 36%. Many have serious problems – none of them are able to cut costs fast enough to keep up with the cash drain. (Double digit millions of dollars daily!). This phenomenon is driven by the fact that US drivers are now shifting away from SUV´s and pick-up-trucks and seriously looking for smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles – which almost none of the US OEM´s have in their portfolio. This is a really dangerous scenario and could end in a vicious circle. The Financial Times Germany, who has been running an editorial series called “the future of the automobile” also writes this in a recent article, the last sentence stating: “Maybe in the future they will say, these were the years, where afterwards nothing was as it had been before.” Read the story here. In Germany, a major discussion about electric vehicles and batteries started last week with an article about a study from Professor Dudenhoefer, who heads the well known CAR (Center of Automotive Research) at the University of Gelsenkirchen: The article states: “A huge revolution, the end of gasoline and diesel vehicles”. From 2010 onwards, electric and hybrid vehicles will replace vehicles with internal combustion engines. There have been several reactions on this article – for example also the CEO of Volkswagen, Prof. Winterkorn said: “the future of the automobile is the battery”. The “hype” culminated in a 16 pages article (which also was the top story) in Germany´s Wirtschaftswoche, a highly respected business magazine. But as the article also states, many of these OEMs, suppliers and others are finding themselves having to look “Green” and environmentally friendly, even when they aren’t… And even with all the hype around the electric hybrid vehicle, some companies are strategically separating themselves from that specific technology. Honda Corp., for example, has made that decision. A time of change of this magnitude creates an even bigger opportunity to address the immediate benefits of the air-hybrid engine technology. While we continue to further licensing talks with many of the major OEMs around the world, the first gasoline prototype is on schedule to be completed by the end of the year. There is currently historical interest in the Scuderi Air-Hybrid Engine, which would give OEMs tremendous relief in several areas:
Local Company May Have Answer to Rising Fuel Costs
By Matt DeLuica, CBS 3, Springfield, MA Solar, hydrogen, and even water are all being developed as fuels of the future, and no matter what the brand, those behind the ideas just want to keep you from buying gasoline. But, West Springfield-based Scuderi Group is developing an engine that still runs on gas, but not nearly as much.
"The key to really gaining on saving energy is to improve the efficiency of the internal combustion engine, and we're about the only ones who really have a good shot at making that happen," Scuderi said.
In a nutshell, Scuderi says his split-cycle engine will increase fuel efficiency by as much as 30 percent. Combine that with a hybrid, and it's 50 percent. That means you would fill-up half as often. But, that cannot possibly make the oil companies happy, or can it?
Watch the CBS 3 story.