GigaOM » Pinnacle Engines

Chinese auto giant building $200M factory to make EcoMotor’s efficient engines

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:30:22 +0000

Startup EcoMotors has reached a “massive inflection point” in the life of its business, as Khosla Ventures partner Andrew Chung explained it to me in an interview last week. On Tuesday the five-year-old startup, which is backed by Khosla, Bill Gates and Braemar Energy Ventures, announced that it has struck a deal to have Chinese auto parts giant Zhongding Power build a $200 million factory in the Anhui Province in eastern China that will make EcoMotor’s efficient, low cost and light weight engines.

The factory will be the first in the world building EcoMotor’s “opoc,” opposed piston, opposed cylinder engine, at a commercial scale. When it starts production in 2014, the factory will aim to produce 150,000 engines per year. There’s also an adjacent site that could expand production to 400,000 engines per year down the road.

Strategic deals with huge Chinese companies are becoming a valuable way for Valley cleantech startups to move into commercial production and actually have a chance at succeeding. In particular Khosla Ventures has been adept as of late at helping its companies navigate deals in China.

Chinese parts company Wanxiang invested $420 million into GreatPoint Energy – a company based in Cambridge, Mass. that converts coal into cleaner-burning natural gas — in order to commercialize GreatPoint’s technology in China. LanzaTech, which turns gases emitted from industrial processes into biofuels and biochemicals, is working with China’s largest steel producer, Baosteel, as well as Chinese coal producer Yankuang Group. Khosla Ventures has invested in both of these firms.

By partnering with a giant like Zhongding, EcoMotors doesn’t have to raise and spend a lot of money on infrastructure. In return, Zhongding will sell the engines domestically in China — these particular engines will be powerful ones used for generators, off-road vehicles and commercial vehicles. Chung called the strategy “cleantech done right.”

EcoMotors’ engine can be 20 to 50 percent more efficient, 20 to 25 percent lower in cost to buy, and half the size and half the weight of a traditional engine. For car manufacturers the capital savings are even greater — at 30 to 40 percent — when using EcoMotors engine to build an efficient vehicle. When placed in a passenger light weight vehicle, the engine could deliver a 100 MPG, 5-passener, car.

The Chinese car market, as well as the engine market, are the largest and fastest growing in the world. And the Chinese government has set very aggressive goals to reduce the country’s air pollution and carbon emissions.

EcoMotors is a particularly unusual investment for a venture capital firm because the internal combustion hasn’t seen much innovation in decades. But the global trends of needing this innovation are clear: more and more countries are pushing for lowered car emissions, air pollution is a massive problem throughout developing countries, and the cars that will catch on in the price conscious developing markets will be cars that use fuel efficiently and thus save their customers money. Other startups working on efficient engines include Pinnacle Engines, Achates Power, Grail Engine Technologies, and Transonic Combustion.

Updated at 3:00PM PST, April 9, with mention of the deal with Baosteel, China’s largest steel producer.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

The internal combustion engine 2.0 emerges

Katie Fehrenbacher — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:30:33 +0000

A six-year-old startup called Transonic Combustion, which is developing more efficient internal combustion engine technology, is scaling up with a new round of $32 million, according to a release on Thursday. The funds came from Khosla Ventures, Venrock, Rustic Canyon and Saints Capital.

Transonic Combustion is creating an efficient fuel injection system for an internal combustion engine that minimizes heat waste. The system involves heating fuel to a “supercritical” state before injecting it into the combustion chamber, allowing it to combust without the need for a spark. The company uses software to precisely adjust the injection based on the engine load.

The system can run an engine that uses both gas and diesel as well as biofuels, and it is supposed to create an engine that is 50 percent more efficient than standard engines. About two years ago Transonic Combustion showed off a demo vehicle with its engine tech that got 64 miles per gallon in highway driving.

The engine is supposed to eventually cost about the same as high-end fuel injection systems currently on the market, and Transonic Combustion has previously stated that it wants to start deploying its engine by 2014.

More efficient traditional engines could be a lower-cost way to reduce carbon emissions from cars before electric vehicles develop into any kind of market. Auto companies will also be looking for more efficient traditional technologies, because fuel standards in the U.S. are set to rise from 27 miles per gallon today to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, thanks to the Obama administration’s plan.

Transonic Combustion is just one of a variety of startups that have emerged in recent years to try to remake the internal combustion engine to optimize efficiency. Other startups include EcoMotors, Pinnacle Engines, and Liquid Piston.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

LiquidPiston unveils its ultra efficient, small diesel engine

Katie Fehrenbacher — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:00:42 +0000

While electric cars get a lot of media attention, the reality is that the internal combustion engine is far from dead, particularly for the future car owners in the developing world. A startup called LiquidPiston — which has been around for years and which got its start as a father-son team in a business plan competition at MIT — is in the process of developing a diesel engine which is far more efficient, smaller and quieter than a standard diesel engine.

The engine, called the X2, will be available as a beta prototype for outside testing by the first quarter of 2013. The engine is able to achieve more than 50 percent efficiency under typical operating modes, while typical diesel engines usually achieve less than 20 percent efficiency.

The X2 is a new type of engine architecture, based on a rotary engine. LiquidPiston CEO and President Alexander Shklonik told met in an interview that this new version of the rotary engine is more flexible and can thus be more efficient when optimized in the right way. The engine is smaller, lighter, and cheaper, with ten times fewer parts, than current diesel engines on the market, says Shklonik.

Shklonik told me in a phone interview that the first applications for the engine won’t be the mainstream automotive industry, but will be industries like defense, long haul trucks, plug-in vehicle range extenders, and other more niche markets. LiquidPiston has raised $12.3 million so far, and tells me that it’s looking to raise another $20 million later this year. The company has around 12 employees.

Other startups that have developed more fuel efficient engines include EcoMotors, Pinnacle Engines, and IRIS Engines. More efficient engines will be used in both the next-generation of cars sold in developing countries, and also countries like the U.S. that have new fuel efficiency standards. The Obama administration passed the CAFE standards, which require a fuel efficiency of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

EcoMotors raises $32.5M from Khosla, Bill Gates, Braemar

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 14:27:47 +0000

EcoMotors, a startup building an efficient engine, has raised a $32.5 million Series C round led by Braemar Energy Ventures, and including previous investors Khosla Ventures and Bill Gates. The four-year-old company’s engine design includes stackable modules, one of which can be shut off when it isn’t needed, and the startup has said its engine could deliver a 100 MPG for highway driving in a 5-passenger car.

EcoMotors said this morning that the funding will help it create diesel engines with customers, including Navistar and Zhongding Holding Group. The company will also use the funds to make a gas-version, in addition to its diesel-version. Eventually EcoMotors will also develop a compressed natural gas version, too.

In the emerging world of electric cars, and biofuels, EcoMotors is an example of a startup that is looking to remake the traditional transportation world of the internal combustion engine. Other companies building new technology for the internal combustion engine include Grail Engine Technologies, and its efficient two-stroke engine, Pinnacle Engines, which makes a four-stroke engine (video here), Achates Power, which is building a closed piston, 2-stroke engine, and Transonic Combustion, which is creating what’s called a “supercritical fuel injection system” for internal combustion engines that minimizes heat waste.

More efficient traditional engines could be a more low cost way to reduce carbon emissions from cars, before electric vehicles develop into any kind of market. Auto companies will also be looking for more efficient traditional technologies, because fuel standards in the U.S. are set to rise from 27 miles per gallon today to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, thanks to the Obama administration’s plan.

EcoMotors has also been targeting applications for the developing world, where car owners with less disposable income would be more concerned about using less diesel and gas and having a more efficient engine.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Why the days of the internal combustion engine are NOT over

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:12:43 +0000

Here’s some sobering news out of the raucous fourth of July weekend: considering battery prices and $4.50 per gallon gasoline, it’ll take a little under 6 years for a hybrid car to pay off in fuel savings, and 8 years for an electric car, according to this report in the Wall Street Journal. At that rate of battery innovation, and if gas prices don’t climb, then plug-in cars will remain largely financially not viable for most buyers in the U.S. for years to come.

That’s not good news for electric car makers, but could actually be a driver for companies building new, more efficient, internal combustion engine technology. Last week I interviewed a startup called Grail Engine Technologies, which was a recent finalist in the North-Central Cleantech Open. Grail Engine Technologies has been developing an efficient two-stroke engine that the company says uses less fuel but is more powerful than larger engines and could be sold commercially in about two to five years (see video below).

Other companies that I’ve covered that are developing more efficient engines include Pinnacle Engines, which makes a four-stroke engine that it says can deliver 30 to 50 percent better fuel economy, and could be commercialized by 2013. Another is Achates Power, which is building a closed piston, 2-stroke engine that gets 10 to 15 percent better fuel economy than state of the art diesel engines that exist today. Then there’s EcoMotors that is building a diesel engine with stackable modules where one of the engine modules can be shut off when it isn’t needed. Transonic Combustion is yet another, which is creating what’s called a “supercritical fuel injection system” for internal combustion engines that minimizes heat waste. (Here’s 7 startups building green car tech for a pre-electric world).

Venture capitalists are funding these types of companies. Pinnacle has raised $13.5 million from NEA, Bessemer Venture Partners and Infield Capital. Achates Power counts Sequoia Capital, Rockport Capital Partners and Triangle Peak Partners as backers, EcoMotor’s has received funding from Bill Gates and Khosla Ventures, and Transonic Combustion also counts Khosla Ventures as an investor.

Moving from the prototype and development stage into mass commercialization and partnering with big auto makers will be the difficult hurdle for these startups. Auto makers move notoriously slowly (as slow as utilities and telcos) and won’t easily bet on risky startups. Licensing technology to manufacturers, which Grail Engine Technologies plans to do, will be one of the more capital efficient ways to reach the market.

More efficient internal combustion tech could be boosted by policy that raises the average miles per gallon requirements in the U.S. The Obama administration has proposed raising the average MPG to 56.2 miles per gallon, which is nearly double the current MPG level. And combine more efficient engine tech with more sustainable biofuels, and you’ve got a non-plug-in, but economical, green car option.

Images courtesy of Grail Engine Technologies, EcoMotors, Pinnacle Engines.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Green Car Tech: Pinnacle Engines Emerges From Stealth With $13.5M

Katie Fehrenbacher — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:40:34 +0000

A lot of the innovation around next-gen car technology has focused on electric cars and biofuels, but there’s a massive need for technology that can make our current cars more fuel-efficient. On Thursday, a startup called Pinnacle Engines emerged with just such a technology and a round of venture capital backing, and the company says it can deliver an engine with 30 to 50 percent better fuel economy.

Pinnacle says it has created an entirely new four-stroke engine with a design that uses opposed-pistons and can operate in different modes depending on operating conditions, making it more efficient. The engine also has efficiencies via variable valve timing, direct injection, and turbocharging. Pinnacle says it plans to commercialize its engine by 2013.

Pinnacle is just one of a handful of startups working on more efficient engine technology. I caught up with Achates Power CEO David Johnson yesterday, and he said Achates is building a closed piston, 2-stroke engine that is 10 to 15 percent better than state of art diesel engines that exist today. EcoMotors is building a diesel engine with stackable modules, and where one of the engine modules can be shut off when it isn’t needed. (Here’s 7 startups building green car tech for a pre-electric world).

Achates and EcoMotors both have high-profile investors, as does Pinnacle, which has investors that include NEA, Bessemer Venture Partners and Infield Capital; it has raised $13.5 million from this group. Pinnacle also announced that Ron Hoge has taken over as Pinnacle’s new chairman and CEO.

Building new engines, getting them manufactured and convincing auto makers to put the engines in their cars is a long road. Achates says it could take three to six year depending on the project. Pinnacle’s engine is two years away from the market, and the company says it has a joint development and licensing agreement with an Asian vehicle maker.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.