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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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The process involves the controlled injection of gas, like carbon or nitrogen, into the injection molding process, which creates millions of non-uniform bubbles into plastic parts, reducing the weight dramatically, but maintaining the performance and durability. Ford says the weight of plastic components can drop by 10 percent using MuCell, and Ford wants to reduce the weight of its vehicles by between 250 and 750 pounds per car by 2020.

The technology is an example of the types of eco innovations that automakers can turn to in the short term, while making more aggressive longer-term efficiency moves like with electric cars and biofuels. Ford has been working on its mobile applications in a similar way, and at our Green:Net event on April 21 in San Francisco, you’ll be able to hear on Ford’s connected car play from Edward Pleet, product and business development manager for connected services for Ford.

More efficient engine technology for internal combustion engines has also been receiving investment and interest from big auto makers. Here are 7 startups building green car tech for a pre-electric car world, including Achates Power, EcoMotors, and Transonic Combustion.

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Hulu Plus has been in beta since it was announced in June, making full seasons of past and present TV content available not just on the web, but on connected devices like the Sony PlayStation 3 game console, the iPhone and the iPad. But it’s not the only streaming subscription service on the market, and Netflix has a huge head start.

Netflix has nearly 17 million subscribers and is available on more than 200 different connected devices, which have shipped 60 million units. Oh yeah, and it’s getting more aggressive about grabbing streaming TV content to go after subscribers that should be in Hulu’s core audience.

Dropping the price from $10 a month to $5 a month would make Hulu Plus a lot more competitive with services like Netflix, which currently has more than 20,000 streaming TV and movie titles available online. Netflix’s current pricing begins at $8.99 for unlimited streaming as well as one DVD-by-mail rental at a time. But with the launch of its first streaming-only offering in Canada, Netflix is considering rolling out a similar offering in the U.S. One pricing scheme it is testing would price its streaming-only offering at $7.99, with the streaming and one-disc DVD-by-mail offering at $9.99.

The possible price cut also comes as Hulu is busy prepping for a public offering, which it could file for before the end of the year. According to a report, Hulu is looking to raise $200 to $300 million to bring on more content and better compete with Netflix and other streaming offerings.

To see what else Hulu might have in store, come see Jason Kilar’s keynote at NewTeeVee Live on November 10 in San Francisco.

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Klein also showed off the new finishing of the box, which has been improved to be more resistant to fingerprints, as well as other design features. Watch the entire video below:

The first Box arrived from the Boxee Factory from Zach Klein on Vimeo.

Boxee CEO Avner Ronen didn’t want to point fingers when the company was forced to delay its date of sale last month, but the delay of NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 chipset likely played a big role.

Update: A Boxee spokesperson informed us via email that Klein misspoke and that “the Boxee Box will come out in November.  If that changes we will make an official announcement on the blog and with D-Link.”

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Nissan hybrid system

Nissan Motor’s road to a more fuel-efficient fleet will be paved with five technologies coming out this year. Today the automaker, whose electric LEAF sedan is slated to hit the U.S. market in December, popped the hood on five technologies set for deployment in the 2010 fiscal year, offering a glimpse of some of the oft-overlooked tools for reducing vehicle emissions long before electric cars go mainstream.

Nissan’s plans for this year call for the launch of a hybrid system with an electronically controlled clutch and a lithium-ion battery supplied by AESC (the automaker’s joint venture with NEC Corp.), which is scheduled to roll out in the Infiniti M toward the end of 2010. Nissan also plans to deploy a new 1.6-liter, 4-cylinder, turbocharged direct injection gas engine in the second half of this fiscal year, starting out in the Nissan Juke model.

In addition, Nissan says it has developed a pair of technologies for models rolling out this month in Japan, including the Nissan March (aka Micra) powertrain, which according to Nissan has a continuously variable transmission that’s 10 percent smaller and 13 percent lighter than previous designs. For the latest automatic transmission X-Trail model, meanwhile, the automaker has developed a “clean diesel” engine. Last month Nissan rolled out in Japan in the Juke model a 1.5-liter engine with dual injectors, which Nissan says will boost fuel economy by 4 percent compared to its conventional engines in the same class.

Nissan is readying to launch these technologies at a time when a growing number of startups hope to sell or license fuel-saving, emission-reducing tech to the world’s largest automakers. Achates Power, for example, is working on a high-efficiency two-stroke diesel engine that’s supposed to deliver higher power density and lower emissions than currently available options. Transonic Combustion is developing what’s called a supercritical fuel injection system, which involves heating fuel to a “supercritical” state before injecting it into the combustion chamber, allowing it to combust without the need for a spark. Transonic Combustion’s system is meant to minimize waste heat, and it uses proprietary software to adjust injection based on engine load.

Whether and how much car companies end up turning to young ventures for this tech remains to be seen, but startups face long odds to beat out established suppliers and automakers’ internal development programs when it comes to these types of systems and components.

As John Viera, Director of Sustainable Business Strategies for Ford Motor told me in an interview recently, a technology that promises to deliver fuel savings of at least 1 MPG is “large enough to get our attention,” but it will be a rare case when the automaker bets on an unproven supplier. With software and apps built on the automaker’s Sync platform (developed by Microsoft) however, it’s a different ball game. According to Viera, “Software — that’s where you’ll see outsiders come in.”

Image courtesy of Nissan Motor Co.

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Founded in 2006, Transonic Combustion is creating what’s called a “supercritical fuel injection system” for internal combustion engines 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. In order to precisely adjust this injection based on engine load, the company has developed proprietary software.

Transonic says its so-called TSCi fuel injection system can run gasoline within diesel architecture engines, and could eventually run renewable fuels. But the main promise of this technology in the short term is to help make fairly conventional vehicles much more efficient without much additional cost.

Transonic VP of Business Development Mike Rocke said earlier this year that the system should cost about the same as high-end fuel injection systems currently on the market, with about 50 percent better efficiency. Echoing recent comments by investor Vinod Khosla, Lutz predicted in a statement today:

“For the foreseeable future, the internal combustion engine will remain the dominant propulsion system for automobiles, and there is still a lot of room to improve its efficiency. Customers and manufacturers want better fuel economy, lower emissions and a great vehicle experience all at an attractive price.”

Khosla, who has invested in not only Transonic Combustion but also EcoMotors (a 2-year-old developer of efficient engines with stackable modules), said last month that technology designed to make internal combustion engine vehicles more efficient can be implemented at a cost of “hundreds of dollars” in some cases — significantly less than what it costs to develop an all-electric vehicle. Innovative tweaks to the systems and components in gas- and diesel-powered cars can have a significant impact on fuel consumption and emissions, he said, boosting mileage by as much as 30-50 percent.

Transonic has said it aims to close a final funding round by the end of 2010 and set up manufacturing in 2013. By 2014, the Camarillo, Calif.-based startup hopes to deploy its technology in production vehicles. Today the company said it’s “on course to directly supply global automotive manufacturers with its high efficiency fuel injection systems.”

As of March of this year, Transonic said it was working with OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) in Asia, North America and Europe (one per market) and a fourth in the “heavy duty engine sector,” according to Green Car Congress. Adding to its board Lutz, who over the course of his career in the auto industry spent time at all of Detroit’s Big Three automakers, as well as BMW and Exide Corp., could help the startup parlay those talks into larger deals for commercial deployment.

Images courtesy of Transonic Combustion and General Motors

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To learn about where some of Silicon Valley’s leading venture capitalists are investing and what areas of technology they think will be ripest for entrepreneurs to serve coming out of the economic downturn, check out the “Venture Catalysts” panel at our Structure event June 23-24 in San Francisco.

This type of tech doesn’t have the glitz of an electric sports car — it’s meant to go under the hood, unseen, in models that look and feel much the same as the same old gas and diesel vehicles now on the road. But considering that conventional vehicles will likely make up the bulk of automakers’ lineup for years to come, the array of MPG boosters now in the works could help them meet tightening fuel economy and emission requirements for their fleet. Whether and how much car companies end up betting on young ventures for this tech remains to be seen, but these seven startups aim to seize that opportunity in coming months and years.

Image courtesy of Transonic Combustion.

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