The Energy Department calculates that 17.2 percent of a vehicle’s fuel is consumed when its engine idles in traffic, adding up to billions of gallons burned at stop signs and traffic lights and in urban congestion. Put another way, 69 cents’ worth of a $4 gallon is wasted by idling.
To minimize this inefficiency, automakers are adopting so-called stop-start systems that virtually eliminate idling by shutting off the engine when the car or truck comes to a complete stop, then instantaneously restarting it when the driver’s foot lifts off the brake (on cars with an automatic transmission) or engages the clutch.
General Motors has become the latest company to announce a stop-start feature. Its system, called eAssist, will be a standard feature on 2012 models of the full-size Buick LaCrosse sedan with a 4-cylinder engine; it will be an option on the midsize 2012 Regal.
While hybrid vehicles typically have a stop-start feature built into their gas-electric drive systems, conventionally powered cars and light trucks must be engineered to incorporate the technology into existing powertrains and body structures.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/automobiles/13BUICK.html
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