by Bengt Halvorson

(2007-09-13)

In these days when any talk about global warming can be taken as politically loaded, it's very unusual to hear anyone in the automotive industry talking about it as openly as Koichi Fukaya, the president and CEO of Denso, did in his speech at the supplier's Frankfurt press conference, entitled "Conserving Energy and Protecting Our Planet."

"The world is heating up." said Fukaya, in a speech that probably wouldn't have gone over as well in Detroit as it did in Frankfurt. "That's a fact. And Denso certainly recognizes it."

"It is widely recognized that this warming trend is being accelerated through human activities such as power generation and transportation, which release greenhouse gases into the earth's atmosphere," continued Fukaya, explaining that the company takes the responsibility to reduce its impact on global warming very seriously.

Fukaya said, with the historical graph of CO2 levels displayed on backing screens looking a lot like what Al Gore refers to in An Inconvenient Truth, that the company aims to reduce CO2 levels in all aspects of the company's operations, including development, manufacturing, procurement, and operation, as part of a company initiative called EcoVision.

Several of the supplier's new technologies outlined in the presentation incrementally improve automotive efficiency, such as its next-generation common-rail injection system for diesels, which increases injection pressure, with up to nine injections per combustion cycle, yet also decreases the fuel pump's workload. Another example is the company's motor-driven electric variable valve timing control system, which precisely controls valve timing even at low engine speeds where hydraulic VVT systems don't fully function.

Fukaya also mentioned the company's idle start/stop systems, and its continued importance as a supplier for hybrid systems, including the Toyota Prius since 1997 and most recently the advanced power inverter for the Lexus LS600h.

The company is also doing extensive work to improve the efficiency of gasoline engines, which typically operate at an efficiency of less than 20 percent. In addition to the company's previously developed system that would store heat and use it to hasten warmup when the engine is restarted, a new system under development would also capture waste heat from the engine and use it to produce electricity.

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2007 Frankfurt Auto Show Coverage by TCC Team (9/10/2007)