According to a recent study, at least a third of a car’s fuel consumption can be attributed to the vehicle attempting to overcome friction. Overcoming such friction could have a significant impact on making cars more fuel efficient.
A joint study conducted by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Argonne National Laboratory in USA showed that newly developed technology could help to reduce friction by up to 80%. With these figures in mind, experts predict that fuel consumption and CO2 emissions could be slashed by as much as 18% over the next five years.
Technology such as new surface coatings, surface textures, lubricant additives, low-viscosity lubricants, ionic liquids and low-friction tyres Technology such as new surface coatings, improved surface texture, additives to lubricants, low friction tyres and ionic liquids could all have an impact in the reduction of unwanted friction.
Through the use of new surface coatings alone, scientists hope that friction could be cut by between 10 and 50%, dependant upon specific variables. Such technology would include the use of such resources as diamond-like carbon materials and nanocomposites.
In 2009 alone, 208,000,000 litres of fuel was wasted by vehicle’s attempting to overcome unwanted friction, an amount that equals 7.3 million terajoules of energy.
American scientists have estimated that if the world’s best technological solutions are incorporated into newly manufactured vehicles, €348,000 million could be saved annually. This combined with estimated savings of up to €659,000 million per year over the next ten years, indicates that the future looks to be bright for environmentally friendly vehicle technology.