Finding the right balance

Engineers identify key technology trends such as the necessity for lighter, smaller engines and vehicles-and stress that managing trade-offs is an especially tough challenge.

When asked to select the two most important environmental/sustainability issues in their development work, SAE-member engineers responding to a survey recently conducted for DuPont and Automotive Engineering International indicated the top three to be hybrid and electric vehicles (EVs), technologies that boost performance of smaller engines, and lightweighting (for CAFE), with 47%, 47%, and 31%, respectively.

Remarkably, when this DuPont/AEI survey was last conducted in 2008, batteries and EV technology (the word “hybrid” was excluded) were considered the most important sustainability issue in only 3% of respondents' work, illustrating the industry's keen focus on vehicle electrification over the past three years. Also in 2008, the use of bio-based fuel and alternative-fuel issues ranked second with 44%; this year it was fifth at 20%, also trailing recycling and recyclability (25%). (Performance-boosting technology for smaller engines was not an option on the prior survey.)