Unique air shutter improves fuel efficiency

General Motors has revealed a new innovation behind the front grill of its Chevrolet Cruze Eco model where an automatic air shutter system allows the car to change shape and cut through the air more smoothly.
February 1, 2012 Read time: 1 min

948 General Motors has revealed a new innovation behind the front grill of its 1960 Chevrolet Cruze Eco model where an automatic air shutter system allows the car to change shape and cut through the air more smoothly.

The air shutter system uses sensors to feel and sense wind and temperature conditions. The sensors are married to electric motors that open and close the shutters automatically. With the shutters closed at high speeds, wind drag is reduced. At lower speeds, the shutters open to maximise engine-cooling air flow. Chevrolet says the air shutter system contributes nearly half a mile per gallon in combined city and highway driving.

The cooling systems for all GM vehicles are designed for the worst-case scenario, which is pulling a trailer up a grade in Death Valley. The shutter allows them to significantly improve fuel economy, while still providing the cooling needed in that extreme case.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Pollution has more than one solution
    April 7, 2014
    Professor Alexander Baklanov of the World Meteorological Organization talks to Colin Sowman about the difficulties of reducing urban pollution. The inhabitants of Beijing have recently been suffering pollution levels 20 times the World Health Organisation’s recommended limit while the European Union is revitalising its efforts to implement and enforce air quality standards. Almost inevitably much of the clean-up efforts are likely to focus on traffic planners and engineers.
    Read More
  • Rethink required to reduce road transport’s environmental impact
    March 15, 2016
    Against a background of a renewed focus on limiting the rise in average temperatures, Colin Sowman looks at a project that is taking a holistic approach to the environmental impact and safety of road transport. At the COP21 meeting in Paris last December, almost 200 nations agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to keep the rise in global temperatures to 2°C) compared with pre-industrial levels. The transportation sector is a major contributor to the production of CO2, one of the main green
    Read More
  • Freight poses growing problem for city authorities
    March 3, 2017
    Wes Guckert considers possible solutions and countermeasures to the problems of increased freight deliveries in growing cities. In January 2016, the US Department of Transportation (USDoT) conducted a session on the SmartCity Challenge and Urban Freight and Logistics. This session was a follow-up to the USDoT report titled, Beyond Traffic 2045.
    Read More
  • GM and LG to jointly develop EVs
    June 22, 2012
    General Motors and LG Group will jointly design and engineer future Electric Vehicles (EVs), expanding a relationship built on LG’s work as the battery cell supplier for the Chevrolet Volt and Opel Ampera extended-range EVs. Teams of LG and GM engineers will work on key components, as well as vehicle structures and architectures. Vehicles resulting from the partnership will be sold in many countries. Timing of the launch of the first vehicles resulting from the partnership will be announced closer to market
    Read More

Highlighted Content