DETROIT // A relatively simple and inexpensive fuel-saving technology from Europe will soon be introduced on vehicles in North America, engineers say. "Start-stop" systems, which turn off a car when it is idling and reignite the engine when the driver releases the brake, will be making its debut in the United States and Canada in the next five years, The Detroit News reported last week. The technology is widespread in Europe and will be embraced in North America as a tool to meet increasingly stringent fuel-economy and emissions requirements. "Engineers kill for one-tenth of a mile per gallon," Joe Phillippi of AutoTrends Consulting told the newspaper. "In city driving, it would make a huge impact." Estimates vary, but the consensus is that shutting off the engine at a stop can improve fuel economy as much as 15 per cent. Half of the new cars in Europe will have start/stop technology by 2012 and North America will reach that figure in 2016, said Frank Frister, a product manager with Bosch North America. The only start-stop system offered in the United States today is on the Porsche Panamera, the first vehicle to mate the system to a non-traditional automatic transmission.
Stop-start plan to save fuel
A relatively simple and inexpensive fuel-saving technology from Europe will soon be introduced on vehicles in North America, engineers say.
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