The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE International) is meeting in Detroit this week, and whenever the auto industry's designers come together, prognostications about the future of transportation get interesting. Ford Motor Company started tongues wagging yesterday with an announcement that could revolutionize what we drive.
Wired reports, "Ford estimates that by 2015, some 70 percent of automotive materials will be modified or redefined by nanotechnology." Nanotech, the science of constructing materials on a tiny, molecular level, promises revolutionary new materials that are lighter, stronger and more durable than the aluminum and steel cars are built with today. Ford says, "Guided by a goal to realize a 40-percent boost in fuel efficiency by 2020, Ford's scientists are working to reduce vehicles' curb weights by some 250 to 750 pounds, depending on the model, using nanoparticles to create materials that weigh less but sacrifice nothing in terms of strength, performance, or durability."
Kicking Tires reports that, already, a Ford-owned German lab has "devised a spray-on coating of nanoparticles for the cylinder liners that wears less and cuts friction losses while weighing only a fraction as much as the cast-iron material" automakers use today.
Autoblog Green reports that Ford is also working on "improved surface coating for the vehicle's sheetmetal and nanotechnology in lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells."
Most analysts have been expecting to see nanotech materials in cars -- and in every other industrial product -- eventually. But Ford's announcement that it expects to have nanotech particles in 70 percent of its materials within seven years took many by surprise.
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