January 11, 2010
U.S. grants Detroit 3, suppliers millions for fuel savings, jobs | detnews.com | The Detroit News
U.S. grants Detroit 3, suppliers millions for fuel savings, jobs
Detroit -- The Obama administration awarded $187 million in grants Monday to major automakers and suppliers to boost fuel efficiency.
The awards are funded by the $787 billion stimulus to nine companies, including General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Group LLC, Daimler AG and Delphi Holdings LLP.
The companies said the awards will create 500 jobs and by 2015 the projects are expected to create over 6,000 jobs.
"Improving the efficiency of our vehicles is critical to reducing America's dependence on foreign oil and addressing climate change," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement. He will announce the awards today in at Cummins Inc. in Columbus, Ind., which won $39 million to develop a new diesel engine and other improvements.
The largest awards are for heavy duty trucks. Daimler Trucks North America LLC won almost $40 million for "engine downsizing" and other technologies.
The companies must match the grants with an equivalent amount of private capital.
The Obama administration has awarded nearly $2.6 billion in grants to automakers, battery makes and auto suppliers as part of its effort to dramatically boost the fuel efficiency of the nation's cars and trucks and shore up manufacturing. The administration also is awarding $25 billion in low-cost government loans to help automakers retool plants; last year, it awarded $5.9 billion to Ford and $1.6 billion to Nissan Motor Co.
The White House noted that the transportation sector accounts for 28 percent of total U.S. energy use. The administration and automakers agreed to boost fuel efficiency standards to a fleetwide average of 34 mpg by the 2016 model year.
Chrysler won $14.5 million for a "flexible combustion system for their minivan platform based on a downsized, turbocharged engine that uses direct gasoline injection."
Delphi got $7.5 million to develop "a low-temperature combustion system" to improve fuel efficiency by 25 percent.
Ford won $15 million to "achieve a 25 percent fuel economy improvement with a gasoline engine in a 2010 mid- to large-size sedan using technologies including engine downsizing, turbo-charging."
GM got $7.7 million to "develop an engine that uses lean combustion and active heat management," which will boost the fuel economy of a 2010 Malibu demonstration vehicle 25 percent.
Farmington Hills-based auto supplier Robert Bosch GmbH got $12 million to "demonstrate a high compression, turbo-charged engine" that will achieve up to 30 percent efficiency improvement in a gasoline light-duty vehicle.
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