Currently reading: BMW's next-gen fuel-saving
Efficient Dynamics programme to be expanded

BMW will continue to develop its Efficient Dynamics system and will load up the new 1-series with the next generation of the fuel-saving tech as standard.

The principle of Efficient Dynamics will stay the same, however: small, mostly invisible changes to the car’s mechanicals that, when combined, add up to sizeable improvements in fuel consumption and emissions.

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So in addition to today’s Efficient Dynamics - which includes a disconnecting alternator, stop-start and low-resistance tyres - the new car will get features such as pre-heating for the engine, differential and gearbox oil to ensure the oil is working at its most efficient from the moment the car is started.

Stop-start will become available on BMW’s automatic gearboxes as well as manuals, and a new electro-mechanical steering system will be added.

Much further into the future, and not destined for the 1-series, is a heat recovery system that uses waste heat from the exhaust to generate electricity to power the car’s ancillaries.

BMW has already built a development car, a 5-series, that uses this equipment. The thermoelectric generator, as it’s called, is built into the exhaust system and mounted in the middle of the car.

By heating one end of the system and cooling the other (using the car’s coolant), electricity can be generated. But it will be at least five years before BMW introduces this technology, and it will be launched on range-topping cars such as the 7-series.

Greg Kable

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