Managing Director Yuhiko Kiyota of Mitsubishi Motor Corporation is in charge of passenger car/light truck R&D activities. Mitsubishi sees a greater future for its GDI engine. Combined with a high-efficiency assist/starter motor, CVT, and a small battery pack, it will be an ideal hybrid power unit. The Omega GDI 4.5 L V8 was developed by Mitsubishi for the Korean Hyundai's Equus luxury car.

Kiyota says Mitsubishi is continuing these cooperative ventures. The relationships with Volvo and Hyundai have been worthwhile and satisfactory, says Kiyota. However, the negotiating partner on the NEDCAR joint venture will now be Ford, with whom Mitsubishi has to seek various forms of alliance. As for Hyundai, Korea's Number One manufacturer is positively moving toward technical and technological independence. Neither Mitsubishi nor Hyundai is considering capital or financial involvement with each other. The two companies last joint project was a luxury executive sedan series, powered by a GDI (gasoline direct injection) 4.5-liter V8 engine. Hyundai's version, the Equus, has recently been launched in Korea, and Mitsubishi's version should debut this autumn. Kiyota admits the number of such joint projects with the Korean company is decreasing, while their technical cooperation on advanced technology is continuing.

Mitsubishi places high hope on its GDI technology. Kiyota insists that in order to reduce carbon dioxide emission, it is absolutely essential to improve greatly the internal combustion engine's thermal efficiency. Kiyota goes so far as to say, "It is the duty of every automobile manufacturer who produces vehicles to improve the gasoline engine's thermal efficiency. And I believe direct fuel injection into the combustion chamber is a most promising "correct" approach to achieve that goal."

Kiyota reports that more and more manufacturers have become aware of the significance of gasoline direct-injection technology, particularly in Japan and Europe. At one time, their opinions were divided; however, they are now coming onto the common ground that they must work on this technology. "We are continuously improving our GDI, and combined with peripheral technology, such as the combination of the electronically controlled CVT and hybrid GDI-electric application, and will endeavor to attain superior fuel efficiency."

Why haven't direct-injection gasoline IC engines appeared in Europe till now? Kiyota grants that the Europeans have tried, but found that the technology poses too many difficulties. The fact that direct-injection of fuel into the combustion chamber would greatly improve thermal efficiency was known 30 to 40 years ago, but those attempts, like the PROCO and TEXACO engines invariably failed. "I am the first to admit that our team had nearly given up more than once," he said. The breakthrough came when our analytical techniques had progressed so far as to show what was exactly happening in the cylinder, how mixtures are ignited, and how combustion took place. It was due to the analytical skill of Hiromitsu Ando and his team of GDI engineers. That really marked the birth of the Mitsubishi GDI.

Since Mitsubishi introduced its GDI powered vehicles, Toyota and Nissan have followed. How do they compare? "After trying various mixture motions, we reached our tumble motion. That was our singularly unique advantage. Toyota's system relies on a modified swirl motion which they call diagonal swirl. While I pay respect to their efforts commercially offering cars powered by the D4 engine, I am not convinced it is as good an approach as ours. Ditto Nissan with their direct-injection engine that employs a similar swirl principle. I may sound overly confident but our system is now winning a wider acclaim, especially in Europe. We are already supplying Volvo with GDI engines, and have entered a technical agreement with Peugeot," he said.

Kiyota explained that when a glimmer of hope was seen for the future of GDI, the GDI team formed was a modest one, with no more than 50 designers and engineers engaged in the system's design and experiment. The number of engineers increased as the development progressed to endurance and in-vehicle testing stages, yet it was still a far cry from the might Toyota's engineering team. "It was still an important priority project, and spared no material resources," said Kiyota. He attributes the success of the GDI project into product fruition to the absence of a separate research center. "Instead, we have the engine research department together with the engine design and development departments within the Passenger Vehicle Technical Center," he said. "We do not do research for technical papers; that's up to academics. Our basic research is directly connected to products. That is the purpose of the engine research department. Often, those involved in basic and advanced research are regarded as hermits —I stressed to the group, ours will not be regarded that way. They must be working and productive engineers. All the down-to-earth tests including various climatic conditions, high altitude, contaminated or improper fuel, short shopping hops, injector plugging were carried out by the research department, before the project was handed over to the design and development unit."

Now, why a large displacement V8 GDI? Surely those who buy the executive sedan are less concerned with fuel cost. Kiyota responded, "It is our corporate philosophy. Fuel economy is the foremost consideration in any product we develop. True the GDI entails more complexity and higher cost, but we must pursue our objective."

On the other extreme end of car products, could the GDI help achieve that magic 3 L/100 km goal (about 79 mpg)? "Yes, with a manual transmission with an automatic stop-and-go facility (the engine cuts off when the vehicle comes to a stop and restarts on go). With an automatic transmission, you may have to go to the length of an IC-electric hybrid. "

Taking up the subject of an IC-electric hybrid, Kiyota does not believe the Toyota Prius-type vehicles will find wide public acceptance because of their high operating cost and price. "If a technology is not widely accepted, its environmental contribution is minimal. That is the reason we are developing a GDI-based IC-electric hybrid, which has several benefits. It could be more readily started in the propulsion/starting mode at lower vehicle speeds because of its inherent ease of torque control. Within one or two rotations of the wheels, the engine can be started without inducing the unpleasant vibration of the starter. This enables us to reduce the motor and battery sizes, thus attaining more favorable operating cost factors."

The focal issue of the day is the fuel-cell development. "There are the Ford-DaimlerChrysler-Ballard consortium and the GM-Toyota alliance. We will form a third team with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. MHI possesses leading-edge technology and experience in stationary fuel cell development and manufacture, second to none in the world. We are in the position to be among the world's top fuel cell contenders. Everybody is at the starting line.

"Note how long it would take to start a methanol reforming system, if it works. It's still miles away from the acceptable two-minute start-up time. Nissan has recently demonstrated an experimental fuel-cell vehicle, powered by a Ballard-supplied stack system. We do not believe in buying the vehicle's heart, which is the fuel-cell stack." Kiyota agrees with other industry executives that there must be important technological breakthroughs, in startability, packaging, and cost. Cost must be reduced by as much as 90% of today's experimental vehicles.

Is it the powerplant of the future? "Those who say yes have acceptable reasons, and those who say no have theirs, too. The important question is how long could we have fossil-based fuel, and at what price? It is certain that hydrocarbon fuel will become more expensive. Then we would need a powerplant with exceptional thermal efficiency. Yes, we must continue to develop fuel cells," he said.

On the emergence of mega-suppliers, Kiyota is philosophical. "Regrettable as it may be for an engineer, we must accept their cooperation to survive in these difficult times. We must, however, retain our own core technology unique to Mitsubishi," he explained.