Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/375259
istock F a l l 2 0 1 4 | w e s t w o r l d 41 automotive M yths about idling abound. Have you heard this one? It takes more gas to restart a car than to leave it idling. Not true, according to Natural Resources Canada. Idling for lon- ger than 10 seconds actually uses more gas and produces more carbon dioxide than restarting the engine. So do you want to save money on fuel and help the environment, too? Stop-start technology can lend a hand. WHat iS it? A stop-start system shuts off your vehicle's engine when you're stopped in traffic (or in a drive-through lineup), and turns the engine on again, automatically, when it's time to go. Just like that: no more idling. While the technology has been around for decades in Europe, and it's long been a component in North American hybrid vehicles, it's just now becoming widely available for vehicles with standard internal combustion engines in Canada. Global production of stop-start- equipped vehicles is expected to grow from three million to 35 million by 2015. HoW DoeS it WoRK? e vehicle's computer sends a signal that cuts the engine when the wheels come to a complete stop. As soon as the driver releases the brakes or applies the clutch, an electric generator takes power from the battery to quickly crank the engine back to life. Manufacturers tout the restart process as almost imme- diate (though at first drivers might find the engine silence at stoplights a bit unsettling). touGH tiCKeRS If a vehicle's computer is the brain of a stop-start sys- tem, the battery is the heart. And stop-start vehicles need a strong heart. Most use absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries instead of the standard lead-acid variety. (AGM batteries have saturated glass-fibre mats in place of a gelled or liquid electrolyte.) ese are more costly, but capa- ble of supplying the extra juice required for frequent start-ups and running a vehicle's electrical systems when the engine is inactive. iDlinG: it all aDDS up Even seconds of engine downtime, a few times per day, can add up to fuel savings and reduced carbon emissions. According to Transport Canada, vehicles with stop-start systems save up to 11.5 per cent in fuel over vehicles without the tech- nology, in typical city traffic. at's $5.75 on a $50 fill-up. If every driver of a light-duty vehi- cle avoided idling by three min- utes a day, over a year, we would collectively save 630 million litres of fuel and keep more than 1.4 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions out of the air. in tHe SHoWRoom A growing number of auto- makers are offering stop-start technology on their combustion- only models in North America. BMW has been including stop- start in Minis since 2007, and Ford was an early adopter of the technology on its Fusion SE 1.6-litre EcoBoost engine mod- els. Last year the company esti- mated that the fuel-saving innovation (which automatically shuts off and then restarts the engine to reduce idling time) would be integrated into 70 per cent of its vehicles by 2017. KIA is onboard with its Rio ECO vari- ant, and GM's 2015 Chevrolet Impala will include stop-start as a standard feature. Some companies have been hesitant about making the move due to the performance expecta- tions of North American drivers, but tougher fuel efficiency man- dates are looming and wide- spread adoption is only a matter of time. Navigant Research, a market research and consulting company that analyzes clean technology, estimated at the end of last year that worldwide sales of stop-start vehicles would increase from 8.8 million in 2013 to 55.4 million in 2022. W The Idle Stopper Stop-start technology is coming to a combustion engine near you by Paul Sinkewicz