The theme of this year’s SAE World Congress is Charging Forward Together and one of those leading the charge is MBtech
Toga! Toga! Toga!
Even in car crazy Detroit, when I mentioned that I was going to the SAE World Congress, a number of my technically challenged brethren questioned the need to leave my colleagues here at LotPro.com and party hearty during work hours.
But while my associates' initial assessment may have been a bit wide of the mark, in a way they were right. While SAE is not a Greek society, it is a fraternity of sorts. Its members, however, are not beer-swilling collegians, but engineers representing all facets of the mobility industry.
A brief history of The Society of Automotive Engineers
In 1902, Peter Heldt wrote an editorial in a magazine of that era, The Horseless Age advocating the concept of a “free exchange of ideas” between the technical people involved in the emerging auto industry. By 1905, enough interest had been generated for a technical society to be formed. The first president was Andrew Riker, while the vice president was a talented young engineer by the name of Henry Ford. Initial membership included a total of 30 engineers.
By 1916, membership had expanded to include engineers in the aeronautical industry, a move encouraged by Thomas Edison, Glenn Curtiss, Glenn Martin and Orville Wright. Membership continued to grow, and by 1980 membership in the society exceeded 35,000 and had expanded to include aerospace, automotive and off highway engineers.
Today, the SAE is truly international, with fully 25% of its members located outside North America with affiliates that include SAE Brazil and SAE India. Twelve different collegiate design competitions put classroom training into real-world action that attracts more than 4,500 students from 500 universities on 6 continents. Designing, building and testing the performance of these real vehicles puts student engineers in contact with recruiters from the leading mobility industries with many of them landing their first jobs through these contacts.
The MBtech Reporter
One exhibitor at this year’s SAE World Congress is MBtech Group, an engineering and consulting division of Daimler. The group is involved in vehicle engineering, powertrain solutions, electronics solutions and consulting.
The MBtech Reporter, a pickup study, presented as a 1:4 scale model that had its North American unveiling earlier today, was built to demonstrate the company’s design and engineering prowess.
According to MBtech, “The study displays a resource-saving drive system solution for a light commercial vehicle for delivery transport which can be implemented today. The ‘Reporter’ is driven by a full-hybrid solution known as the ‘DualX E-Drive’. This drive system is based on a 70 kilowatt electric motor and a compressed natural gas powered 1.2 liter, 75 kilowatt combustion engine. As a result, the pick-up study achieves a calculated maximum speed of 81 mile per hour and has a total range of more than 186 miles. In pure electric mode the vehicle has a range of up to 35 miles when measured in accordance with the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). The electric motor powers the rear axle and the four cylinder combustion engine powers the front wheels. As a result the engines can work completely independently and either alternately or simultaneously. This enables the vehicle to realize an intelligent all-wheel drive system, when required. Three driving programs can be selected from the cockpit: ‘eco’ for electric operation in inner-city, ‘4range’ for low fuel consumption and long range and ‘4dynamic’ in order to utilize the power of both engines for maximum driving pleasure.”
