Shell Lubricants, Gordon Murray Design and Geo Technology engine specialists are getting ready to release their Project M urban concept car by mid-2016. Originally announced to be ready by the end of 2015, Shells concept car is the first of its kind where an oil major is involved in a fuel efficient passenger vehicle. It needs a few more months of development before the grand unveiling scheduled for the second quarter of this year.

Shells role in the project is to formulate lubricants that provide a high level of fuel efficiency. Close to the edge but safe, [the lubricants] can radically reduce friction while providing protection, Bob Mainwaring, Shell Lubricants innovation technology manager, told the media gathered at Shells Technology Center in Hamburg, Germany, in November. The lubricants are an essential part of fuel economy and should be viewed as a basic component of the engine. Most people would naturally assume that oil, greases and fuels are simply added at the end of a concept-car build project, but this is not like that.

Technical Intimacy

Gordon Murray Designs (GMD) Andy Jones said that this project represents a technically intimate co-engineering relationship among the three expert teams. It means that the development of the lubricants, engine and vehicle will be completely integrated to deliver results that neither group could achieve by working alone, said Jones, the projects design director.

Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil major, aims to show what can be achieved when its products are integrated into the design right from the start. The development of this fuel-efficient concept car was divided into three tasks. Low-friction lubricant development was assigned to Shell, light-weight vehicle design was given to GMD and redesign of racing engine technology was handled by Geo Technologies.

The project uses state-of-the-art combustion technology developed by Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi. The base three-cylinder engine has displacement of 660 cubic centimeters and reduces power at around 40 to 50 kilowatts. The design of an exceptionally energy-efficient vehicle should be consistent with city use that is affordable, accessible and capable of reducing personal transport energy usage in a material way, Shell said.

According to Shell, the world faces three hard facts regarding energy: Demand is rising; supply is becoming more challenging; and the carbon dioxide produced by energy consumption poses a serious threat. By 2050, Mainwaring said, three quarters of the 9 billion people on Earth will live in big cities. It means twice the energy demand compared to today.

Shell found that transportation accounts for 35 percent of worldwide energy use, and this is where the partners say Project M can make a difference. Energy abatement strategies must pay serious attention to transport, Mainwaring said.

By tailoring special material coatings for piston rings and cylinders, we are able to reduce even further the viscosity of the motor oil used for this car, explained Eva Bednarik, Shells general manager for lubricant technology. These special coatings for the Project M car include diamond-like materials, titanium and other materials. We looked into various options [for coatings, and selection] always depends on operating conditions such as friction and pressure. Controlling friction and pressure allows the use of lighter lubricants than would be possible if those parameters were not addressed.

The Lubricant

The designers plan for the car to use an SAE 0W-12 engine oil, rather than the 5W-30 commonly used in new cars today. Industry specifications do not yet recognize 0W-12, or even the thicker 0W-16 for that matter, and they also place many other constraints on lubricant formulators, Shell said. The American Petroleum Institute, for example, has not established fuel economy limits for SAE 0W-8, 0W-12 or 0W-16, so these grades cannot be licensed as API SN Resource Conserving or as meeting the ILSAC GF-5 specification.

Shell is working with Geo Technology to codesign an engine and lubricant that operate at exceptionally low friction. Geo Technology is a Roche, Switzerland-based engineering consulting company serving the automobile and motorcycle industries.

Shell will use its Share PurePlus-branded synthetic base oil developed from gas-to-liquid technology to formulate the engine oil for the car. Our [base oil] viscosity changes less with temperature, and it is more resistant to high temperatures than conventional oils. The company explained that after additives are incorporated, the finished oil will be thinner to provide low friction at most engine operating temperatures but also will be thicker than conventional oils at high temperatures to provide more protection.

During the presentation at Shells technology center, a company official showcased the concept cars engine, which the laboratory uses to assess prototype oil formulations. Engine tests measure performance and friction over a wide range of operating conditions.

History

The predecessor to Project M was Gordon Murray Designs T25 concept car for urban mobility, which debuted in 2010. It employs iStream chassis technology used in Formula 1 race cars. When GMD partnered with Shell to slightly redesign and conceptualize that car, the initiative was renamed Project M.

In previous projects, Shell, GMD and Geo Technologies collaborated on Ayrton Sennas and Alain Prosts Honda-powered and Shell-fueled race cars that won all but one Grand Prix in the 1988 season. It is a record that still stands, said Shell.

GMD is an automotive design team based in Shalford Surrey, England. Its creator is Gordon Murray, designer of a Formula 1 race car and the McLaren F1 road car. Collaboration between Murray and Shell go back way further; Shell sponsored the first car and engine Murray ever built, in South Africa, when he was just 19.

The Future

This will be a demonstration car that we expect to unveil in the summer of 2016 at the latest, Mainwaring told LubesnGreases. Shells goal is to be in a position to answer challenges posed by original equipment manufacturer partners trying to comply with emission reduction legislation. We [want to be able] tell them that if you use lubricants of this type and you engineer your engine in this way, you can get closer to those targets with relatively low cost.

Mainwaring said that it is up to GMD to choose an OEM partner that can commercialize the car for mass consumption. Shell is involved only in the lubricants and fluids design.

Project M aims to produce a gasoline-powered passenger car that can provide a fuel efficiency of 100 miles per gallon in urban driving, far better than existing mainstream cars. Shell acknowledged that electric cars perform significantly better than the goal set for Project M. But in the final analysis, if we factor in the depreciation value, with its U.S. $10,000 projected price tag, Project M is an absolute winner, the company said.