EcoMotors was an American company developing and commercializing an

opposed-piston An opposed-piston engine is a piston engine in which each cylinder has a piston at both ends, and no cylinder head. Petrol and diesel opposed-piston engines have been used mostly in large-scale applications such as ships, military tanks, and f ...

opposed-cylinder (OPOC) engine for use in cars, light trucks, commercial vehicles, aerospace, marine, agriculture, auxiliary power units, generators, etc. This engine was promoted to significantly improve

fuel efficiency Fuel efficiency is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device, wh ...

, and substantially reduce production costs when compared to convententional internal combustion engines. EcoMotors was founded in 2008. Its headquarters were in

Allen Park, Michigan Allen Park is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 28,638. Ford Motor Company is an integral part of the community. Many of the company's offices and facilities lie within the city limit ...

. As of 2013, the principal officers of EcoMotors were: Prof. Peter Hofbauer (chairman, chief technology officer and inventor of the OPOC engine), Donald Runkle (chief executive officer) and Amit Soman (president and chief operating officer). The two primary investors in EcoMotors were

Khosla Ventures Khosla Ventures is an American venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, focused on early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, financial services, agriculture, healthcare and clean technology sectors. Some of its most successfu ...

and

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

Vinod Khosla Vinod Khosla (born 28 January 1955) is an Indian-American businessman and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Khosla made his wealth from early venture capital investments in areas such ...

, who founded Khosla Ventures in 2004, was a co-founder and CEO of

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...

and formerly a general partner at

Kleiner Perkins Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneurs ...

. In April 2013 EcoMotors announced a deal to have Chinese auto parts giant Zhongding Power build a $200 million factory in the Anhui Province in eastern China. The factory hoped to produce 150,000 OPOC engines per year, with a further site reserved to take production to 400,000. The engine blocks would be made of CGI (

compacted graphite iron Compacted graphite iron (CGI), also known as vermicular graphite iron (GJV, VG, JV or GGV from the german: "Gusseisen mit Vermiculargraphit") especially in non-English speaking countries, is a metal which is gaining popularity in applications that ...

) and would be produced at a fully automated Zhongding foundry in Anhui by a license from Sintercast of Sweden. The production was first announced to commence in 2014 but delayed to 2016. As of February 2017 the EcoMotors web site was defunct. It's intellectual property was put up for sale with closing date in Sept. 2017.

OPOC engine

The OPOC engine is a

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a Thermodynamic power cycle, power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being comple ...

reciprocating

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combus ...

in which each

cylinder A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...

has a

piston A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors, hydraulic cylinders and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-tig ...

at both ends, and no

cylinder head In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head (often abbreviated to simply "head") sits above the cylinders and forms the roof of the combustion chamber. In sidevalve engines, the head is a simple sheet of metal; whereas in more modern ov ...

or mechanical

valvetrain A valvetrain or valve train is a mechanical system that controls the operation of the intake and exhaust valves in an internal combustion engine. The intake valves control the flow of air/fuel mixture (or air alone for direct-injected engines) ...

. The opposed cylinder design has two cylinders, one on each side of the crankshaft, each with two pistons, for mechanical balance. The first opposed piston engine produced was by the French company

Gobron-Brillié Gobron-Brillié was an early French automobile manufactured from 1898 to 1930.P. Roberts (1973). ''A Picture History of the Automobile'', Ward Lock Ltd, London, UK. The original company, ''Societé des Moteurs Gobron-Brillié'', was founded by t ...

in 1900. The engine had one crankshaft and is very similar in concept to the EcoMotors OPOC engine design, except using a camshaft and valves, and not in opposed-cylinder configuration. The OPOC engine can be moduled with two, or more, engines coupled via an electric clutch between engines. When more power is needed the second engine is clutched in. When clutched out of service there are no friction or pumping losses from the second engine module. This arrangement in city running vehicles could have a small, highly economical engine as the prime engine and when accelerating hard, or pulling heavy loads, the second, or more, engines are clutched into service.

References

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External links

Official EcoMotors website (Archived)"Opposed Piston Opposed Cylinder Engine"
video at Engineering TV
Start-Ups Work to Reinvent the Combustion Engine
Defunct automotive companies of the United States American companies established in 2008 American companies disestablished in 2017 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 2017 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 2008 2008 establishments in Michigan 2017 disestablishments in Michigan Defunct manufacturing companies based in Michigan