Chevy Volt Style Hybrid Slate Truck

[E90400K]

If there was more investment dollars in combustion it would be great if Horse would start again developing the ceramic ICE that Ford and other companies were involved in back in the late 1970's and early 1980's. The ceramics were reaching 65% thermal efficiency.

 

[KevinRS]

If there was more investment dollars in combustion it would be great if Horse would start again developing the ceramic ICE that Ford and other companies were involved in back in the late 1970's and early 1980's. The ceramics were reaching 65% thermal efficiency.

Looks like development on those went on into the early 90s, but no one ever overcame the manufacturing issues. Ceramic is brittle and stiff, so hard to make large parts to tight tolerances, and make in volume.

 

[E90400K]

Looks like development on those went on into the early 90s, but no one ever overcame the manufacturing issues. Ceramic is brittle and stiff, so hard to make large parts to tight tolerances, and make in volume.

But when you take the ICE out of the direct connection to the drive wheels and it only drives a generator load there are no driveline shock forces that the engine block needs to counteract. And ceramics can be manufactured to very high tolerances well within the tolerances needed for an engine. As an example, ceramic brake rotors and CMC jet engine parts. As I said, to restart development from technologies that were under development some 40 years ago. As we have seen with the advent of the modern BEV, the market is now more tolerant with accepting new materials and driveline technologies at a higher vehicle cost. Some of the reason ceramic ICE stopped development was anticipated non-acceptance by the market. The Wikipedia article you read does not contain the entirety of what was going on in the development of ceramic ICE back in the 1980's. I followed it directly back in the day via the common automotive media and the manufacturing industry periodicals I used to read for career purposes.

 

[KevinRS]

My understanding is that it isn't just the driveline shocks, which could be cushioned, but difficulties in manufacturing large parts, at mass production scales.
Something like a toilet is ceramic and possibly even bigger, but doesn't have tight tolerances. there can be a quarter inch variance in one, and no one's going to notice unless it's all on one side. An engine block is going to use more expensive ceramic, and cannot warp at all in firing. Grinding down large ceramics, if you cast a larger size and grind to spec is difficult, and takes expensive tooling and too much time. It's just a lot harder to work with and more unforgiving than metal.
You can put in tens of thousands of dollars and a lot of hours per engine as far as they got, and probably get a working one, but 20 years of work and they never managed scaling it to get costs down.
Now gas, and in this case diesel is a market that is shrinking, as far as automobile engines, so investment in new gas or diesel tech that is probably years from making it to market is going to be limited.