A Mechanic May Have the Tools to Transform the Auto Industry’s Future

Can Jonathon Goodwin drive the American auto industry into tomorrow?

Goodwin is a mechanic whose ability to refit vehicles that boost performance, increase fuel efficiency and cut emissions — is debunking the industry notion that consumers cannot possibly have all three, according to the November issue of Fast Company magazine.

In the magazine profile of Goodwin, writer Clive Thompson tells how Goodwin, of SAE Energy, an alternative energy solutions company based in Wichita, Kan., made waves in 2005 at the Specialty Equipment Market Association SEMA show. General Motors Corp. engineers were surprised when he showed up with a converted Hummer H2 with a diesel engine that also ran on vegetable oil. Hummer is a division of GM. Goodwin said one engineer told him, “GM said this wouldn’t work.”

If the auto industry is able to successfully integrate technology that achieves the big three (optimal performance, increased efficiency and reduced emissions), it could not only change the industry’s economic fortunes but help eliminate the biggest handicap to American foreign policy: dependence on foreign oil.

Continued -But Nick Richards, communications director for Hummer, was displeased with the angle of the Fast Company article because of the perception it gave of Hummer. “The article made it seem like this guy [Goodwin] can do stuff that GM and other Detroit manufacturers can’t do,” Richards said. “We do it every year at SEMA, where we build these amazing …vehicles, but when it gets down to the reality of…is it viable in production? Is it viable for the life expectancy the consumer expects. Can we ensure reliability?”

The answer to these questions is being worked on but progress may not be fast enough for consumers, especially as domestic and foreign automakers alike are bringing more fuel-efficient vehicles to market. Moreover, Global Insight reported on Oct. 31 that “the Hummer brand is facing difficult challenges to stay relevant in the wake of higher fuel prices in the United States and the mass migration out of traditional SUVs. Sales for the brand are down this year and GM is working to bring smaller, more fuel-efficient versions to the market quickly.”

And as gas prices hover around $100 a barrel, pain at the pump coupled with the frustration of an inconsistent foreign policy (largely influenced by oil) toward countries in the Middle East, the American automakers are under pressure to make more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Bio-fuels are viewed by some as an important first step in making more fuel-efficient vehicles, but Richards said the bio-fuel industry is not as developed as some would think. “For things like bio-fuels, there is no set standard for B-100 fuels, (B-100 fuels are 100% biodiesel, a vegetable oil-based fuel designed to run in unmodified diesel engines) so from one pump to another you don’t know what kind of quality you are going to get,” he said. “Which is why we do extensive testing and that is why our vehicles are rated B-5, a bio-diesel blend where we know that we will have reliability, durability and the fuel quality that meets ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) standards across the country.”

The most promising aspect of Goodwin’s efforts is that it does not require expensive technology that needs further development. “The technology has been there forever. They make 90 percent of the components I use,” said Goodwin in Fast Company. Goodwin was not available for comment.

The article continues that “with a $5,000 bolt-on kit he co-engineered — the poor man’s version of a Goodwin conversion– Goodwin can immediately transform any diesel vehicle to burn 50 percent less fuel and produce 80 percent fewer emissions. On a full-size gas-guzzler, he figures the kit earns its money back in about a year–or, on a regular car, two while hitting an emissions target from the outset that’s more stringent than any regulation we’re likely to see in our lifetime.”

The article highlights the work of Eco-Trek, a nonprofit organization that promotes the use of alternative fuels. The organization was founded by Tom Holm who hired Goodwin and it was Goodwin who converted the Hummers that Holm presented to GM. “When Holm showed GM the vehicles Goodwin converted,” the article said, “the company was duly impressed. Internally, Hummer executives had long been looking for a way to blunt criticism of the H2′s gas-guzzling tendencies and saw Goodwin’s vehicles as an object lesson in what was possible. So GM decided to flip the switch: It announced the same year that, beginning in 2008, it would convert its gasoline Hummers to run on ethanol. By 2010, it said, Hummers would be bio-diesel compatible.”

Richards again disagreed with this analysis:  “Last year we provided Tom with two vehicles to do build-ups for his type of traveling show and for SEMA. We also do that with a lot of outfitters and guys out here are doing really cool work; don’t get me wrong, but it is not anything we haven’t already looked into.”

“He’s (Goodwin) talking about putting a turbine jet engine into an H3 that would power batteries for a hybrid. Is something like that viable in production? No. Are we able to do the two-mode hybrid we have coming out in the full-size SUVs and the full-size pick up trucks? Yes,” Richards said.