Gates, Khosla Invest $23M in Detroit’s EcoMotors to Develop Efficient Engine

Bill Gates is betting $23 million that the internal combustion engine still has a few good years left in it. The Microsoft chairman, along with Menlo Park, CA-based Khosla Ventures, has invested in Troy, MI-based EcoMotors International.

What they’re betting on is EcoMotors’ opposed-piston, opposed-cylinder (OPOC) technology for gas and diesel engines. EcoMotors says its technology will deliver up to 60 percent greater fuel efficiency than conventional engines at half the weight and size. Plus, they’re cheaper to manufacture and operate.

“The opoc engine can be an important step in providing affordable, low-emission transportation for the developing world,” Gates said in a prepared statement. “EcoMotors has developed a promising technology that could help reduce levels of greenhouse gas emissions in a low-cost, globally relevant way.”

In May, EcoMotors announced it was set to receive $18 million from China-based automotive supplier Zhongding Holding Group-a large Tier 1 auto supplier with a U.S. subsidiary in Monroe, MI-and Global Optima, an engineering services company based in Allen Park, MI.

The company is using the investment to further develop the engine. CEO Don Runkle has said that he plans to expand the company in Michigan.

Author: Howard Lovy

Howard Lovy is a veteran journalist who has focused primarily on technology, science and innovation during the past decade. In 2001, he helped launch Small Times Magazine, a nanotech publication based in Ann Arbor, MI, where he built the freelance team and worked closely with writers to set the tone and style for an emerging sector that had never before been covered from a business perspective. Lovy's work at Small Times, and on one of the first nanotechnology-themed blogs, helped him earn a reputation for making complex subjects understandable, interesting, and even entertaining for a broad audience. It also earned him the 2004 Prize in Communication from the Foresight Institute, a nanotech think tank. In his freelance work, Lovy covers nanotechnology in addition to technological innovation in Michigan with an emphasis on efforts to survive and retool in the state's post-automotive age. Lovy's work has appeared in many publications, including Wired News, Salon.com, the Wall Street Journal, The Detroit News, The Scientist, the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report, Michigan Messenger, and the Ann Arbor Chronicle.