Don Runkle has a bit of news for everyone. It’s engines, not batteries, that will make automobiles cleaner and more efficient. “We unabashedly say that we have the best solution,” says Runkle, the CEO of Allen Park, MI-based engine developer EcoMotors International.
The startup, which brought in $23 million in Series B financing this summer from Menlo Park, CA-based Khosla Ventures and Seattle billionaire Bill Gates, has designed an opposing piston, opposing cylinder engine that users fewer parts than traditional motors do and generates more power from each stroke of the engine, CEO Runkle says. He says the “opoc” engine is smaller, lighter, and less expensive than the motors already out there, and a more viable option than switching automobile fleets over to electrical power.
“You’re hearing lots of stuff on cleantech right now that is more efficient, but they miss the other three,” Runkle says, noting the size, weight, and expense of hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles has slowed the widespread adoption of the technology.
The EcoMotors technology comes from Peter Hofbauer, who helped develop and commercialize Volkswagen’s first diesel engine. He started working on the opoc engine in 2003, first for military applications, and the startup was officially launched in 2008 with $10.5 million in funding from Khosla Ventures. EcoMotors’ other two top executives, Runkle and president and COO John Coletti, also have experience developing engines at big automakers. Most of the firm’s development work is done at a facility in Livonia, MI.
EcoMotors’ opoc engine is built with opposing pistons, opposing cylinders, and a single crank in the middle. Together, the components work to create a combustion power event with every revolution, unlike existing 4-stroke engines that combust every other turn, Runkle says. (Check out this video from founder Hofbauer for a more in-depth explanation of the technology.) The arrangement results in lower friction and heat rejection, and the the engine has a higher power density—meaning power per size and weight—than anything else out there. “The holy grail of engines is power density,” says Runkle, who joined the company last year.
The company is developing a the sixth generation of the opoc engine module, which is long and narrow, and perfectly balanced on both sides, enabling multiple modules to be stacked for a most sophisticated engine. An automobile with two of the opoc units stacked could better adjust to fluctuating power needs in traffic, Runkle says. For example, a dual-opoc engine could shut off the power of one of the units while the car is moving at a lower speed, and fire up the second one as the car speeds up. This could be even further extended when paired with an electric motor—what Runkle calls a “tribrid system”—which could be the only part of the engine system running as
