Viewing posts tagged "Achates"

Transonic Gets Some Mystery Funding

Transonic Combustion, the people who want to boost your gas mileage to 100 miles a gallon, got some more funding from their investors today. It is the third round of funding. But they they are not saying for how much.

That's very genteel of you.

The company essentially wants to take some high compression parts that have evolved in the diesel world and bring them to gas cars. Transonic has a car in its labs and has discussed testing it in real world conditions. Last year, it replaced founding CEO Mike Cheiky with Brian Ahlborn.

Far more attention is being paid to electric and hybrid cars, but a few startups and some of the large car makers are putting serious dollars behind improving gas mileage. Achates Power and EcoMotors have developed dual compression/dual piston engines that are similar to a particular type of aircraft engine in the 1930s. These companies say they can also get 100 miles a gallon. Ford has an Escort in Europe that gets 65 miles a gallon on diesel. Still, like a lot of electric car companies, Transonic, Achates and EcoMotors are still in the early, experimental stages.