How the 2011 Chevy Cruze Eco Stays Slim, Trim & High-Mileage

By John Voelcker

John Voelcker

Senior Editor BIO

John is Senior Editor for High Gear Media. In addition to news coverage and new car reviews, John creates and oversees all editorial for High Gear's... More

LATEST ARTICLE
Another Convert To Natural-Gas Fueling: Railroad Locomotives?
The U.S. is increasingly awash in natural gas, so it's natural to consider it as a potential... Read More

• #4LEADERBOARD RANK
• 2895ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED
• 1941COMMENTS POSTED

8,875 views Apr 5, 2010

Follow John

Add to circle

2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco

Enlarge Photo

We've written already about the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco high-mileage model launched at the New York Auto Show. Now we've had a chance to sit down with Gary Altman, GM's vehicle chief engineer for compact cars-North America, and find out exactly how they did it.

In addition to predictable tweaks--tires with lower rolling-resistance, and a higher sixth gear in the manual transmission--the vehicle engineers focused intently on cutting total weight.

2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco

Enlarge Photo

2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco

Enlarge Photo

2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco

Enlarge Photo

2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco

Enlarge Photo

2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco

Enlarge Photo

They fitted lightweight 17-inch aluminum wheels, and used special speaker magnets made of an alloy of neodymium, a rare earth, plus iron and boron. Together, those two measures saved roughly 25 pounds.

The engineering team also took some unusual steps they plan to roll out across the entire Cruze line. They specified a smaller weld tip on the body-assembly robots, trimmed roughly 1 millimeter (less than 10 percent) off the weld flanges between panels, and scalloped the flanges to reduce excess metal between weld points. They also "selectively" reduced the gauge of the steel in unstressed panels.

The changes to the steel panel thickness and weld flanges gave an additional 25 pounds (or 11.5 kilograms to the engineers). Some of the steps came from an innovation pioneered in Europe, on the previous-generation Saturn Astra.

While those steelwork changes are being pioneered on Cruze Volt shells built in Lordstown, Ohio, they will be applied to other Cruze Volt shells in other locations, including those from European and Korean assembly plants.

For motive power, the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco uses a small 1.4-liter engine with variable valve timing, which is turbocharged to extract 138 horsepower.

Other modifications from the standard 2011 Cruze aimed to reduce the vehicle's aerodynamic drag. They include:

• a lower ride height;
• a shutter on the lower grille that opens and closes to reduce drag when cooling air isn't needed;
• smaller openings in the upper grille;
• a larger front air dam;
• additional underbody panels below the engine and the floorpan sides;
• a rear-axle airflow diverter so air flows below rather than through the suspension; and
• a rear spoiler that smoothes airflow so it leaves the vehicle cleanly.

While mileage figures for Eco models fitted with a six-speed automatic transmission haven't yet been released, Chevy expects the automatic 2011 Cruze Eco to do 0-to-60-mph in about 9 seconds. A version with a manual transmission model will be roughly one second slower.