No export potential in LPI

The EcoLPI system developed by Ford Australia for the Falcon is leading-edge technology in a practical form — but there's little chance it will be adopted in foreign markets.

It's not that Ford divisions in other markets around the world don't know about it or fail to appreciate just how practical and capable the system is, it's simply that there's no business case for the alternative fuel system in other markets.

From 2009, when Ford Australia began developing the EcoLPI system for the Falcon, the company looked at two key markets for pointers: South Korea and the US. Ford's engineers even acquired an LPG-fuelled Hyundai Grandeur for benchmarking. It was clear early on, according to Ford, that the local blokes could improve on Hyundai's efforts.

The three LPG markets (including Australia) have very different requirements for vehicles running on the fuel. In the US LPG is 100 per cent propane all year round, but South Korea varies from 100 per cent butane in summer to a blend of 30 per cent propane/70 per cent butane in winter.

In Australia the quality of LPG varies considerably, not only throughout the different seasons, but depending on the supplier. Ford's Pritika Maharaj, the Powertrain Engineering Manager for Ford APA (Asia Pacific and Africa), says that LPG here can vary from 100 per cent propane to a blend of 40 per cent propane and 60 per cent butane. The company's LPI (Liquid Phase Injection) system was developed to handle such a wide diversity of fuel blends. Australia, being a country of vastly differing climatic conditions also demands a system that can cope with ambient temperatures at either end of the spectrum.

Naturally the new system not only suits extreme temperatures and unanticipated fuel quality here, it would also work effectively well overseas. But that's academic, because nobody except Australia builds a car with an inline six in the Ford world, so the new fuel delivery system as a manufactured package has no potential customers in the US or Korea, let alone other countries.

"In terms of direct application of that technology overseas, there's no immediate [demand]..." said David Wilkinson, Chief Program Engineer for Falcon and Territory. "Also the application overseas is quite different; in North America it's really trucks and not really aimed at the passenger-car market."

A question concerning the export of the LPI system as intellectual property rather than manufactured product required a lengthy explanation from Wilkinson, starting with the dichotomy between Australia and the US. There's been no demand from passenger car drivers in the US for LPG capability.

"I just don't know in North America," says Wilkinson, "they just don't have the same infrastructure that we have... for LPG.  LPG is just so readily available here; it's low cost and it makes perfect sense, whereas in the States their focus is on flex fuel — ethanol — hybrids, battery-electrics, diesel and petrol; LPG is really not — as far as we know — on their radar for the sort of application we've got."

Korea is much the same case as the US, with LPG largely reserved for commercial fleets. It's rare for private vehicle owners to fuel up with LPG in the Asian country. Wilkinson says that Europe doesn't offer any potential for export of either the hardware or the technology either.

"I'm not aware of any Ford LPG models in Europe... so... there's no plan to take the six-cylinder engine or the system and [transfer either] overseas, to my knowledge."

If it seems like the Falcon with EcoLPI is yet another unique solution developed by Ford Australia for just a small market— flying in the face of the One Ford philosophy — there remains some possibility that the company at a global level can exploit the work done here in future products. And this is where One Ford fits in.

"One of the advantages at least to Ford, [with] One Ford now is that any engineering that's done anywhere in the world is shared with the rest of the [Ford] world," explained Wilkinson.

Australia has engineering personnel offering and accepting input from others in the Ford global engineering community. There's a chance, for instance, that the door-ajar priming system (see below) developed for the Falcon might find its way into LPG fuel delivery systems in vehicles being sold throughout the world.

"Anything we do here is reviewed overseas, is understood overseas; what we call Failure Mode Effect... which is one of the key documents for engineering — it's what could go wrong with something and how do you address it, rather than designing your way out of it or putting in some sort of control. All of that is shared with the rest of the Ford world, so if there are any smart things that are here — such as the [LPI] priming process — that can be picked up by anyone."

So EcoLPI, a great system we've actually sampled in the FG Falcon (pictured) — and did so outrunning a 98 RON petrol Falcon of the same spec — will remain yet another closely guarded secret within Ford Australia

But at least Ford's worldwide engineering staff can discuss it among themselves.

Identifying badgework was removed from the LPI car and nobody was told which was which. Pritika Maharaj swore black and blue later that none of the Ford staff knew in advance which vehicle would outperform the other, but no one was surprised that car #2 did consistently reach the end of the strip before car #1, nor that it was the LPI car...

Here's why:

And here's how:

Stay tuned for our launch review of the EcoLPI Falcon to come.

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