Schaeffler E-Clutch among Top 10 innovations vying for GreenTec Awards 2016

The Schaeffler E-Clutch has made it into the Top 10 in the automobility category of the GreenTec Awards 2016. Schaeffler Automotive says it hopes to reach the next stage, which is receiving a nomination in the Top 3.

Each year, the GreenTec Awards honour innovative products and projects that help pave the way for an environmentally conscious future. “We are delighted to have overcome the first hurdle on the way. Of course we would be very happy to receive the sought-after European environmental prize in the coming year,” says Matthias Zink, president, Transmission Systems Business Division. He emphasises that already being in the Top 10 is a distinction and is also recognition of the Schaeffler strategy concept ‘Mobility for tomorrow’. “With our technological innovations, we are close to the market and with our expertise we can help our customers achieve stringent CO2 targets,” says Zink.

Schaeffler entered the competition with its E-Clutch, an electric automated clutch that enables optimisations in fuel consumption by means of so-called ‘sailing’. Depending on the extension stage, the system assumes clutch operation only in certain driving situations or carries out all clutch operations fully-automatically. This means that fuel-saving driving strategies – from ‘sailing’ through to electrically-assisted driving – can also be used in vehicles with manual transmissions. “Schaeffler’s E-Clutch paves the way for manual transmissions to hybridisation and thus to new markets and segments,” says Uwe Wagner, vice-president, Research and Development Automotive at Schaeffler. Until now, this has only been possible in conjunction with automatic transmissions.

Everyone can take part in the voting process and each person’s individual vote plays a decisive factor. The project with the most votes automatically qualifies as one of the three nominees in the respective category. The jury then selects the winner from these. In addition to the main prize, all participants will be entered in a draw for two invitations to the glamorous GreenTec awards ceremony on May 29, 2016 in. The online voting process will run from December 8, 2015 until January 13, 2016 at www.greentec-awards.com.