Engines
-
One year ago at the Detroit auto show, a company called Achates Power unveiled models of a new kind of internal-combustion engine. With opposed pistons in the middle and crankshafts at either end, it was sufficiently different to startle most visitors who paid attention. That engine came with some audacious claims, too: How about an EPA combined fuel-economy rating of 37 mpg when fitted in a full-size Ford F-150 pickup truck? DON'T MISS: Full-size pickup truck that gets 37 mpg? Achates says yes One year later, at this week's 2018 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Achates...
-
2017's most important green car story: internal-combustion engine ban in China
The most important green-car story of 2017 came on September 10, in a report by the Associated Press that covered articles in two Chinese state media outlets on a statement by a deputy industry minister. Speaking at "an auto industry forum," the AP wrote, Xin Guobin said his ministry has begun...
John Voelcker -
Four of Wards' Top 10 Engines are actually electric or electrified powertrains
The industry trade journal WardsAuto has been giving out "Best Engine" awards for 24 years now, and this year's list includes some interesting choices. For starters, there are no engines from German manufacturers on the list: The sole luxury recipients this year are Infiniti and Jaguar. But more...
Mark Stevenson -
"Death of the internal combustion engine" is now a thing
The very first working four-cycle internal-combustion engine was invented by Niklaus Otto in 1876, and in due course it changed the world. A quarter of a century later, gasoline engines, steam-powered vehicles, and electric drive competed on an equal basis, but by 1915, it was clear the gasoline...
John Voelcker -
How Mazda's SkyActiv-X engine, based on HCCI, actually works (video)
Earlier this month, Japanese automaker Mazda laid out its future powertrain strategy and dropped a massive announcement in the process. In 2019, Mazda will introduce a gasoline-powered Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition engine, dubbed Skyactiv-X, that the automaker promises will offer huge...
Sean Szymkowski -
New engine development at German makers to end by 2025, says supplier
Continental, a major supplier for automakers around the world, has come out with a bold prediction: internal-combustion engine development by German automakers will essentially end by the year 2025. The supplier, which makes exhaust-gas-cleaning systems for diesel cars and nitrogen oxide-measuring...
Sean Szymkowski -
It's a technology that's been a sort of Holy Grail in the auto industry for at least a couple of decades. Now Mazda, one of the smallest global automakers, plans to introduce it in a radical new engine to be used in a future Mazda vehicle in 2019. It's called homogeneous charge compression ignition, or HCCI: in essence it lets a gasoline engine behave like a diesel under low-power demand, vastly improving its efficiency. DON'T MISS: Mazda to launch homogeneous-charge compression engine The new engines capable of HCCI, which will be known as SkyActiv-X, are thought to be destined for the...
-
Mazda exec: engines can get cleaner, EVs will die without subsidies
Small Japanese automaker Mazda is in a tough spot. It's been on its own for most of a decade now, after Ford sold its shares in the company, and now Mazda must fund numerous new models all by itself. With global sales of just 1.5 million vehicles, it's one-seventh the size of Toyota or Volkswagen...
John Voelcker -
Next Mercedes-Benz small cars to get even tinier engines
Not so many years ago, a 1.2-liter engine would only have been found in the U.S. in the smallest and least impressive of subcompact cars. It might have been a 3-cylinder, and certainly wouldn't have had even 100 horsepower. But times change, and engines of that size will soon be found even in the...
John Voelcker -
France plans to ban all gasoline, diesel vehicles by 2040
To most North Americans, the idea of banning all vehicles with internal-combustion engines seems unthinkable. Filling up with gasoline (or diesel) is as American as are dispersed low-density suburbs without mass transit, bike paths, or even sidewalks. Europeans, more of whom live in cities and most...
John Voelcker -
Diesels to lose two-thirds of current market share in 10 years: report
Sometimes interesting predictions come buried inside a completely different topic. Take, for example, an investment note on the auto-parts supplier Continental contained in a roundup of industry research, market analysis, and news items issued yesterday by investment bank UBS. It contains the...
John Voelcker -
Infiniti variable-compression engine: more complexity, incremental gains
Infiniti's VC-T is the first variable compression-ratio engine to enter production.
Stephen Edelstein -
Infiniti is likely the first carmaker to put a variable-compression engine into production.
-
Hyundai Fuel Cell, BMW i3 Electric Motor Win "10 Best Engines" Awards
Two alternative powertrains are among Ward's 2015 "10 Best Engines."
Stephen Edelstein -
BMW To Phase Out Combustion Engines When? 10 Years, Analyst Claims
It's a vision that seems like something from a future century: a carmaker preparing to phase out combustion engines altogether. The notion that an entire brand could walk away from the hydrocarbon-fueled engines that power more than 1 billion vehicles on our roads--and have done since 1885--is...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Gasoline Engine Achieves Thermal Efficiency Of 38 Percent
Most internal combustion engines are incredibly inefficient at turning fuel burned into usable energy. The efficiency by which they do so is measured in terms of "thermal efficiency", and most gasoline combustion engines average around 20 percent thermal efficiency. Diesels are typically...
Antony Ingram -
GM's New 3- And 4-Cylinder Engines Face Off Against Ford, VW
Yesterday's announcement by General Motors that it would launch a new line of three- and four-cylinder Ecotec engines for better fuel economy was short on some details. Notably, the carmaker only gave two examples of future cars they would power--and even declined to identify the three existing...
John Voelcker -
GM Releases First Details On Next-Gen Ecotec Engine Family
General Motors is stepping up its engine game. Today it released first details of a new range of three- and four-cylinder Ecotec engines from 1.0 to 1.5 liters that replace no fewer than three separate engine families globally. GM had already shown one variant, a new turbocharged 1.0-liter...
John Voelcker -
It's been expected for some time that the next generation Chevrolet Volt could use a smaller, more efficient and likely three-cylinder power unit as its range-extending engine. Now, we may be getting our first glimpse of that engine, in a more conventional installation than last year's Opel Monza concept. GM's European arm Opel is launching a new 1.0-liter 3-cylinder turbocharged powerplant at this year's Geneva Motor Show in early March. It'll first see service under the hood of the Opel Adam--a stylish MINI and Fiat 500 rival designed to pull fashion-conscious buyers away from those marques...
-
Annual 10 Best Engines List: Diesels, Turbos, And Electric Too
You might think that a list of the best engines on sale would be dominated by screaming sports car engines or a muscular V-8 from the latest muscle car. And while it's true that both feature on the Wards Automotive list of its 2014 Ten Best Engines, as well as several other high-performance units...
Antony Ingram -
Volkswagen's Future Engines: All Turbo For Gasoline & Diesel
Volkswagen will eliminate the last of its naturally-aspirated engines as models are refreshed or redesigned.
Stephen Edelstein -
China To Build EcoMotors' Efficient Opposed-Piston Engines
History makes fools of us all sometimes, none more so than when we dismiss certain ideas out of hand, only for them to come back years later and eat our words. That's why we're always intrigued by companies claiming to reinvent the engine. One of them might well do so, given the right resources...
Antony Ingram -
Who Might Buy Diesels? Gasoline Drivers, Not Hybrid Owners
With a raft of new diesel vehicles entering the market this year and next, the question arises: Who exactly will buy them? Based on the results of a survey to be released later this morning, Volkswagen of America suggests that some drivers of gasoline cars are likely to be open to the benefits of...
John Voelcker -
BMW's Three-Cylinder Engine: Same Power, Better Gas Mileage Than Four
How do you get better gas mileage from engines that create the same power as what you've built your brand on? If you're BMW, the answer is that you launch an entirely new family of small engines derived from the world-famous inline six-cylinders you're famous for. But if you're fitting them with...
John Voelcker