combustion cycle
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Efforts by automakers to increase fuel efficiency and reduce carbon emissions have intensified in recent years as emission rules have tightened and the effects of climate change are better analyzed. While electric cars and hybrids will grow in popularity, the internal-combustion engine remains the default way of power—and likely will for years to come. The latest effort to make engines more fuel-efficient will come from Nissan's premium brand, Infiniti, in the form of itsnew variable-compression turbocharged (VC-T) inline-4 engine. DON'T MISS: Infiniti variable-compression engine: more...
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"Death of the internal combustion engine" is now a thingThe 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 -
Mazda's SkyActiv-X: diesel fuel economy from gasoline engine
The internal combustion engine, now more than 200 years old, will be with us for a long time to come yet. Powering more than 1 billion vehicles on the planet and almost 100 million new ones each year, it is the default way to move vehicles along the world's roads. With its carbon emissions now...
John Voelcker -
Don't start-stop systems wear out your car's starter?
Some are almost unnoticeable, others make the car shudder each time they activate—but start-stop systems are here to stay. First rolled out in Europe and Asia, where crowded city driving requires cars to spend more time at a standstill, they switch off the engine when the car's not moving...
John Voelcker -
Next Toyota Prius Hybrid: 40-Percent Thermal Efficiency From Engine, Toyota Says
You may not hear about the thermal efficiency of engines much: It's the ratio of how efficiently they use the energy in the fuel they burn. Conventional gasoline engines have long run about 25 percent, diesels at 30 to 35 percent. But the gasoline engine to be used in the next generation of the...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Mirai Fuel-Cell Car's Ad Agency Should Study Engine Technology More Closely
Oh, Toyota ... really? It's not bad enough that your Lexus brand put out two ads that inaccurately slammed plug-in electric and diesel vehicles, respectively. Now your own agency has gone and made a foolish technical error in an ad meant to pave the way for your 2016 Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell...
John Voelcker -
Is it possible to make a gasoline engine so efficient that it would emit less carbon dioxide per mile than is created by generating electricity to run an electric car over that same mile? Small Japanese carmaker Mazda says yes. In an interview published last week with the British magazine Autocar, Mazda claimed that its next generation of SkyActiv engines will be so fuel-efficient that they'll be cleaner to run than electric cars. MORE: As Gas Mileage Rises, Energy To Make Cars Gets More Important That's possible. But as always, the devil is in the details. Specifically, total emissions of...
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Gasoline-Fueled Diesel Truck Engine Cuts Fuel Use, Emissions
Running a diesel engine on gasoline could significantly improve efficiency, researchers say.
Stephen Edelstein -
Startup Transonic Injects Supercritical Fuel For 30% MPG Rise
The principles of the gasoline engine have chugged along for a century now without much change. The last big evolutions were variable valve timing and the switch to fuel injection from carburetors. Now a flurry of innovations to boost fuel efficiency is in the pipeline. One of them comes from a...
John Voelcker -
Big Mileage Gains From Really, Really Small Engines
We keep saying that one of the ways all cars will get greener and more efficient is for their engines to get smaller and work harder. One of the first production examples of this is Ford's EcoBoost V6 engine, which delivers the power of a V8 with better gas mileage. Now a couple of experimental new...
John Voelcker
