Current Engine Trends: Less is more

  • Jul 8, 2011
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With increased environmental concerns and rising fuel prices car makers have come under pressure to build cleaner and more efficient engines. And they are driving down the road pretty well it must be said

Car manufacturers are building smaller engines to reduce fuel consumption and lower carbon emissions. But it would be wrong to say that only a smaller engine is economical. If the engine technology is ancient you will end up with a small underpowered engine which consumes a lot of fuel and creates a lot of carbon emissions like the two cylinder engine in the Fiat 500 twinair.

Today, a number of technologies that go into making a small engine efficient, clean and powerful are technologies like Variable Valve Timing, Computer controlled power delivery through the Electronic Combustion Unit (ECU) to optimise fuel/air mixture to reduce wastage and optimise performance. A turbo charger can be added to the engine to deliver adequate power out of a small engine. 

In India, the Maruti Suzuki Swift has undergone this change. The old 1.3 liter petrol engine was replaced with the new K12 1.2 liter engine. The new 1.2 unit returns 14-15 km/pl while the 1.3 unit returned 12-13 km/pl. As a result it is more fuel efficient than the outgoing 1.3 liter and power delivery is better than the old unit too and acceleration off the line is faster. As a result the K12 Swift was a big hit for Maruti Suzuki as they created a win-win upgrade. 

Earlier everyone though it was impossible to create a small diesel engine. Along came Fiat with their 1.4 Multijet engine which revolutionised the small diesel unit in India. It is a refined, powerful and economical unit. And the best example of that was in the Swift DDis which uses the same Fiat Multijet engine only Maruti have tweaked and made it more powerful. The Tata Indica’s diesel engine became crude and underpowered in front of the Multijet engine. With fuel prices soaring through the roof the cars powered by the Multijet engine like the Fiat Punto Multijet, Maruti Suzuki Swift DDis, Maruti Suzuki Ritz DDis, Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire DDis, Maruti Suzuki  SX4 DDis, Fiat Linea Multijet have become the ideal choice of the Indian car buyer.

Chevrolet India has stolen the show and announced that they are going to lead the small Diesel engine race by introducing a 3 cylinder 936cc engine which makes 58.5bhp in the Beat. When the Beat diesel goes on sale next month, it will be priced at about Rs.80,000 over the petrol models which will make it the most affordable diesel hatchback apart from the Tata Indica. 

Ford India has announced that it will bring its 3-cylinder 1.0 liter ecoboost engine to India which will power its small cars. The engine will be equipped with a turbocharger, direct injection and twin independent variable camshaft timing. Ford say that the ecoboost motor will be as powerful as a 1.6 liter engine while managing to be more efficient. 

While all that has been happening at the budget end of the market big manufacturers have taken a look at this small engine business. BMW which makes the ultimate performance saloon in the world, the BMW M5 has replaced the monstrous 5 liter V10 engine in the outgoing M5 with a 4.4 liter twin turbo charged V8 from the X5M.  BMW say it’s going to be more powerful, torquier and will also rev higher than the V10. The new engine will cut emissions by 25% over the old engine. While power has gone up from 500bhp in the old car to 560bhp in the mew M5.

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It is becoming clear now that engines are going to become not only smaller but also more powerful in the future with the growth of technology. A smaller engine consumes less fuel and reduces the weight of the car. It also helps better weight distribution which is why manufacturers are increasingly using turbochargers and superchargers in their cars. And not just in sports cars but also in regular hatchbacks to increase fuel efficiency and power. Very soon all our cars will be turbocharged or supercharged considering the mass production of turbochargers and superchargers will result in cheaper production costs.

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