Assuming everything else is equal (vehicle size, weight, driving style, tires), how do you make ICE engines be more fuel efficient? I noticed my dad’s 1996 Nissan Pathfinder V6 consumes 13L/100km (mixed driving) while a newer V6 is 9L/100km. Car manufacturers claim their engines are “more fuel efficient”, how do they accomplish that?
In: 85
Internal combustion is pretty much at the limits of what can be realistically achieved in terms of efficiency. ICE has been undergoing non-stop development for over 100 years now. Improvments are tiny at this point, generally centered around better computer control of the combustion and tiny weight savings.
If we want to really make strides in extracting ever more useful quantities of energy per unit of fuel, we need to start combining the engine with other technologies like electric motors. This then enables the ICE to run other more efficient cycles (like the Atkinson cycle) and stay at it’s absolutely peak efficiency RPM for longer.
Anyway, there are things we can do, but It’s really just diminishing returns now.
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