New engine with petrol and diesel motors
Reports have come out that the German car company, Mercedes Benz is working on a new kind of four-cylinder engine that combines features of petrol and diesel motors. The said engine will generate 238 horsepower while using less than six liters of standard petrol per 100 km.
Mercedes Benz said they have plans to roll out the new ‘DiesOtto’ engine “in the medium term”. The world’s fifth-biggest car maker is eager to further increase its contribution in the green campaign as environmental issues continue to rise.
Using less than six liters of fuel per 100 km is the equivalent of getting nearly 40 miles per gallon.
“This figure by no means relates to a small or compact car, but to a vehicle the size of the current [Mercedes-Benz] S-Class, with the level of comfort and safety that is typical of a Mercedes,” a company statement said.
This bold move only shows how determined car makers are to make petrol and diesel engines more efficient and less polluting, just to make sure these engine types will continue to be widely uses even if there is a large presence of alternative drivetrains such as hydrogen fuel cells.
The name DiesOtto is a combined word of diesel and petrol engines in the German language. It aims for an engine with a displacement of only 1.8 litres, turbo-charged for high performance and using petrol direct injection to boost efficiency. To achieve this a spark plug will be used to ignite the fuel/air mixture when starting the engine or at high speed. At low and medium speeds, however, the combustion process works more like that of a diesel engine, which does not use spark plugs, according to reports.