It seems that Infiniti is bent upon turning up the heat on the rest of the automotive world. The automotive manufacturer has recently announced its plans of a Infiniti new engine featuring variable compression ratio resulting in a dramatically enhanced efficiency.
It should be noted that turbocharged engines have a tendency to employ lower compression ratios in order to reduce the knocking effect. The drawback of this is reduced efficiency while running at low boost.
The new Variable Compression-Turbo (VC-T) powertrain will be having an adjusted piston travelling system. This is achieved through a novel multilink mechanism connecting the pistons with the crankshaft. Therefore, the compression ratio gets reduced from 8:1 to 14:1 upon higher power demands. The whole adjustment is regulated through a device known as Harmonic Drive extensively used in robotics.
The 2.0 litre four-cylinder technology will be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show this September. According to the company claims, the new 270 horsepower powertrain is likely to achieve a fuel efficiency of 27 percent as compared to the corresponding 3.5 litre V6 engine of Nissan.
It is expected that the Infiniti new engine can be launched as soon as 2018 and this revolutionary development might make the diesel obsolete. We shall see!