High-tech internal combustion engines

The quality of our internal combustion engines determines how much fuel will be saved over the next 20 years and what quantities of emissions can thereby be prevented. Combustion engines both with and without the hybrid option will continue to constitute the mainstay of our mobility for many years to come. For all the major advances that attract widespread publicity, the electric car will not be able to replace vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine in the near future.

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Cylinder cross-section of a high-tech engine

Modern diesel- and gasoline-powered vehicles will remain the driving force of mobility for a long time – in individual transport with passenger cars, especially on long journeys, and above all in goods transport by truck. Perhaps the best documentation of this performance is the fact that the 40-tonne Mercedes-Benz Actros BlueTec combination broke the world fuel efficiency record in May 2008, with just 19.44 liters of diesel fuel per 100 kilometers. With a payload of 25 tonnes and an average speed of 80 kilometers per hour, this series-produced truck consumed only 0.8 liters per 100 tonne-kilometers on the test course in Nardo, corresponding to a CO2 emission level of 20.5 grams per tonne of payload per kilometer (g / tkm).