Inside The Mind Of An Automotive Geek

German automaker Mercedes-Benz is known for being the engine supplier of Formula One team McLaren. But aside from that, the company is also known for their great looking cars made for performance and aesthetics. And then, there’s diesel technology. Although not a maker of trucks and buses, the German automaker is making headway in the development of diesel engines, after all, European automakers are creating new generation of diesel engines which are more fuel efficient than gasoline engines.

Recently, the automaker announced that they have developed an engine with the characteristics of a diesel engine but does not run on diesel fuel. Pretty confusing, right? But once you learned about the engine, the DiesOtto as they call it, you would be enlightened.

Although new diesel engines are known to be more efficient and cleaner than gasoline engines, Mercedes-Benz believes that gasoline engines are not as environmentally harmful as we were led to believe by other automakers. And the DiesOtto is concrete proof of that.

The engine, which I believe is named after auto greats Rudolf Diesel and Nicolaus Otto, the former being the inventor of diesel engines and the latter being the one who conceptualized four-stroke engines, is an engine which runs on gasoline but uses the injection characteristics of a diesel engine.

According to Mercedes-Benz, the gasoline, or as they call it, petrol engine will have ‘extremely clean emissions’. Aside from injecting the fuel into the compressed air inside the combustion chamber, the engine will also be turbocharged, and will have variable valve timing thus reducing fuel consumption and increasing power output.

The DiesOtto is said to have an output of 238 horsepower while at the same time consuming only 6 liters of fuel for every 100 kilometers. Or in miles, that would be 39.2 miles per gallon. The engine though is not yet being mass produced as the automaker is still making adjustments to the engine.

According to Mercedes-Benz, these are what they need to work on:

• Downsizing with fewer cylinders and a smaller displacement
  
• Turbocharging for superior performance
  
• Direct petrol injection as a further fuel economy measure
  
• Controlled auto ignition, a combustion process similar to that of a diesel
  
• Variable valve control
  
• A variable compression ratio leading to even better fuel economy and, depending on customer needs and the type of operation,
  
• A hybrid module with an integrated starter/generator, which makes the drive unit even more economical

Although not yet being mass produced, this engine shows the future for gasoline engines. That means that not only diesel and hybrid powertrain technologies are being developed but gasoline or petrol engines as well.