TOKYO (Reuters) – Nissan Motor Co. said Friday it has achieved progress in achieving 50% thermal efficiency with its in-house e-POWER hybrid technology, which could lead to further reductions in CO2 emissions car.
This new thermal efficiency level would improve fuel consumption by 25% over the 40% thermal efficiency level in the upcoming e-POWER engine, the company said.
“Nissan’s latest approach to engine development has raised the bar to world-leading levels, accelerating beyond the current average range of 40% thermal efficiency, and enable even more vehicle CO2 emissions to be reduced, ”the company said in a statement.
Nissan did not reveal when the e-POWER technology with 50% thermal efficiency would be launched.
Toshihiro Hirai, senior vice president of Nissan’s powertrain and EV engineering division, told reporters Friday that the automaker is increasing the thermal efficiency of e-POWER to reduce CO2 emissions while driving.
The e-POWER, first introduced in Japan in 2016, uses a gasoline engine to charge a battery that powers the vehicle.
“It took 50 years to increase thermal efficiency (conventional engines) from 30% to 40%,” Hirai said.
“But with e-POWER, we can increase it to 50% in a number of years. That has been a target for the engineering community, ”he said, describing that as the“ ultimate, challenging goal ”.
To achieve this, Nissan said it will strengthen the flow and mitigation of in-cylinder gas, which burns a more dilute air-fuel mixture at a high compression ratio.
“Without building these core technologies, we cannot achieve carbon neutrality,” Hirai said.
The automaker said last month that all of their new models in key markets would be electrified in the early 2030s to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Nissan has also said it expects sales of more than a million electric vehicles annually by the end of fiscal 2023.
Reciting with Eimi Yamamitsu, Maki Shiraki; edited by Jason Neely