Global demand for transport mobility is rising, and growth is fastest in emerging markets. By 2030 it is expected that the number of vehicles in use will have risen from around a billion in 2005 to 2.5 billion. Whilst the number of trucks and buses is also expected to increase, the majority of this growth is driven by rising ownership of cars and scooters in urban Asia and South America. Series hybrid vehicles are emerging as a viable solution that can offer the efficiency and emissions benefits of pure battery vehicles over short urban journeys, with the extended range capability offered by internal combustion engine fuels. High automotive market volumes present opportunities for radically different approaches to powertrain design and manufacture.
Libertine FPE offers one such approach, which will meet the challenges of low emissions, fuel flexibility and low cost of ownership. Its clean burning, overexpansion combustion design, a unique scavenging geometry and close-coupled exhaust catalyst together make this an exceptionally clean engine with very low tailpipe emissions. In its gasoline-ethanol flex fuel variant, variable compression ratio combustion allows the engine to be instantaneously optimised for hydrous ethanol, gasoline or anything in between, converting ethanol’s higher octane rating into increased power and efficiency.
A Libertine FPE vehicle will cost less to own and use. It will use around a third less fuel than a comparable gasoline or diesel engine vehicle. The simplicity of the Libertine FPE format lends itself to low cost, high volume manufacturing methods. The modular nature of this air cooled engine also reduces vehicle build costs since the requirement to integrate the vehicle engine with multiple auxiliary systems and a mechanical transmission is reduced.
In future, assembling a low cost vehicle may become greatly simplified by this modular approach which also has the potential to make vehicle maintenance and recycling easier, with worn out modules quickly swapped out and returned for refurbishment.
Libertine FPE will help make this vision a reality.
Libertine FPE benefits in this application
- Low cost
- Low tailpipe emissions
- Very high efficiency
