Nissan working on pioneering engine tech

Nissan has announced that its next-generation internal combustion will be the world's most efficient as it will be capable of a thermal efficiency of 50 per cent – 25 per cent better than current engine technology.

Until now, the 50 per cent figure – which means 50 per cent of the energy created is directly converted into motion – has only been achieved by the Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 team back in 2017 with its V6 turbo hybrid.

Most current production engines are only capable of hitting 40 per cent efficiency.

Nissan claims its 50 per cent breakthrough comes from new engine technology that allows it to burn a lean (high concentration of air-to-petrol) mixture of fuel at higher compression ratio.

By forcing the air-fuel mix into the cylinder under higher pressure, a more powerful spark ensures a more powerful burn.

The final part of the efficiency puzzle is achieved with the Japanese car-maker's e-POWER hybrid tech that uses the engine to generate electricity to power an electric motor. This allows the engine to operate at its most efficient power band.

In testing, Nissan says prototype engines are already up to 46 per cent thermal efficiency, with the final four per cent gains coming from unspecified "waster heat recovery technologies".

Nissan has not announced when its next-generation e-POWER hybrid tech will be introduced, but it is expected "soon".

Commenting on the technological breakthrough, Nissan's powertrain and EV engineering boss, Toshihiro Hirai, said: "It took 50 years to increase thermal efficiency (of conventional engines) from 30 per cent to 40 per cent.

"But with e-POWER, we can increase it to 50 per cent in several years. That has been the target for the engineering community."