Nissan makes breakthrough with engine in reducing CO2 emissions

Japanese auto giant Nissan on Friday announced that the company has reached a breakthrough in achieving a 50% thermal efficiency with its in-development e-POWER hybrid technology, which could lead to a further reduction of car CO2 emissions.

The development would improve fuel consumption by 25% over the 40% thermal efficiency level in the upcoming e-POWER engine, the company said.

In a statement the company said that Nissan’s latest approach to engine development has raised the bar to world-leading levels, accelerating past the current auto industry average range of 40% thermal efficiency, making it possible to even further reduce vehicle CO2 emissions.

Nissan did not disclose when the e-POWER technology with 50% thermal efficiency would be launched.

Senior vice president of the powertrain and EV engineering division at Nissan Toshihiro Hirai told reporters that the automaker is maximising the thermal efficiency of e-POWER in order 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 (of conventional engines) from 30% to 40%,” Hirai said.

“But with e-POWER, we can increase it to 50% in several years. That has been the target for the engineering community,” he said, describing that level as the “ultimate, challenging goal”.