Foremost the development of FEV´s 4-cylinder 1.8l turbocharged VCR engine and the subsequent vehicle integration is intended to validate the concepts inherent CO2 reduction potential. The 1.8l downsized VCR engines in mid-term shall be applied in series vehicles of the middle class, as replacement for higher displacement engines like 3l natural aspirated engines. Currently, the supercharged VCR engine is estimated to be one of the famous concepts for future economic gasoline engines, with an estimated market share of 5% in the year 2008.
According to the self-determined commitment of the European car manufactures to realize CO2 emissions of 120 g/km for passenger cars, a practicable VCR concept is definitely of highest interest for all car manufactures.
On base of the EU supported investigations and developments the FEV VCR engine concept is realized, showing good mass production practicability and easy adaptability to existing engine families, as main advantages compared to former VCR solutions. Therefore, the additional VCR mechanism based costs are lower than for other previously presented VCR solutions. Vehicle test results revealed 8% fuel consumption improvement in the NEDC by only use of VCR technology. Additional up to 18% fuel saving can be reached by reducing the engine displacement for about 40% but keeping torque and performance constant by high boosting. The base for comparison is a natural aspirated engine with 3 l displacement. So, overall a fuel consumption reduction up to 27% is visible with the new technology without disadvantage in driveability, pollutant emissions and with only moderate production cost increase.