Print     Email     Bookmark     Share

After an initial period of flirting around with steam engines, electric engines and the internal combustion engine, the world's automotive companies settled on the internal combustion engine and here we are 100 years later, with huge efficiency gains and emission reductions, but still on the good old internal combustion engine.

The internal combustion engine is showing its age. With increasingly aggressive legislation in all major countries, including the EU and the US, the technology behind the internal combustion engine is being pushed to its limits to attain the high fuel economy and low emissions levels necessary to adhere to legislative requirements. Most environmentalist groups pursue the path of blaming global warming, city-choking pollution and energy issues on the internal combustion engine. Typically, most cars today capture about one-third of the fuel's chemical energy content; the rest is lost in the form of heat and noise.

New cars with internal combustion engines are being mated to new technologies to increase their efficiency further, like BMW's Brake Energy Regeneration, Engine Start Stop technology, Direct Gasoline Injection, Variable Compression Ratios, biofuel support, turbocharging, and a myriad other technologies. For car companies to weather increasingly restrictive new legislations on vehicle emissions and consumption, for the first time in 100 years, all major automobile manufacturers are now entertaining the possibility that it may not be possible to sustain the internal combustion engine in its current form, and that radical change is required. The time to flirt with alternate technologies is with us again.

Mike Tan is a car fanatic who dreams of a hybrid car that looks just like the Toyota FT-HS Hybrid Sports Concept. Since it's only a bunch of 2D graphics right now, Mike's taken a reality check by lusting after a Porsche Cayman instead. Preferably in virgin white.

More Tips for Your Car