Automotive Engineering - April 2022 - 18

Keeping combustion
in the conversation
FEV's Hybrid-BEV platform has a 40-kWh battery and an IC engine " as an
energy conversion system in a serial hybrid configuration; " the company sees it
as a potential ICE propulsion option in certain world regions.
The world needs ICEs to stick around - here's how.
by Bill Visnic
S
ignals are everywhere that the days are numbered for internal-combustion
engines for passenger vehicles.
Volkswagen CEO Ralph Brandsteatter told a German magazine
in early 2021 that VW would follow its closely-linked
Audi brand in ceasing development of any new IC powerplants. A
report from South Korea in late 2021 said the massive Hyundai
Group had eliminated its engine-development unit. MercedesBenz,
as historically linked to ICE as any automaker, stated in July
2021 that all newly-launched vehicle architectures would be electric-only
starting in 2025.
Although those pronouncements seem to have a Draconian finality,
nearly all reasonable industry experts believe the end of the ICE for
light vehicles will be a protracted sunsetting involving multiple market-dependent,
regulation-dependent and regional variables. The
ICE will be powering vehicles long after these ostensible deadlines
- but it's going to need new technology and new thinking to carry it
through the industry's propulsion transition.
Dean Tomazic, COO at vehicle and propulsion development R&D
firm FEV North America, sees global emissions, fuel economy regulations
and regional market preferences as the chief shaping agents
for the ICE in the next decade or more. " In Europe, we are talking
about Euro 7 [emissions regulations] now - which is still not
100-percent defined - and we're talking about [in California] LEV
IV. We're looking at new fuel economy legislation. We are looking at
environmental groups. We look at the politicians and, of course, city
mandates in some parts of the world that say, 'We don't want diesel
engines anymore,' or 'Starting in year X, we don't want any combustion
engines anymore.'
18 April 2022
" With that in mind, the different powertrain types
we will be looking at in the future - and I think it's true
for the entire world - start at micro-hybrids, up to mild
hybrids, full hybrids and HEVs, " Tomazic said. Citing
the four main categories where combustion engines
will continue he sees ICEs playing a major role for
years to come, in two configurations. One is conventional
high-tech engines, including micro-hybrid and
mild hybrids. The other is what he defines as 'dedicated'
hybrid engines, which are more applicable to
full-hybrid applications, as well as PHEVs. Tomazic and
others note ICE isn't destined for the graveyard nearly
as soon as the end-of-development announcements
may suggest. But with the onrush of electrification and
the seemingly certain prioritization of EVs in the propulsion-investment
landscape, R&D for the ICE seems
destined to follow a dual-path blueprint: one of emissions
improvements to keep pace with tightening
global regulations and a parallel course of evolution
imparted by mostly known and proven technologies to
conventional engine architectures.
Nothing exotic
The auto industry's maturation has winnowed the variety
of production-vehicle ICE propulsion options to
gasoline or diesel, inline or vee four-stroke reciprocating
engines. " Exotic " architectures that even recently
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
FEV
Automotive Engineering - April 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive Engineering - April 2022
