Thread: Land Rover reveals engines of the future

Originally Posted by Gerokent

It never ceases to amaze me how the auto industry persists with the pertol/diesel engine. At best, it is only 50% efficient, and with all that wiz bang technology hanging off it, it is becoming even less reliable. I wonder how far alternate energy engines would have been developed if they spent even a small percentage of their efforts in this direction. Computer controlled oil and coolant pumps! The mind boggles.

The best internal combustion engines are well under 50% efficiency, and very unlikely to ever get to that level.

But contrary to your statement, engines have become markedly more reliable in general, and usually longer lived, despite increased complexity.

Alternate energy engines are not a possible substitute either now or in the near future, and it is highly unlikely that any amount of expenditure over the years would have changed this. As far as I can see the only possible contender is the electric car, and it falls a long way short of the internal combustion engine on several key grounds - range and fast refuelling in particular, but also fuel distribution, and there is nothing obvious in the foreseeable future that is likely to change this. With the majority of power generation being fossil fuel, the overall efficiency of electric cars in almost all cases falls short of comparable current IC cars. Electricity distribution is inefficient, and the fuel to energy transformation in power stations is not much better than that in car engines, even if you take into account the energy costs of getting the fuel to the power station/ car engine.

John

Originally Posted by Gerokent

It never ceases to amaze me how the auto industry persists with the pertol/diesel engine. At best, it is only 50% efficient, and with all that wiz bang technology hanging off it, it is becoming even less reliable. I wonder how far alternate energy engines would have been developed if they spent even a small percentage of their efforts in this direction. Computer controlled oil and coolant pumps! The mind boggles.

Your post is nonsensical. If you have a viable alternative the world would be keen to know.

Originally Posted by isuzurover

Your post is nonsensical. If you have a viable alternative the world would be keen to know.

He might mean somthing like this Orbital engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

These are the engines that were jointly developed between Land Rover and Williams F1,they should be very strong efficient bits of kit.I can't wait for the petrol/diesel/electric technology as well as the alloy/carbon fibre bodies. Pat

Originally Posted by 460cixy

He might mean somthing like this Orbital engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Well no, because the orbital engine is still a petrol or diesel. Besides, it was too complex to be reliable.

That's why I posted it . Was a flop like other brainwave alternatives that have poped up over the years

Originally Posted by JDNSW

This engine will be similar technology to all their competitors, so I doubt it will lose them much market share. The technology is driven by regulation in their major markets, and the manufacturers have no choice but to comply. And this sort of engine is the result.

John

Yes, but there seems to be a lot of angst in the competition, will they be going down a level, or up ? Bob


The Most Disliked Car Brands

Originally Posted by bob10

Call me a luddite <snip> But I can't help feeling Land Rover have lost a large market.

JLR Sales:


"The growing appetite for luxury British brands has helped Jaguar Land Rover post record global sales – up 30 per cent in 2012 – as China overtook Britain as the biggest market for the first time figures released today show." full article

Perhaps it's the luddite market that they're losing?