This is nice, but Mazda already sells vehicles that possess direct injection technology combined with turbocharging. I'm not sure about the SULEV emissions or the piezo actuation on the injectors, but this report doesn't seem to be groundbreaking.

BMW, VW/Audi and Mercedes all have turbocharged GDI engines on the market. Even Opel, GM's German subsidiary, has a good 2.2L turbocharged GDI design.

So I would have to agree with Brett, this does not appear to be newsworthy except in one regard: it's based on the 3.6L V6 that GM uses in the US. That's not a plus though, GM America needs to start thinking in terms of much smaller engines. Turbos are not just for sports cars any more.

Dang It! GM must bring over more stuff from from foreign divisions. It also must stop contamination their overseas brands with mediocre/outdated designs/thinking.

GM ALREADY SELLS A TURBOCHARGED DIRECT INJECTION ENGINE IN THE USA! It's called the Solstice GXP and Saturn Sky Redline. GM beat both Honda and Toyota to market with a turbocharged direct injection engine thanks to GM's superior powertrain engineers. GM's problems have always been with management - the engineers are actually very good, when permitted by management to show what they're capable of.

Mitsubishi beat everyone to market with a turbo GDI engine in 2000. 4G93T 1.8L DOHC, GDI, Turbo, 10.5:1 static CR and 165hp. Never sold in North America though...does this mean Mitsubishi has superior powertrain engineers?

If not for cost reasons it would be nice to see a 1.5L direct injection turbo motor. It could easily replace a 2.0-2.5L port-injection Naturally Aspirated motor with much better fuel mileage. I'd pay a premium for such a vehicle.

Mitsubishi does have some of the best engineers in the business, as evidenced by their pocket-rocket Lancer Evo having what is regarded as one of the most advanced all-wheel drive systems of any automobile to exist. This in spite of the fact they had to develop such capabilities with a nose-heavy transverse engine layout in an economy car as the platform. To start wish such a platform and turn it into one of the best performing cars in anything close to its price range is a testament to their brilliance. Unfortunately, Mitsubishi's management is among the worst in the world.

You could likely get away with even less than a 1.5 liter, really. VW's direct injection 2.0T makes 200hp, thus you would make 150hp from a 1.5 liter if you maintain the same hp/liter. Vehicles like the Civic have 140hp and are very fast for "economy" cars. The Fit makes due with just 109hp and is still very fast among it's peers with it's n/a 1.5 liter. In a car like the Fit, you could probably run a 1.2 liter direct injection turbo and gain much fuel efficiency while giving up no power at all.

I was thinking closer to mid-size sedan like a Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Ford Fusion, Mazda 6, Pontiac G6, or Hyundai Sonata, etc. You would probably want around 150hp in such a vehicle.

The 2006 Ford Fusion comes with two engine choices:

1. Duratec 16V I-4 (2.3L): 160 hp @ 6250 rpm, 156 ft-lb @ 4250 rpm.
2. Duratec 24V V-6 (3.0L): 221 hp @ 6250 rpm, 205 ft-lb @ 4800 rpm.

The proposed 1.5L GDI-Turbo could displace the former engine, but you'd need a 2.2L - 2.4L offering to displace the latter.

Either way, I would welcome the introduction of this technology.

Gents -

VW released a 1.4L engine with a turbo plus a detachable supercharger, capable of 125kW (200hp).

The Peugeot-BMW joint venture has delivered an engine family with a 175hp 1.6L turbocharged puppy at the top end, available in the Mini Cooper S.

The Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky are both rebadged Opel GTs (260hp out of 2.0L).

Turbocharging and GDI plus cam phaser are a great combination, but you only save fuel with it if you bring the displacement down and apply some long gearing in the tranny. That's why applying this to a 3.6L V6 is fairly ridiculous, unless you're still looking for ultimate performance and prices at the pump etc. be damned.

Rafael:

100% agree that 3.6 liter V6 is too much of displacement to start with. I would rather see further development of Daewoo transversely mounted inline 6, developed with participation of Porsche and inherited by GM when they bought Daewoo.

Rafael- do you work for Lockheed martin? (I jest, I jest)

1kw = approx 1.34hp

125kw = approx 166hp

i dunno, i think a premium luxury sedan would more easily absorb the cost of the engine upgrades than an econobox would.

so, by providing better fuel economy, performance, and emissions from a large engine, they can produce a product they'll be able to sell.

later, they can reduce the cost of the parts and include them in more cost-sensitive vehicles.

I was really confused there for a while. I thought I had clicked on my Green Car Congress link, and then I found myself in this article about a huge gas guzzler someone is proposing. That's when I had to double check on where I had wound up. What the heck has this got to do with promoting green cars?

This engine could go in SUVs and make them a lot more efficient/cleaner. Some people need/want larger vehicles, so anything to make them better is a plus, right?

I agree with the idea that some companies have good engineers and bad managers. That must be frustrating for the engineers to have such clueless bosses. It could be one of the reasons Ford and GM are having troubles today.

For the record, since apparently none of you know that picture is of a Caddy CTS-V, 3.6 liters represents a huge downsizing from the 5.7 / 6.0 liter engines that would normally come in the CTS-V.

Bob,

Because...

(Using his Rod Serling voice) You have just entered the GM Zone.

P.S. Just imagine that they are discussing more efficient generator sets in a plug-in hybrid and you'll be O.K. Really, everything is fine. Remain calm.

hi, Joukkuetietoja.

I found it very interesting

This is actually a pretty significant annoucement if you are a engineer who works on engines. DI and Turbo charging and downsizing are not new, but they seem to be working on replacing much bigger engines than anyone else has tried to do and with DI with some subtle enhancements. A 3.6l turbo replacing a 6 liter is definately interesting as everyone else has replaced a V6 with a 4 cylinder turbo. The big challenge here is the emissions, SULEV on a Turbo is very difficult especially if they do it without an air pump. I'm sure Boschs and Ricardos motives are not to sell this as a product but to gain the knowledge and show that they develop such an engine for one of the car manufacturers. I bet its still its gets a lot better enconomy than the V8 for the same power.

Its probably a hard sell to have a 3.6l NA engine and then sell a more powerful version that has a smaller displacement like a 3.2l Turbo. US car buyers are funny like that.

Interesting program

Sir
I really like the topics; that i read in ur page. As i am studying automobile engineering; i am very much interested to know the things actually happening in the automobile industry.

i find it interesting

Some readers The innovation of this project is to combine 1. turbo, 2. GDI and 3. modern valve actuation in one engine and optimize all parameters to get a sulev.

Are there any Turbo-GDI-VVTi-SULEV yet?
Are there any Turbo-GDI-VVTi yet?

I think what Xuer says is very important. Here I am on Green Car Congress hoping that all the environmental protection legislation to come will kill the high-performance production car, and this article shows how the high-end market is responding: They are still trying to pack all that horse-power into a vehicle ridden in by a single person. You guy's are right who say that this isn't anything to bragg about - but it certainly is something we all should be kept up to speed on - the continuing waste of energy for the impatient.

the impressive part of this entire thing is that "little" engine is tugging around that STS, thats a big car

and for sjc paul ... thats NOT a CTS-V just because it has 7 spke wheels and a mesh grill does not a CTS-V make

signed,

a gas guzzling CTS-V owner