Bajaj Launches Gasoline Direct Injection Three-Wheeler; CNG and LPG to Come

10 December 2007

Business Line. Bajaj Auto Ltd has launched the gasoline direct injection engine version of its autorickshaw. The company is working on launching CNG and LPG versions of the vehicle within a year, the Managing Director, Rajiv Bajaj, said, adding that the GDi technology was generic, and could also be extended to four and two-wheelers in the future.

Bajaj has been working with Orbital on gasoline direct injection technology since 2004. In September 2006, Orbital and Bajaj Auto expanded their licensing arrangements to cover liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas (CNG) applications. (Earlier post.)

Rather than using high pressure injection to atomize the fuel charge in a manner similar to diesel injection , Orbital uses an air-assisted low-pressure direct fuel injection, combustion and engine management system: the Orbital Combustion Process (OCP) technology. With OCP, compressed air breaks up the fuel droplets. OCP is in production on engines as small as 50cc and as large as 500cc per cylinder.

At light loads, the direct injection system allows engines to run very lean. Under high load conditions, the OCP system runs similar to a homogeneously charged engine, with good mixing of the fuel/air mixtures within the cylinder.

The new three-wheeler—REGDi—will be available in two versions, an economy model and a deluxe model. Bajaj expects to produce around 36,000 GDi vehicles during the first year, and phase out the existing models over the next six to eight months.

Among the features of REGDi are greater fuel efficiency, low oil consumption, increased torque and power and better acceleration.

According to the company, fuel consumption of the REGDi is 44 kilometers per liter of gasoline (103 mpg US).

Maintaining that the gasoline direct injection technology had lots of ramifications for the future, Mr Bajaj said: “There is no reason why GDi should be restricted only to three-wheelers.” He observed that it could be extended to two and four-wheeler platforms, and fitting it on a 100 cc 2-stroke engine could make it enormously fuel efficient.

(A hat-tip to Anthony!)