This week, Jaguar Land Rover will expand its powertrain family, unveiling new technologies for both current and future vehicles. The new additions will support the company’s long-term commitment to reduce vehicle emissions and improve fuel economy across its range through the introduction of more efficient engines along with alternative powertrains, lighter vehicles and improved vehicle energy conservation.
At the heart of its low-emissions strategy, the new four-cylinder Ingenium petrol engine is now in production at Jaguar Land Rover’s £1 billion Engine Manufacturing Centre. Designed, engineered and manufactured in the UK, these are the most advanced engines the company has ever developed. They will deliver up to 25 per cent more power than the engines they replace and offer fuel consumption reductions of up to 15 per cent.
Looking to the future, Jaguar Land Rover has developed a revolutionary advanced automatic transmission that will both improve the efficiency of future vehicles and expand their all-wheel drive capability. The £30 million advanced research project, TRANSCEND, uses an innovative ultra-wide ratio spread (20) that integrates low-range gear box, dual-clutch and hybrid technologies to deliver new levels of off-road performance and fuel economy improvements of nearly 10%.
Nick Rogers, Executive Director – Product Engineering, said: “Environmental innovation is at the heart of our strategy to dramatically reduce emissions up to 2020 and beyond. With the Ingenium family of powertrains and advanced research projects such as TRANSCEND, future Jaguar Land Rover vehicles will emit significantly less CO₂. By 2020, new technologies will help us reduce our CO₂emissions by a further 25 per cent.”
Ingenium petrol engines
The Ingenium petrol engine features state-of-the-art technologies, such as an electrohydraulic valvetrain, integrated exhaust manifold and twin scroll turbocharger with ceramic ball bearing technology. They will deliver exceptional performance, efficiency and refinement while meeting the most stringent global emissions regulations.
Nick Rogers said: “Ingenium has been developed as a modular family of powerful, efficient and refined all-aluminum petrol and diesel engines. All Ingenium engines deliver benchmark low levels of friction, contributing to inherently good efficiency and refinement.”
Using a common architecture based on a 500cc per cylinder displacement delivers both maximum flexibility and scaleability. This enables a range of derivatives to be developed to suit applications as diverse as sports saloons and luxury SUVs.
Following the launch of the 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesels in 2015, these advanced petrol engines become the latest Ingenium engines to enter production and will be available from 2017.
TRANSCEND transmission
TRANSCEND is an advanced research project that combines innovative mechanical design and advanced manufacturing techniques to deliver a compact, lightweight eight-speed transmission with an ultra-wide ratio spread of 20, more than double that of a conventional eight-speed automatics. Weighing around 20kg less than existing eight-speed automatics, TRANSCEND could be used in longitudinal rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles.
Nick Rogers said: “TRANSCEND demonstrates Jaguar Land Rover’s commitment to original research that improves the driving experience and the environmental performance of our vehicles. It will make manoeuvring and off-road use easier than ever before for drivers whilst also improving on-road vehicle dynamics and CO2 emissions.”
With part funding from the UK government, the TRANSCEND programme aims to rebuild the UK’s transmission production – through investment in processes to develop lighter components as well as more energy-efficient manufacturing production – and promote the export of British hybrid vehicle technologies.
Low emissions future
Jaguar Land Rover has made significant investments in new technology and environmental innovation in recent years. Its vision for reducing emissions and improving fuel efficiency is to make improvements in powertrain, continue its leadership in vehicle light-weighting and improve vehicle energy conservation – all without compromise for its customers.
Since 2008, Jaguar Land Rover has doubled the number of powertrain engineers and invested in the research of a range of future powertrain solutions. This team is developing the technology that will help deliver a further 25 per cent improvement in CO2 emissions in the next five years.
Jaguar Land Rover is committed to introducing electrification and has confirmed its electric future with an entry for Jaguar in the innovative FIA Formula E Championship. This investment will push the boundaries of electrification technology and provides a real-world, fast-track test bed for future Jaguar Land Rover electrification technology, transferring it from track to road.