Relegated to the background for decades, two-stroke cycle engines may be making their way back to the automotive industry through the big door. Renault is responsible for this achievement, with the announcement of the POWERFUL engines.
Internal combustion engines are in good health and recommended. Increasingly efficient, more powerful and less polluting, internal combustion engines do not stop postponing their death, either because of constant technological developments or because of the lack of economically viable alternatives for other solutions.
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One such example is Renault's newly introduced POWERFUL engine – a name that derives from “POWERtrain for FUture Light-duty”. A 2-cylinder diesel engine and only 730cc. So far nothing new, were it not for the two-stroke combustion cycle – we remind you that today all cars on sale use four-stroke mechanics.
A solution that has been abandoned in the automotive industry for a long time for several reasons. Namely due to the lack of smoothness, operating noise and weak progressivity in the power output. Furthermore, these engines use (or used…) the mixture of oil in the combustion for the purpose of lubrication, which triggers the emission levels into the atmosphere. If memory serves me correctly, the last appearance of two-stroke engines in the automotive industry was this (in the image you can see a Trabant, brand from Soviet Germany):
