THERE’S LIFE IN THE MILL YET

The emergence of Intelligent Valve Actuation is typical of the refinements car manufacturers have been promising would extend the lives of piston engines. In recent years, car makers have educated us to see efficiency improvements of a few percent as triumphs — but here’s one that offers “15 to 20%”.

Not only that, but according to its creators, IVA also offers a particularly impressive cost benefit, so imagine how it’ll do when incorporated into a plug-in hybrid or a range extender car. There’s clearly quite a long way to go before an all new, albeit now functionally proven, technology achieves production readiness, but every indicator — and a highly credible engineering team at Camcon — indicates that it’s going to work well. The old piston engine isn’t ready to die just yet.