16.11.2012 Honda's new low emission diesel engine

The new 1.6-litre i-DTEC diesel engine from Honda is the first engine from the company's Earth Dreams Technology series to be launched in Europe.

This new power unit will make its introduction in the Civic at the beginning of 2013 and offers a class-leading combination of power (120 PS) and torque (300 Nm @ 2000 rpm) with an official combined fuel economy of 78.5 mpg and CO2 emissions of just 94 g/km.

"The key focus of our Earth Dreams Technology philosophy is to balance environmental efficiency with the dynamic performance expected of a Honda," says Suehiro Hasshi, Large Project Leader for all Honda Civic models in Europe including the 1.6-litre i-DTEC.

"This is a new approach from the ground up," Tetsuya Miyake, Project Leader for the 1.6-litre i-DTEC engine. "There were no benchmarks for us because those targets would have been too low. We were determined to establish a benchmark of our own that our competitors would have to follow."

The new 1.6-litre i-DTEC engine has been specifically designed for the European market, to meet growing customer demand for low emission diesel engines. With an aluminium cylinder head and block, it is the lightest diesel engine in its class. The thickness of the cylinder walls has also been reduced to 8mm, compared with 9mm for the 2.2-litre i-DTEC. In addition, lighter pistons and connection rods have been utilised in the 1.6-litre i-DTEC.

Honda’s engineers have also worked to improve the volumetric efficiency of the cylinders, employing a high intake flow and a high swirl head port precisely controlling the combustion process to reduce hot spots that create unwanted emissions. The engine air flow is managed by using an EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) system that operates at high and low pressure to reduce NOx emissions.

The new engine will be built at Honda’s European manufacturing facility in Swindon, UK, where a new purpose built production line has been installed. This new line is capable of producing up to 500 diesel engines in one day. The new line will produce both the new 1.6-litre i-DTEC and the existing 2.2-litre i-DTEC engines.

The 1.6-litre i-DTEC diesel engine will also be applied to the new CR-V later in 2013, and the Earth Dreams Technology philosophy will be applied to all of Honda’s power trains in the future.

Honda