Coventry, West Midlands - Jaguar Land Rover has revealed two new powertrain developments, for use in current and future vehicles of both brands, aimed at reducing fuel-consumption, and thus emissions, across its range.
The Ingenium petrol engine, already in production at JLR's new engine plant, is rated for 25 percent more power than the engine it replaces, while using as much as 15 percent less fuel, while the Transcend automatic transmission will expand the off-road capabilities of the vehicles as well as making them more fuel-efficient .
Ingenium petrol engines
The new, all-aluminium two-litre turbopetrol four, and its existing diesel companion, are the first of a modular range of diesel and petrol engines using a common architecture based on a capacity of 500cc per cylinder - thus it could be expanded to include a 1500cc three, a three-litre V6 and even a four-litre V8.
The new petrol version has electrohydraulic valves and a twin-scroll turbo with ceramic ball bearings housed in an integrated exhaust manifold. It will be incorporated in JLR production vehicles from 2017.
Transcend transmission
The new transmission combines elements of low-range transfer case, dual-clutch and hybrid technology to create a an eight-speed automatic gearbox with an ultra-wide ratio spread - the highest ratio is 20 times higher than the lowest, more than double the spread of conventional eight-speed 'boxes - and it's about 20kg lighter than current eight-speed transmissions.
That means it's possible to build an off-roader with the equivalent of a full-on high and low-range all-wheel drive beetle-crusher drivetrain, with only one gearbox instead of two, at a huge saving in weight.
JLR says this transmission can be used in any rear or all-wheel drive vehicle with its engine mounted longitudinally, so it's not limited to Land Rover models - we could possibly see it in a later version of the Jaguar F-Pace SUV, which would make it almost as off-road capable as the old Defender workhorse.
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