Completed Engineering Clean Energy

Ultra Boost For Economy

Funder InnovateUK (part of UKRI)
Recipient organisation Jaguar Land Rover Holdings Limited
Funding £2.3M
Period Aug 2010 — Aug 2013

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

Jaguar Land Rover is leading an eight-partner consortium to build a 2.0-litre petrol engine that matches the performance of a current 5.0-litre V8 Range Rover engine while cutting CO₂ emissions by 35% over the official European drive cycle. This matters because stricter fuel-economy rules have forced carmakers to shrink engine size and add turbochargers or superchargers—a strategy called downsizing. But pushing a small engine to deliver V8-level power creates extreme combustion pressures that trigger damaging pre-ignition and knock, which can destroy the engine. The Ultraboost project tackles that fundamental engineering bottleneck. If the concept succeeds, it could give manufacturers a practical route to high-performance, low-emission petrol engines without resorting to hybrid or electric powertrains. That would directly affect the fuel bills and carbon footprint of every driver who buys a conventional car. Less visibly, it would also help sustain the supply chains, tooling, and skilled jobs tied to internal combustion engine production during the transition to electrification. The project runs from September 2010 for three years, combining expertise in combustion modelling, pressure charging, and fuels from Jaguar Land Rover, Lotus Engineering, Shell Fuels, GE Precision Engineering, CD-adapco, and three universities.

View original technical description
In the last decade the drive for improved fuel economy has forced Internal Combustion Engine designers to develop new and more fuel efficient technologies. An increasingly common method of improving fuel economy is by reducing (downsizing) engine capacity coupled with high levels of air charge boosting to deliver good performance. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is the lead partner in a collaborative project called 'ULTRABOOST' which is supported with funding from the UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB). The project consortium is made up of eight technical partners including Jaguar Land Rover, Lotus Engineering, Shell Fuels, GE Precision Engineering, CD-adapco, University of Bath, University of Leeds and Imperial College London. The aim of the Ultraboost project is to develop an innovative 2.0 Litre gasoline engine concept capable of a 35% CO2 tailpipe reduction over the New European Drive Cycle (NEDC) relative to a current production 5.0 Litre V8 engine in a Range Rover, whilst maintaining key vehicle attributes such as performance and transient response. Performance targets of this magnitude result in challenging combustion conditions with high probabilities of detrimental abnormal combustion effects such as pre-ignition and knock taking place. Starting in September 2010 and running for three years the project will utilise the partners expertise and collective skills in engineering, design, combustion modelling, pressure charging and fuels to develop a highly boosted downsized engine concept.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

Hyboost
Ultra Lightweight Range Extender for Electric Vehicles ("ULRE")
GE Precision Engineering: 'C-BOOST' Engine Supercharger
HyPACE: Hybrid Petrol Advanced Combustion Engine
Mechanically Decoupled Electric Turbocharger for Optimal IC Engines Efficiency

Original classification

Collaborative R&D

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.