By cutting out particular cylinders, the consumption of a petrol engine can be reduced by up to 20 per cent. This pioneering discovery was made by Mercedes engineers following trials of test cars equipped with an automatic cylinder cut-out system. In the coming years, the Stuttgart engineers intend to develop the system to production standard and to fit it in future car engines. They believe that a cylinder cut-out system offers the best scope for significantly reducing fuel consumption and for further reducing pollutant emissions. The cylinders cut out or in imperceptibly in just fractions of a second, so there is no risk of a loss in either performance or comfort.
Many roads lead to the same goal.
Via various different paths, the engine designers are inching their way towards their goal of achieving a 25 per cent reduction in fuel consumption of Mercedes cars by the year 2005. In the diesel engine for example, significant savings in consumption can be achieved by means of direct injection, in the petrol engines by highly advanced electronic injection systems. But even this does not go far enough. Significant advances in the future in the field of engine design depend on treading not just many, but above all new, paths. This is the only way in which ideas can become projects and projects can become concrete development work for future Mercedes models.