Building on the success of previous editions of the International Conference on Spark Ignition Engines, the Société des Ingénieurs de l’Automobile (SIA), the Institute for Reciprocating Engines of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Politecnico di Torino (Polito) are pleased to present the third edition of this conference entitled “The Spark Ignition Engine of the Future: Exploring innovative concepts to meet future CO2 emissions and hybridisation challenges” on November 30th & December 1st, 2011 in Strasbourg.

In Europe, for over a decade, the direct injection Diesel engine, with its key advantages in high efficiency and low CO2 emissions, has led to a relative standardisation of the technologies and the engine architecture both in heavy duty and in passenger car applications. During this period, developments of the spark ignition (SI) engine have strived to meet the main challenge, to make significant progress in fuel efficiency and reduction of CO2 emissions, whilst keeping its lower production cost, better NVH and very low pollutant emissions advantages.

To this end, the SI engine has challenged the supremacy of the diesel engine and pushed new technologies, for better efficiency and lower CO2 emissions, to become a mass production reality. Today this new generation of engines is or will be introduced with technologies such as turbocharging and downsizing which offer a greater potential for increased power density and improved thermal efficiency. Furthermore, combining other technologies such as direct injection, new valve actuation technologies is providing further opportunities for SI engines to close the gap in fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions, compared to their Diesel counterparts. Apart from improvements to conventional SI engine concepts, powertrain hybridization and the emergence of mass production De-NOx aftertreatment technologies provide opportunities for new engine architectures as well as innovative combustion systems and alternative fuel solutions.

Aside from these new efficiency improvement opportunities, a plethora of alternative engine architectures are being developed to satisfy the best compromise in terms of fuel economy, emissions and NVH. The number of cylinders in combination with engine displacement is the most visible trend, especially for small and medium sized vehicles, leading to smaller displacement 2 or 3 cylinders engine families. The integration of new features such as Stop-Start, hybridization, plug-in hybrid,... amplifies this powertrain complexity phenomenon. Such powertrain technology advancements will affect the design characteristics and the role of thermal engines in the automotive powertrains of the future.

Alongside these technical challenges, economic factors e.g. production and operating costs have to be continuously improved to meet increasingly demanding customer expectations. Furthermore, Societal needs for small, affordable and efficient thermal engines will continue to increase in the future, to satisfy the growing demand for individual mobility in emerging countries or to be combined in the whole powertrain package of hybrid and electric vehicles. It is therefore pertinent to ask at this conference: How can the future SI engine be the most flexible candidate to meet the diversified requirements of this worldwide challenge?

This new SIA international Conference intends to provide the opportunity for technical experts and senior executives from the automotive industry (OEMs and their suppliers), the oil industry, industry analysts, research laboratories and universities to exchange their points of view and information on the potential of the future spark ignition engine to respond to the main challenges of mobility, CO2, emissions and hybridization.