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CO₂ reduction targets are a big challenge for the mobility sector because about 20% of all CO₂ emissions originate from road traffic. The problem is intensified by the expected traffic growth which will mainly take place in developing countries. Several powertrain and fuel technologies are competing regarding their CO₂ reduction potential compared to conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles. Hybrid electric vehicles with a certain energy saving potential as well as natural gas vehicles (NGVs) with their lower fuel carbon content are expected to gain on importance. But why not combine dedicated natural gas engine and hybrid powertrain technology to achieve very low CO₂ emissions even for mid-size passenger cars? At a first glance, such a powertrain combination looks just like a combination of two expensive technologies without any market potential.

This paper compares the fuel consumption of a lightweight passenger car for three different SI engine concepts, all with rated power of about 40 kW: a classical SI engine with moderate maximum speed, a low-displacement but high-speed engine that exploits the maximum allowed mean-piston speed and a low-displacement but highly supercharged engine with moderate maximum speed. All engines are simulated with a thermodynamic process simulator, the results of the supercharged version are validated with experiments. For each engine, a CVT and an automated gearbox is considered. Fuel consumption is estimated with a quasi-static driving cycle simulator which is based on engine fuel consumption maps and physical models of the vehicle with all its relevant subsystems. The simulations are performed for constant vehicle speed as well as for US and European driving cycles.