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The 912 engine is a well known 4-cylinder horizontally opposed 4-stroke liquid-/air-cooled aircraft engine. The 912 family has a strong track record: 40 000 engines sold / 25 000 still in operation / 5 million flight hours annually. 88% of all light aircraft OEMs use Rotax engines. The 912iS is an evolution of the Rotax 912ULS carbureted engine. The “i” stands for electronic fuel injection which has been developed according to flight standards, providing a better fuel efficiency over the current 912ULS of more than 20% and in a range of 38% to 70% compared to other competitive engines in the light sport, ultra-light aircraft and the general aviation industry. BRP engineers have incorporated several technology enhancements. The fully redundant digital Engine Control Unit (ECU) offers a computer based electronic diagnostic system which makes it easier to diagnose and service the engine.

In this study, investigations on charging strategies for motorcycle applications have been performed on the basis of modern charging concepts. These investigations had been driven by the goal of CO₂ reduction and optimization of packaging size, while maintaining the extraordinary dynamic response behavior of modern motorcycle engines. Based on experimental investigations of the boundary conditions and restrictions of motorcycle applications in contrast to automotive applications, intense experimental test bench and on the road investigations of the stationary and transient behavior of charging strategies have been performed. These investigations covered automotive state-of-the-art charged engines as well as charged motorcycle applications. With these results, simulations of the air path for stationary and transient operation were used in order to evaluate the potential of several charging strategies for motorcycle applications.

The continuously increasing product complexity on the one side, and the demand to constantly decrease development times and costs on the other, require new development processes in the automotive industry. This paper describes a product development process which, by intensively and systematically applying computer-aided modeling techniques, makes a significant contribution to the management of this tremendous complexity in a cost- and time- efficient manner. The presented process strives for a widespread usage of modeling techniques (such as physical system modeling and simulation, model-based control system design, rapid prototyping, etc.) over all technical domains involved in the product (mechanics, hydraulics, electrics, electronics, software, etc.) as well as over several stages of the product development process.

The automotive trend towards increased levels of electrification is showing a clear direction for hybrid technologies. Nowadays Mild- and plug-in-hybrids open a very wide area of future developments whereas battery electric vehicles (BEV) are still evident but still perceived as niche products with limited production volumes. Nevertheless, major OEMs are working on these kinds of vehicles and have also brought such EV concepts into series production. All of these designs show a clear trend that, beside the topic of electric traction motor and energy storage systems, the internal combustion engine (ICE) is also coming into focus again. In many of these vehicles the range extender (RE) unit is foreseen as an emergency unit to recharge the batteries if the state of charge (SOC) is too low. One of the major advantages of a BEV over other designs is the very good acoustic behavior, so the NVH performance becomes the most challenging topic for RE development.