Dans la suite de la série "qui fera le meilleur GMP de 20 kW ?" et "less is more" (voir ici et là), la récente annonce de Piaggo associé à Ricardo, laboratoire mondial en matière de moteur, est particulièrement intéressante. Piaggo vise à développer et produire une famille de moteur bicylindre Diesel compatible avec plusieurs marchés mondiaux en Europe (Euro 5, la question des NOx pour la version Euro 6 sera délicate) et en Inde (équivalent Euro 4) pour ces véhicules utilitaires avec des puissances de l'ordre de 40-50 kW. Des solutions d'architecture moteur, comme la présence ou non du turbo, sont choisies pour optimiser les compromis technico-économiques dans les différents marchés.
New twin-cylinder turbo-diesel designed in partnership with Ricardo is the world’s first engine of this type to be certified Euro 5 emissions compliant – part of a family of new engines spanning Piaggio light commercial vehicles across international markets.
The new Piaggio engine family – designed and developed in cooperation with Ricardo – is intended for application across the Piaggio light commercial vehicle range of products which are highly popular in many European as well as Asian markets. The new diesel engines will enable the Piaggio Group to offer customers in Europe and Asia an even broader choice of modern commercial vehicles delivering excellent performance combined with low fuel consumption and emissions.
Ricardo is a long standing partner to the Italian manufacturer – famous for its strong European leadership in the scooter and motorcycle business and its broad range of light commercial vehicles – including both the supply of engineering software as well as support for product development programmes.
Piaggio and Ricardo have been working together on the new diesel engine family which is capable of achieving the commercial, performance, emissions and fuel economy needs of the very diverse markets in which Piaggio is active. The engine family thus includes at the premium end, a full Euro 5 compliant and diesel particulate filter (DPF) equipped 1.2 litre twin cylinder turbocharged, common rail equipped engine targeted at European customers. This product delivers an impressive 47kW with extremely low fuel consumption and quoted CO2 emissions in the Piaggio Porter light van of just 127 g/km. Given the application of these vehicles in predominantly inner city locations and for delivery purposes, customers will benefit from the both the class-leading nature of the DPF system and long service intervals made possible with the new engine. For more cost-sensitive markets such as India, the same engine family will be offered in a naturally aspirated form compliant with Bharat stage 4 regulations (the Indian Euro 4 equivalent standard) in the Piaggio Ape Truk Plus vehicle range.
Commenting on the collaboration with Ricardo revealed today, Piaggio Commercial Vehicles Powertrain director Maurizio Marcacci said: "Thanks to its innovative features, this new Piaggio engine family will satisfy a broad and varied range of customers on the most disparate world markets. The degree of flexibility achieved with these engines, in line with the Piaggio Group product strategies for the different markets, demonstrates the very effective manner in which Piaggio and Ricardo engineers have been able to work together to deliver attractive solutions in the form of cleaner and more fuel efficient engines for our customers."
Ian Penny, Ricardo global director for engine engineering, added: “The very successful partnership with Piaggio announced today demonstrates the manner in which Ricardo is able to apply and optimize appropriate technologies to deliver class-leading, solutions aimed at meeting the commercial and performance objectives of our customer in the markets they serve. The new two-cylinder diesel is both a world first in offering Euro 5 compliance in an engine of this type, as well as providing a cost-optimized architecture for naturally aspirated products in India.”
