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Porsche is challenging the advance of electric motors with a surprising technology. The automaker has patented a six-stroke engine that promises greater efficiency and power. Will this innovation save combustion engines or are we just delaying the inevitable?
Enquanto or automotive market As the world prepares for an inevitable transition to electric motors, Porsche defies this trend.
In an unexpected twist, The luxury carmaker appears not ready to abandon combustion engines.
What is behind this bold decision?
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A new patent reveals a technology capable of giving traditional engines a significant lifespan, defying the seemingly certain fate of their extinction.
According to documents submitted to the US Patent Office, Porsche has developed a six-stroke engine — something that could be a brilliant move to extend the lifespan of combustion engines.
But how does this new technology work and what could it mean for the future of fuel-powered engines?
According to Porsche, most internal combustion engines used in cars today are four-stroke, following intake, compression, combustion and exhaust cycles.
These engines are the most common and widely used throughout the world.
However, Porsche's innovation introduces an additional compression-work cycle, bringing the number of strokes to six.
The engineering behind six-stroke technology
The revolutionary idea put forward by Porsche engineers suggests that by adding this extra cycle, engine efficiency and power can be significantly improved.
The concept is simple but ingenious: instead of one combustion cycle for every four strokes, as in a conventional engine, this system uses one combustion cycle for every three strokes.
The patent describes the engine as being composed of “six individual strokes, divided into two sequences of three strokes.”
This configuration would allow the engine to go through intake, compression and combustion in the first sequence, followed by a second phase with compression, combustion and exhaust.
This engine also has a 720º crankshaft that rotates inside a ring with two concentric circles.
This alters the piston movement, slightly reducing the stroke on additional cycles.
The result of this change is a more complete combustion and, consequently, greater efficiency in power production.
The race for greater efficiency
With this new configuration, Porsche aims to improve energy efficiency of combustion engines.
In conventional engines, only one of the four strokes generates power directly, while the other three serve only to complete the cycle.
With this new six-stroke technology, the proportion changes to one production cycle every three strokes.
This, in theory, means that the power generated can be greater and the air and fuel mixture will be burned more completely.
On the other hand, the complexity of this engine is considerable.
A system with two top dead centers and two bottom dead centers not only increases manufacturing complexity, but also increases production and maintenance costs.
Even so, Porsche believes that efficiency and performance gains can justify this innovation, even though its mass production is still uncertain.
The future of combustion engines: hope or nostalgia?
Despite Porsche's efforts to keep combustion engines on the scene, the market is rapidly moving towards electrification.
Several countries have already announced plans to ban the sale of fossil fuel-powered vehicles in the coming decades..
However, the introduction of synthetic fuels and innovative technologies, such as the six-stroke engine, could change this scenario and open a window of opportunity for combustion engines to remain relevant for longer.
Porsche is not alone in this race.
Other world-renowned automakers have also invested in hybrid and alternative technologies for combustion engines.
The search for efficiency, emissions reduction and sustainable solutions remains high in the automotive sector, even with the advancement of electric motors.
Despite all the complexity involved, this innovative technology is still a patent and may never be commercially applied.
Patents are sometimes registered as part of experiments and in many cases do not reach the market..
However, the simple fact that Porsche is investing in innovations for combustion engines is already an indication that the automaker believes that this type of propulsion still has a future ahead of it, even if it shares space with electric motors.
Will this new technology be enough to keep combustion engines relevant in the next decade? Or are we just delaying the inevitable dominance of electric motors in the global automotive market?
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