Low-temperature combustion ready for prime time?

At SAE's High-Efficiency IC Engines Symposium, Delphi said its new, third-generation GDCI is promising, but even LTC proponents said challenges remain.

Powertrain experts and fuel-industry sources speaking at the recent SAE High-Efficiency IC Engines symposium in Detroit mutually supported the assertion that liquid fuels will be the dominant light-vehicle transportation energy source through the middle of this century. So take that, batteries.

But if reality doesn't exactly align with the latest breathless reveal of a 1000-hp battery-electric vehicle, where does that leave powertrain research and development? The global drive for reduced emissions and reduced fuel consumption hasn't abated-regardless of whether the United States decides it no longer needs to participate in the fad-so it appears the continued advance of internal-combustion engines is in order.