Qoros, the maker of cheap sedans and cheap SUVs Europeans can’t really buy just yet, likes Christian von Koenigsegg’s camless engine technology so much that they put it in one of their concepts. It’s supposed improve fuel economy, lower emissions, and save weight, all at the same time. In other words, it’s supposed to change the car world.
Christian von Koenigsegg, who’s the Chairman of FreeValve when he’s not running his Swedish gonzo-exotic car company, and Freevalve CEO Urban Carlsson flew to the Beijing Motor Show to present the Qoros “Qamfree” engine, which uses the Swedish team’s latest generation Pneumatic-Hydraulic-Electric-Actuator (PHEA) technology to improve fuel economy by 15 percent, lower emissions due to having better combustion, and saves weight by not needing a throttle body on the intake side, nor a snuffle valve on the turbo.
It’s well known that Christian von Koenigsegg believes all manufacturers will have to switch to camless gas engines very soon if they want to pass upcoming emission standards a lower their fuel consumption even further.
But Koenigsegg, for what it’s worth, doesn’t even limit himself to dreams of lower fuel consumption. He thinks the technology will be as big a leap for current engines as it was when we all switched over to direct fuel injection from carburetors.
We might dump on the Chinese car industry a bit, but he just made me want a camless e-boost twin-charged hybrid using Gordon Murray’s iStream construction.