Weichai Power, a Chinese powertrain supplier, has unveiled a diesel engine that it reports has a record-breaking intrinsic thermal efficiency of 53.09%.

Weichai Power has been working on high thermal efficiency engine research since 2015. On September 16, 2020, it introduced a diesel engine with what was at that time a record-breaking body thermal efficiency of 50.23%. The company continued its progress, announcing it had further increased the engine’s thermal efficiency to 51.09% in early 2022. Most recently, on November 20, 2022, the company surpassed its previous achievements, reaching 52.28% thermal efficiency.

Since that time, Weichai Power’s research team worked to further refine combustion, air intake, fuel delivery and friction reduction, successfully advancing high-expansion combustion, mixed-flow pressurisation, high-efficiency fuel injection and low-resistance friction-reducing technologies, the company stated. The result was incremental gains that led to breaking the 53% thermal barrier. During the R&D process, the team was granted 176 invention patents and 68 utility model patents.

Weichai Power said this latest achievement has been officially recognized by TÜV SÜD, an international testing organisation, and the China Automotive Technology & Research Center, a professional testing body for Chinese internal combustion engines. Both organisations issued product testing reports and certificates to Weichai Power confirming the company had achieved a new world record in diesel engine thermal efficiency.