This Chinese Automaker Just Made The Most Efficient Engine Ever

China’s star in the automotive sphere is more than rising—it’s soaring to the very top. It’s enough that traditional automakers are getting concerned about the technological and production advantage they have. So, surely, news of Geely making a nearly 50 percent efficient powertrain will deepen that concern.

According to a report from Car News China, Geely has achieved a monstrous 48.4 percent thermal efficiency with its newest i-HEV system, which uses AI-based algorithms to more carefully manage energy. Guinness independently verified the figure and a combined fuel economy of 105 miles per gallon, which is similarly astonishing. Geely says this can be achieved with any i-HEV car, whether it’s equipped with a 1.5-liter or 2.0-liter internal combustion engine.

Just how big of a deal is a 48.4 percent thermal efficiency? Well, thermal efficiency is a measure of how much useful energy is extracted from a given amount of fuel. It means that almost 50 percent of the fuel used in the Geely i-HEV gets turned into power.

Up until now, the most thermally efficient production engines were around 42 percent, with Nissan’s e-Power setup and Toyota’s Dynamic Force hybrid engines in that range. Your average ICE-only car will do thermal efficiency in the mid-20s to mid-30s range.

Thermal efficiency is the white whale of this era of internal combustion, because it contributes to everything. A more thermally efficient engine produces more horsepower and better fuel economy.

Hybrid systems greatly help with this, as they can store wasted energy and reuse it during low-efficiency events such as starting and stopping. Geely’s numbers are approaching Formula 1, where engines are over 50 percent efficient using the absolute cutting edge of technology.

Motor1’s Take: This level of tech is a huge step forward, and it means the internal combustion engine isn’t quite dead yet. But Geely isn’t the automaker trying to improve the internal combustion engine.