Ricardo, Piaggio in tie-up for 1.2L engine

The new Piaggio engine family will be used across Piaggio’s light commercial vehicle range of products sold in many European and Asian markets. The new diesel engines will enable the Piaggio Group to offer customers vehicles capable of delivering excellent performance combined with low fuel consumption and emissions, the company said.

Ricardo and Piaggio have a long-standing partnership in the scooter and motorcycle business and LCVs including both the supply of engineering software as well as support for product development programmes. The new engine family developed by Piaggio and Ricardo includes at the premium end, a full Euro V compliant and diesel particulate filter (DPF) equipped 1.2-litre twin cylinder turbocharged, common-rail equipped engine targeted at European customers. This product delivers 47kW with extremely low fuel consumption and quoted carbon dioxide emissions in the Piaggio Porter light van of just 127 g/km.

Given the application of these vehicles in predominantly inner city locations and for delivery purposes, it is expected to benefit customers both in terms of the DPF system and long service intervals now made possible with the new engine. Piaggio Commercial Vehicles Powertrain director Maurizio Marcacci said: "The new Piaggio engine family will satisfy a broad and varied range of customers on the most disparate world markets."

Ian Penny, Ricardo global director for engine engineering, says, “The new two-cylinder diesel is both a world first in offering Euro 5 compliance in an engine of this type, as well as providing a cost-optimised architecture for naturally aspirated products in India.”

For more cost-sensitive markets such as India, the same engine family will be offered in a naturally aspirated form compliant with BS IV regulations in the Piaggio Apé Truk Plus vehicle range. The company recently launched a half-tonner, Apé Mini. The Piaggio-Ricardo development is all the more significant given that in early November, Piaggio displayed a three-seater small car concept on the basis of which it hopes to target small car market in India. Ricardo has incidentally teamed up with Satara-based Cooper Corporation to work on a Euro IV two-cylinder family of engines which will ultimately include four- and six-cylinder variants.

One of Piaggio’s strengths is its small engine tech. Piaggio Vehicles India will be able to tap the latest engine technologies for vehicles it hopes to launch in India. GM India which plans to bring in China-designed vehicles based on its CN100 platform is apparently in talks with Piaggio to source engines.