{
  "id": 10351925,
  "title": "Nissan's third generation e-POWER powertrain",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/28/nissans-third-generation-e-power-powertrain",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-28T02:31:23.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Hacker News",
    "slug": "hacker-news",
    "url": "https://www.nissan-global.com/EN/INNOVATION/TECHNOLOGY/ARCHIVE/E_POWER_GEN3/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Nissan's third generation e-POWER powertrain is a unique electric-drive hybrid system that merges an electric motor with a gasoline engine, providing drivers with an EV-like experience while still having an onboard gasoline engine for energy generation. This latest iteration of the e-POWER system utilizes a purpose-built engine specifically designed for e-POWER applications. By integrating five major components into a \"5-in-1\" modular approach, the system optimizes performance, significantly boosts fuel efficiency, and reduces noise.\n\nThe 5-in-1 modular approach enhances the packaging of the motor, reducer, inverter, increaser, and generator, leading to higher efficiency through increased current flow and reduced energy loss. Flat wire coils within the motor can be arranged with minimal gaps, allowing for even more efficient flow. The inverter features a cutting-edge power module and a double-sided cooling structure that effectively dissipates heat, improving efficiency, especially at high speeds. Some models employ silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors in the inverter, which further reduces power loss and enhances overall efficiency.\n\nThe system's enhanced rigidity, achieved through integration, helps avoid resonance points interference in the vehicle body, contributing to a quieter operation. This, in turn, enables high-precision assembly, reducing runout tolerances of rotating shafts and suppressing vibration. Nissan's purpose-built engines can maintain stable combustion cycles, which is crucial for improving engine efficiency. This is accomplished through a long-stroke design that creates a strong in-cylinder flow (tumble flow), allowing combustion stability even with high compression ratios and high EGR rates.\n\nTo further boost fuel efficiency and output, Nissan's ZR15DDTe engine utilizes the STARC (Spark Timing Actuated Retarding Control) concept, paired with a large turbocharger. The STARC concept focuses on controlling airflow toward the spark plug inside the combustion chamber to improve ignition, ensuring stable combustion even with a high EGR rate. By employing cold spray technology to integrate the valve seat into the engine's intake port, a strong tumble flow is maintained, ensuring optimal ignition and stable combustion. A large turbocharger forces a significant amount of compressed exhaust gas and air into the cylinder, increasing output while improving the engine's thermal efficiency.\n\nNissan aims to commonize and modularize core EV and e-POWER components to reduce the cost of e-POWER to that of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles by 2026. The internal combustion engine powering Nissan's e-POWER system achieves 50% thermal efficiency, thanks to its efficient, fixed-point operation and restriction of the engine's operating range. Notably, this system represents the world's first cold spray valve seat structure, supporting high efficiency in e-POWER dedicated generator engines.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}