Free-piston engine: GM ran one on whale oil in 1956, and Toyota wants it back
Free-piston engine: Pescara patented it, GM ran the 1956 XP-500 on it, even on whale oil, and Toyota built a 42% efficient one for EVs.
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MAZDA SKYACTIV-Z + ICONIC SP
Mazda Iconic SP: the last romantic still betting on the engine Across four articles, NEC has been telling you how the combustion engine game is being played in 2026. We’ve explained how Aramco designs cheap engines to keep petrol alive. We’ve explained how Horse Powertrain quietly assembles the planet’s largest combustion-engine supplier. We’ve explained how … Read more
HORSE POWERTRAIN
Horse Powertrain: the quiet empire of the engine There’s an industrial empire that controls how half the planet moves around, and you’ve probably never heard its name. It doesn’t put a badge on any car. It runs no television ads. It doesn’t have a LinkedIn fanclub. But the engine in your Renault, your Dacia, your … Read more
ARAMCO DHE
Aramco’s hybrid engine is a masterpiece. It’s also a trap. You don’t expect this kind of news from Saudi Aramco. You expect it from Toyota. From Honda. From some stealth outfit in Stuttgart with a whiteboard full of equations. You don’t expect the world’s largest oil producer to walk into Detroit, hire a French race-engine … Read more