Kia develops its first direct-injection petrol engine

By David Wilkins

The Korean manufacturer Kia has announced that it has developed a new gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine.

The new power unit is a largish (2.4 litre) four-cylinder engine which produces about 200 horsepower. Kia says that the direct injection set-up, which places the fuel injector inside the combustion chamber allows much greater precision than conventional fuel injection systems. The adoption of GDI and other tweaks mean that the new engine delivers more power and torque as well as lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Kia says that the GDI engine will appear in cars for the Korean market in 2010 and in UK-bound cars the following year. There are already some petrol-powered cars on sale with direct injection – for example, Mercedes' CGI engines have it – but Kia is still ahead of most in adopting the technology.