Direct Gasoline Injection was introduced on production aircraft during WWII, with both German (Daimler Benz) and Soviet (KB Khimavtomatika) designs. The first automotive direct injection system was developed by Bosch, and was introduced by Goliath and Gutbrod in 1952. The 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL, the first sports car to use fuel injection, used direct injection. The Bosch fuel injectors were placed into the bores on the cylinder wall used by the spark plugs in other Mercedes-Benz six-cylinder engines (the spark plugs were relocated to the cylinder head). Later, more mainstream applications of fuel injection favoured less expensive indirect injection methods.
During the late 1970s, the Ford Motor Company developed a stratified-charge engine they called "ProCo" (programmed combustion),[1][2] utilizing a unique high pressure pump and direct injectors. One hundred Crown Victoria cars were built at Ford's Atlanta Assembly in Hapeville, Georgia utilizing a ProCo V8 engine. The project was canceled for several reasons; electronic controls, a key element, were in their infancy; pump and injector costs were extremely high; and lean combustion produced nitrogen oxides in excess of near future EPA limits. Also, the three way catalytic converter was proven to be a more cost effective solution.
It was not until 1996 that gasoline direct injection reappeared in the automotive market. Mitsubishi Motors was the first with a GDI engine in the Japanese market Galant/Legnum's 4G93 1.8 L straight-4,[3] which it subsequently brought to Europe in 1997 in the Mitsubishi Carisma,[4] And 2.4L GDI for Galant. although Europe's high-sulphur fuel led to emissions problems, and fuel efficiency was less than expected.[5] It also developed the first six cylinder GDI powerplant, the 6G74 3.5 L V6, in 1997.[6] Mitsubishi applied this technology widely, producing over one million GDI engines in four families by 2001,[7] PSA Peugeot Citroën and Hyundai Motors both licensed Mitsubishi's GDI technology in 1999, the latter using the first GDI V8.[8][9]
Although other companies have since developed gasoline direct injection engines, GDI (with an uppercase final "I") remains a registered trademark of Mitsubishi Motors.[10]
Renault introduced the 2.0 IDE (Injection Direct Essence) engine in 1999[11], first on the Renault Megane and later on the Renault Laguna. Rather than following the lean burn approach, Renault's design uses high ratios of exhaust gas recirculation to improve economy at low engine loads, with direct injection allowing the fuel to be concentrated around the spark.[12]
Toyota introduced direct injection engine D4 (Toyota AZ engine) in 2000 Toyota Avensis. Toyota's 2GR-FSE V6 uses a combination of direct and indirect injection. It uses two injectors per cylinder, a traditional port injector and a new direct injector.
Later GDi engines have been tuned and marketed for their high performance. Volkswagen/Audi introduced their GDi engine in 2000, under the product name Fuel Stratified Injection (FSI), the technology adapted from Audi's Le Mans prototype racecar.
Alfa Romeo introduced their first direct injection engine JTS (Jet Thrust Stoichiometric) in 2002,[13] and today the technology is used on almost every Alfa Romeo engine.
BMW introduced GDi V12 BMW N73 engine in 2003. This initial BMW system used low-pressure injectors and could not enter lean-burn mode, but the company introduced its second-generation High Precision Injection system on the updated N52 straight-6 in 2006. This system surpasses many others with a wider envelope of lean-burn time, increasing overall efficiency.[14] PSA is cooperating with BMW on a new line of engines which will make its first appearance in the 2007 MINI Cooper S.
General Motors had planned to produce a full range of GDi engines by 2002, but so far only three such engines have been introduced — in 2004, a version of the 2.2 L Ecotec used by the Opel Vectra, in 2005, a 2.0 L Ecotec with VVT technology for the newOpel GT, Pontiac Solstice GXP, the the Vauxhall GT, the Opel Speedster, and the Saturn Sky Red Line, and in 2007, the 3.6 L LLT became available in the second generation Cadillac CTS as well as the Cadillac STS.
In 2004 Isuzu Motors produced the first GDi engine sold in a mainstream American vehicle. Standard on the 2004 Axiom and optional on the 2004 Rodeo. Isuzu claimed the benefit of GDi is that the vaporizing fuel has a cooling effect, allowing a higher compression ratio (10.3 to 1 versus 9.1 to 1) that boosts output by 20 horsepower (15 kW) and that 0-to-60 times drop from 8.9 to just 7.5 seconds, with the quarter-mile being cut from 16.5 to 15.8 seconds. [15]
Mazda uses their own version of direct injection in the Mazdaspeed 6 / Mazda 6 MPS, the CX-7 sport-utility, and the new Mazdaspeed 3. It is referred to as Direct Injection Spark Ignition.
Volkswagen uses direct injection in its 2.0 L 16 valve Turbocharged and naturally aspirated four cylinder engines.
