The Hindu Business Line : TVS Motor seeks to patent new engine technology

TVS Motor Company has sought a patent for the technology it has developed for its latest vehicle, the TVS Centra. The engine technology, which the company calls `VTi' (for variable timing intelligent), has three components in it — friction reduction, better combustion and lesser fuel wastage reduction.

Company officials told Business Line on Monday that while friction reduction was not patentable (the use of teflon is "obvious"), the other two could be patented.

TVS Motor's R&D team has figured out two methods for making the fuel burn better inside the cylinder— (a) a spark plug that sparks twice in quick succession and (b) a device that warms up the engine quickly. A cold engine drinks more fuel than a warm one.

TVS' R&D officials said the new technology would slash fuel wastage. This is how it works: Air that comes through the air filter, and petrol from the tank are mixed in the carburettor. The engine sucks in this mixture. When the motorcycle slows down, the engine sucks in less air and correspondingly more fuel. In the TVS Centra, a valve senses the vehicle's deceleration and lets air directly into the engine, bypassing the carburettor. The unnecessary sucking of fuel is eliminated.

With these, TVS officials said that the new 100 cc, 4-stroke Centra consumes less fuel. Under ideal test conditions, the vehicle can drive 100 km on a litre of petrol.

In 2004-05, TVS Motor expects to sell more than one million motorcycles, including 3,00,000 Centras. The Centra is priced at Rs 37,000, ex-factory, Chennai.

At a press conference here, the TVS Motor's Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Venu Srinivasan, said that new technology developed for the Centra, could be introduced onto other TVS vehicles too — one way of defraying the Rs 100-crore it took the company to develop the Centra.

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