A drive system for driving a motor vehicle has an internal combustion engine and an operating mode coordination device for determining and controlling the operating mode of the internal combustion engine. The drive system has a function coordination device for coordinating secondary functions of the drive system, the function coordination device being designed for generating, based on the coordination of the secondary functions, an operating mode request for the operating mode coordination device for controlling the operating mode of the internal combustion engine, and transmitting it to the operating mode coordination device. The invention further relates to a motor vehicle having a drive system, and a method for operating a drive system of a motor vehicle.

The invention relates to a method of controlling operation of an ICE arrangement (1), comprising acquiring (100) a first signal indicative of a required torque; acquiring (102) a second signal indicative of a temperature (T) of an EATS (23); and when the second signal indicates that the temperature (T) of the EATS (23) is lower than a predefined first threshold temperature (T.sub.1): determining (108; 118) an amount of second fuel (17) needed to deliver the required torque; supplying the amount of second fuel (17); controlling (112; 122) an inlet valve (19) to allow flow of a second fuel-air mix into the cylinder (3); injecting first fuel (13) into the cylinder (3) when the second fuel-air mix is compressed by the piston (9), resulting in flame propagation ignition of the second fuel-air mix; and controlling (116; 126) and outlet valve (21) to allow flow of exhaust from the cylinder (3) during an exhaust stroke (ES) of the piston (9).

A control method for internal combustion engine with a fuel injection valve configured to directly inject fuel into a cylinder and an ignition plug configured to directly spark-ignite the fuel injected from the fuel injection valve includes comparing an actual behavior, which is an actual changing behavior of an engine revolution speed at an engine start, to a reference behavior set in advance, and switching from stratified combustion in which a fuel spray injected from the fuel injection valve and staying around the ignition plug is directly spark-ignited to homogeneous combustion in which a homogeneous air-fuel mixture is formed in a combustion chamber and the fuel is burned and increasing a mechanical compression ratio of the internal combustion engine as compared to the case where the actual behavior and the reference behavior match if the actual behavior is different from the reference behavior.

Methods and systems are provided for reducing a potential for release of undesired evaporative emissions to atmosphere for vehicles that rely primarily on an electric-only mode of operation for vehicle propulsion. In one example, a method may include in response to a vehicle-on request via a driver of a vehicle, maintaining off a fuel pump that supplies a fuel to a set of port fuel injectors, and re-pressurizing the set of port fuel injectors via operation of the fuel pump based on a predicted engine-start request during a drive cycle following the vehicle-on request. In this way, escape of fuel from pressurized port fuel injectors may be reduced or avoided during engine-off conditions, which may reduce opportunity for release of undesired evaporative emissions to atmosphere.

Systems and methods are provided for determining and correcting air/fuel imbalance between cylinders of an internal combustion engine. A deactivation strategy is determined and implemented. An evaluation is made of whether the engine is operating with an air/fuel imbalance between cylinders. When an imbalance is identified, an alternate deactivation strategy is implemented. Based on outcomes of the alternate deactivation strategy, a source cylinder of the air/fuel imbalance is identified, and fuel flow to the source cylinder is corrected.

Methods and systems are provided for learning fuel injector error for cylinder groups during a deceleration fuel shut-off (DFSO), where all cylinders of an engine are deactivated, sequentially firing each cylinder of a cylinder group, each cylinder fueled via consecutive first and second fuel pulses of differing fuel pulse width from an injector. Based on a lambda deviation between the first and second pulses, a fuel error for the injector and an air-fuel ratio imbalance for each cylinder is learned. Alternatively or additionally, a difference in crankshaft acceleration between the first and second pulses relative to the expected deviation may be used to learn torque error, and adjust fuel injector error and air-ratio imbalance for each cylinder.

Methods, devices, controllers, and algorithms are described for operating an internal combustion engine wherein at least some firing opportunities utilize low temperature gasoline combustion (LTGC). Other firing opportunities may be skipped or utilize some other type of combustion, such as spark ignition. The nature of any particular firing opportunity is dynamically determined during engine operation, often on a firing opportunity by firing opportunity basis. Firings that utilize LTGC produce little, if any, nitrous oxides in the exhaust stream and thus, in some implementations, may require no aftertreatment system to remove them from the exhaust stream.

When an incremental amount of a steering angle exceeds a reference incremental amount, an ECU 60 executes vehicle attitude control of reducing an output torque of an engine, and, in a given operating range, drives a spark plug 16 in a manner allowing an air-fuel mixture to be self-ignited at a given timing, thereby executing SPCCI combustion. When there is a request for an additional deceleration from the vehicle attitude control (#12: YES), and the SPCCI combustion is performed (#13: YES), the ECU 60 executes fuel amount reduction control of reducing the amount of fuel to be supplied into a cylinder 2 (#14), so as to attain torque reduction for the vehicle attitude control. On the other hand, when the SPCCI combustion is not performed (#13: NO), the ECU 60 executes ignition retardation control of retarding an ignition timing of the spark plug 16 (#15).

A control unit performs a vehicle attitude control to reduce a torque generated by an engine when an increase in a steering angle exceeds a standard increase, and a spark ignition controlled compression ignition combustion in a predetermined operating range. In the spark ignition controlled compression ignition combustion, switching of an air-fuel ratio mode is performed between a first air-fuel ratio mode (>1) is formed and a second air-fuel ratio mode (in which a mixed gas of 1) is formed. If the switching of the air-fuel ratio mode is requested without the vehicle attitude control, the control unit allows performing the requested switching of the air-fuel ratio mode. In contrast, if the mode switching is requested in a state where the vehicle attitude control is requested, the control unit disallows switching of the air-fuel ratio mode even when the switching of the air-fuel ratio mode is requested.

An engine control method includes a step of setting combustion mode in which a first combustion mode in which a mixed gas is combusted by propagating flame or a second combustion mode in which the mixed gas is combusted by self-ignition is selected, a step of setting air-fuel ratio mode in which a lean first air-fuel ratio mode or a second air-fuel ratio mode equal to or richer than a theoretical air-fuel ratio is selected, a step of setting torque reduction in which a torque reduction amount by which a torque generated by an engine is reduced based on a steer angle of a steering wheel, and a suppressing step in which reducing the torque generated by the engine based on the torque reduction amount set in the step of setting torque reduction is suppressed.