3. Recent developments and fields of application

3.1 Key technologies for the future of 2-stroke engines

Technologies to remedy the 2-stroke engine's two main shortcomings have been available since the late 1990s – early 2000s. They have been the subject of in-depth investigation and development since the 1980s and up to the early 1990s, when the scientific community even envisaged that the principle advantages of the 2-stroke could at some point enable it to compete with the 4-stroke engine, or even revolutionize the automobile! The following advances were eventually introduced, often successfully, in non-automotive 2-stroke engine applications:

• CAI combustion ( Controlled Auto Ignition) to control NO _x (nitrogen oxides),...