Powerful jubilarians

When the then MTU Friedrichshafen presented the engines at the SMM in Hamburg in October 1996, success was immediate. Before it became the standard in the automotive industry, the Series 4000 diesel engines were the first marine application to be equipped with common rail injection as standard. "The engines were way ahead of their time and have been regarded as the industry standard ever since," says Otto Bücheler, who was involved in the development of the engines from the very beginning and is now in charge of the development of mtu Series 4000 marine engines.

Apart from large yachts, the large gensets are used in power generation and in dump trucks or locomotives. The smaller series is used in ferries, construction site vehicles or gensets for which less power is required. In 25 years, these mtu engines have been sold over 110,000 times and have clocked up more than 320 million operating hours. From 2023, both series will be certified for use with sustainable fuels and enable CO2-neutral mobility.