Valeo SA has several development contracts with automakers for its camless engine, industry sources say.
The technology is expected to be available in less than five years.
"We will have an engine on the market by 2010 or 2011," says Martin Haub, Valeo board member for r&d. "Development is under way."
A Valeo spokesman would not confirm the contracts but said the French supplier is "working with several global automakers" on camless engines. He declined to identify any of them.
At the proving grounds here near Paris, where journalists could drive a car with a prototype camless engine, Haub told Automotive News Europe that Valeo's project is half-camless - only the intake valves are electronically actuated. That gives 80 percent of the performance of a fully camless engine, which Valeo also is working on, at half the cost, he said.
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