Koenigsegg free valve system
 

No camshaft and complete control over each individual valve. They have the ability to hold an individual valve in the given position, close it open it, cylinder deactivation, rapid catalyst warming on cold starts... do whatever. Shaves like 40 lbs they claim. This particular video is really an interesting view. It's a 1.6 liter engine that they're working to modify, and although the engine comes from a Porsche, 1.6 L is the size of many of the engines on this forum.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S3cFfM3r510

Sadly, I think this technology is too little too late for mass market vehicles. Qoros has yet to deliver a car with this motor from what I understand, and much smaller gas hybrid setups offer similar if not better overall performance as established technologies.

It would be cool if it could be adapted onto existing engines, but I think Koenigsegg will remain the only manufacturer to actually use it. EV tech is evolving past it IMHO.

We've got a minimum 20 years of ICE domination unless a major battery breakthrough occurs. That means ICE efficiency improvements are still relevant. Having precise control of valves would be huge, but that said, it's been worked on for a long time and we don't have such a thing yet. I regard the technology as I do with announcements of groundbreaking battery tech, with a mountain of salt.

I'm betting there are significant reliability concerns with it, or Free Valve wants too much for the licensing to make it worth it for manufacturers vs. their own in-house R&D which is looking 20+ years down the road along with how to get there.

The major break throughs for batteries as we know them has already happened.
Any breakthrough that do happen will likely be too expensive to apply to a multi kwh batteries that weigh hundreds of pounds, they will be for the phone, tablet and laptop market where it makes sense to use a battery that costs say 20% more and gives 10% more power.

I feel like Fiat's MultAir (and II) is a simpler solution that does most of what all this does.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Td9Gz_h7Qpg

What really intrigued me initially is that he also used a Saab with the 2.0T as a development mule... that 2.0T was originally based on the same architecture as the GM Ecotec engines, meaning a copy of that head would, in theory, bolt onto any 2.0/2.2/2.4L Ecotec platform...

I had to mop my drool off the floor after seeing that

I agree, a little. Multiair, like any VVT, does a few of the same things. But it does not do cylinder deactivation, single valve opening/closing, or holding valves open/closed (or in any other position). It still has the camshaft/pulley weight and bulk, but it adds some of the complexity of the Konigsegg system with the pressurized oil pistons, solenoid, and electronic control unit.

Lotus, and I think possibly Honda, had something like this more than 30 years ago. IIRC the Lotus system was a hydraulic system, using fluid under pressure to actuate each valve independently.

I wonder how much fuel savings can be realized with this, and where/how efficiency improves and where it gets worse. I understand a roller rocker valve system has relatively low parasitic losses, actuating the valves returns most of the energy back to the camshaft as the lob passes and the spring pushes back up. This system would use energy to actuate the valves in both directions.