The newly designed Partially Premixed Combustion (PPC) concept operating with high octane fuels like gasoline has confirmed the possibility to combine low NOx and soot emissions keeping high indicated efficiencies, while offering a control over combustion profile and phasing through the injection settings. The potential of this PPC concept regarding pollutant control was experimentally evaluated using a commercial gasoline with Research Octane Number (RON) of 95 in a newly-designed 2-Stroke poppet valves Compression Ignition (Cl) engine for automotive applications. Previous experimental results confirmed how the wide control of the cylinder gas temperature provided by the air management settings brings the possibility to achieve stable gasoline PPC combustion at low and medium speed conditions (1250-2000 rpm) for the whole load range (3.1-10.4 bar IMEP) with good combustion stability (Coefficient of Variation (Coy) of IMEP below 3%), high combustiOn efficiency (over 97%), and low NOx/soot levels. In this context, present research focuses on the two main specific drawbacks of this concept. Firstly, the high Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) due to the work required by the mechanical supercharger since the turbocharging system does not provide the suitable pressure ratio at low speeds. Secondly, the high level of noise generated by the combustion process, especially at high loads. Therefore, a dedicated analysis has been carried out to fully exploit the benefits of the gasoline PPC concept combined with the innovative 2-Stroke engine architecture with the aim of identify and break the most relevant trade-offs. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.