In an effort to meet stricter economy rules in the United States, automobile giant BMW announced that it plans to offer four-cylinder gasoline engines to the market.
This was announced earlier last month by Jim O'Donnell, CEO of BMW North America, at the Frankfurt Motor Show, along with an introduction of the company's newest powerplants, which will be equipped with the company's next-generation twin autochargers.
According to an article at AutoWeek.com, this will allow the company to meet the US targets by 2015. This is because under a proposal made in that same week, automobile companies will have to improve the fuel economy of their units by five percent annually until a mileage of 35.5 mpg takes effect in 2016. BMW's current fleet has an average mileage of 26.5 mpg.
BMW has last introduced four-cylinder engines in 1999, but it will have to bring back the smaller engines to meet federal regulations. The bigger problem here, however, is that the German automaker has already built a reputation for automobile performance, something that may be tarnished once the engines are reintroduced. Now the challenge lies for BMW to balance performance and mileage. Will the company be able to sustain the 'Ultimate Driving Machine' performance?
Note that the fifty percent of the automaker's units do come with four-cylinder engines, but in the United States, consumers have already come to associate the brand with powerful machines.
The first units to be affected by this change is the company's 3-series, which will be equipped with the new engines by 2012. The European counterparts of the series are already equipped with these engines.
BMW is also considering whether it should also equip its X1 and X3 crossovers and 1-series (US) with the four-cylinder engines.
For more information about this development, please refer to the article over at AutoWeek.com.
'BMW plans to reintroduce four-cylinder engines in US market'
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