It has emerged that Volkswagen will phase out conventional normally aspirated petrol engines in coming three or four years. The normally aspirated engines will be replaced by more powerful and fuel-efficient turbocharged motors.
Mark Trahan, Volkswagen’s executive vice president for group quality, told DetroitNews that the German car maker intends to replace its conventional petrol engines with turbocharged engines.
“You have to have a turbo these days,” Trahan told The Detroit News. “We only have one normally aspirated gas engine, and when we go to the next generation vehicle that it’s in, it will be replaced. So three, four years maximum.”
Joe Bakaj, Ford Motor Co. vice president of powertrain engineering, too recently said that normally aspirated petrol engines in Ford’s lineup could soon become extinct.
“At some point in the future that will be an option,” he said.
It may be noted that downsized turbocharged petrol engines are fast becoming popular in the world of passenger cars. It won’t be wrong to say that with each passing generation, car models are getting larger and their engine sizes are getting smaller. Some 3 years back, people would have laughed at the idea of a mid size sedan being powered by a 1400cc petrol engine. However, only recently we drove the Skoda Octavia 1.4 TSi and came back grinning ear to ear about its performance.
We aren’t too surprised with this recent development, what with emission norms getting tighter and fuel prices soaring even higher? Such has been the affect that even the makers of the most premium of cars out there are fast resorting to replacing naturally aspirated motors with downsized turbocharged engines.
With VW too joining the turbocharged engine bandwagon, there would really be very less car makers left to subscribe to this fast emerging trend.