As part of the just sealed partnership between Renault-Nissan and Daimler, the German company will provide Infiniti (Nissan’s luxury arm) with engines. And according to Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co, Infiniti’s smallest G series will use Mercedes inline four-cylinder engines to improve fuel economy and cut emissions – the powerplant in question is likely to be Merc’s latest direct-injection turbocharged CGI engines, which can be had here in Malaysia with the C and E-Class.
Ghosn didn’t give any timeline or if the Mercedes engine will entirely phase out the current 328 bhp 3.7-litre V6 used in the G range, which most testers have given the thumbs up to. Sweet it may be, but carmakers are increasingly being pressured to lower emissions of their range, and putting a small four-pot in its volume seller will help Infiniti greatly in this matter. But it remains to be seen if US customers who are used to a minimum of six cylinders in this segment will bite – Mercedes itself doesn’t use four-cylinder engines in the US; the smallest engine in the C-Class is a 3.0-litre V6.
Even America is not spared from the downsizing wave. The big V8s will still be needed, but the V6s will be slowly replaced by high output four pots. Hyundai-Kia will also not have V6s in their latest Sonata and Optima/Magentis, using instead the 2.0-litre Theta II turbocharged GDI engine, which puts out 274 bhp and 375 Nm.
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If oil prices keep going up, Americans will downsize… as long as hp figures are kept. They love hp.
American are never really forced to downsize. Fuel is still relatively cheap for them. Some will but its not enough to heavy hand most of the more radical changes in north america.
Its usually the Government what imposes a lot of limitation of what manufacturers can or cannot sell.
I suspect a lot of these are due to quite a lot stricter CAFE limits in the near future.
The Big 3 (more so GM) is already sweating bullets trying to bring thier CAFE ratings down….which is why you see the Korean sourced Cruze’s rather interesting powerplant choices.
One way to bring down CAFE is to sell more small cars (and eat the thin margins) to offset the higher emmisions large V8s. The other way is to increase efficiency across the board with either Turbo Diesel or force feeding a smaller petrol powerplant..
Force fed cars are inherently more efficient, as it minimizes a N/A engine pumping losses.
That’s why you can’t tell them these are fuel sippers unless you’re talking to the tree-hugging West Coast hippie vegans. Impress them with the hp and torque figures and they might ignore the fact that it’s not a V6 or V8. They might actually buy one.
TURBO, CHARGED!!!!
nissan benz?
infiniti end of idea?. u better appoint PROTON engineer to build ur new CPS engine. haha :P :P
who will care about d cps engine since they possessing more fuel efficient and powerful engine….pls dont dream
So what? Infinti, Acura will never arrive at our shores at all…….Its is not for us, but for other markets…….
sounds good
bring it in to malaysia & maybe people here will buy it…