Volkswagen of America will drop naturally aspirated gasoline engines in favor of more powerful and economical turbocharged gasoline and diesel units within the next three to four years, a company executive said.
The company’s U.S. lineup currently has three remaining naturally aspirated gasoline engines: a 170hp 2.5-liter five-cylinder (on the Golf, Jetta SportWagen, Passat, Beetle) a 115hp 2.0-liter four-cylinder (Jetta) and a 280hp 3.6-liter FSI (Passat, CC, Touareg). All these units will gradually be replaced with turbocharged engines, according to Mark Trahan, VW’s executive vice president for group quality.
“You have to have a turbo these days. 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,” Trahan told The Detroit News referring to the 2.5-liter unit but omitting the 2.0-liter engine that is listed a base engine for the Jetta sedan on the company’s commercial website.
VW is not the only automaker to say that naturally aspirated engines will soon be history, as Ford also expressed a similar view recently. Joe Bakaj, Ford Motor Company vice president of powertrain engineering, said conventional engines could disappear from the carmaker’s lineup.
“At some point in the future that will be an option,” he said, adding that hybrid vehicles would be exceptions. Automakers in North America plan to offer 3 million gasoline and diesel vehicles with turbocharged engines in 2013, up from 2.1 million in 2012.
By Dan Mihalascu
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