BMW is facing higher fuel-efficiency requirements under the Obama administration, is bringing four-cylinder engines back to the United States 12 years after it quit offering the slow-selling option. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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BMW says it will offer a four-cylinder engine in its Z4 roadster and 5-series mid-sized sedans when they begin arriving at U.S. dealers in October, and the company says more nameplates will get the smaller engine with the Munich-based automaker’s TwinPower turbo.
BMW dropped the engine from its 3-series line in 1999, when gasoline cost $1.14 a gallon.
“It wasn’t in line with our image, because it didn’t have the performance of the six cylinder,” said Jim O’Donnell, head of BMW’s U.S. operations. “We were selling ourselves as the ultimate driving machine and really it wasn’t. Now that the engines have developed so far, it’s not an issue at all.”
BMW, this year’s top-seller of luxury autos in the United States, joins Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen AG’s Audi in bringing new turbocharged, four-cylinder engines to the world’s second-biggest market as the Obama administration pushes the industry for increases in fuel efficiency to reduce dependency on imported oil.
The U.S. corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, requirement is rising to 35.5 mpg by 2016 and to 54.5 mpg by 2025. It increases to 30.1 mpg this year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, up from 27.5 mpg in 2010.
