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NEWS
Benz says "No" to three pots
Four is the lower limit for engine cylinders in traditional Mercedes passenger carsMercedes-Benz might have invented the term “downsizing” to put smaller engines in bigger cars, but the premium German brand is refusing to follow BMW into three-cylinder engines.
The head of its powertrain development yesterday insisted the only way Mercedes-Benz would be pushed into a three-cylinder engine would be if a plug-in hybrid campaign forced it upon them.
The Vice-President of Mercedes-Benz Powertrain Development, Bernhard Heil, yesterday implied that three-cylinder engines gave theoretical, rather than real-world economy improvements, because they needed to be worked harder and at higher revs to provide the same performance as a four-cylinder engine.
“The question for us is really what is the compromise to go under the level of our current 2.0-litre or 1.6-litre four-cylinder engines?” he said. “We are really converted to a way of downsizing without bigger compromises like that,” he said during the Geneva Motor Show.
“Our strategy is to take a 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine and make it more comfortable and use lower revs and not need heavy balancing shafts, like a three-cylinder engine would need.”
Benz’s traditional arch-rival, BMW, introduced its new three-cylinder engine, which has already been lauded for its strength, smoothness and character in the MINI Cooper, yesterday in the 2-Series Active Tourer at the Geneva Motor Show. It will also bring the engine on stream in the i8 hybrid sports car in April.
Audi, meanwhile, is sizing up Volkswagen’s new generation of three-cylinder engines for use in the entry-level A1, along with a five-seat semi-people mover of its own. Yet Mercedes-Benz refuses to budge.
“With a four-cylinder of 1.6 litres, people can drive at slower rpm compared to the three cylinder, and that’s important, especially in our C- and B-Class cars we see more with a trend of down-speeding than in a three cylinder,” Heil said.
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Written byMichael Taylor
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