Once upon a time, General Motors was intent on making the biggest, most powerful cars humankind had ever seen. But times have changed since the era of cheap gasoline, and today’s car buyers tend to be more interested in miles per gallon than miles per hour. Accordingly, automakers appear to be thinking small these days.
America has gone from “there’s no replacement for displacement,” to “fewer cylinders, more gears.”
The world has seen dramatic growth in hybrid- and electric-model offerings over the last several years, but highly efficient gasoline engines based on conventional technology seem to hold quite a bit of promise. G.M. has pledged that it will spend $332 million developing engine-efficiency upgrades, with $225 million of that money going into development of 3- and 4-cylinder engines.
Source
The New York Times