Is engine downsizing a new trend, adopted by leading auto manufacturers in India?

What's engine downsizing: India’s automotive industry has evolved with time with a transition in different powertrains for their customers. The drive towards the adoption of a greener mobility solution is on a surge wherein India’s leading car manufacturers like Tata Motors, and Mahindra have an electrified version of their regular models as well. Since India’s audience is concerned about fuel efficiency more and shifting towards prioritising safety as well, the automobile manufacturers have started a new trend wherein the petrol engine which is offered in their best-selling cars gets downsized engine and focuses more on fuel efficiency. 

India’s mass-market cars either have a petrol or a diesel engine on offer for consumers. Since the emission norms are becoming more stringent, auto manufacturers have started to remove diesel engines from their cars in their lineup. To improvise more on the fuel-efficiency factor, the auto manufacturers have started engine downsizing wherein they’ll remove a cylinder from their existing engine. For instance, if the car is powered by a four-cylinder petrol engine, so after downsizing it will now be available with a three-cylinder only.

This is done for various reasons such as to reduce the cost of production, reduce the weight of the engine in the vehicle, and curb the losses such as heat loss or frictional losses in the engine. This will eventually lead the auto manufacturers to keep a check on their cost of production, enhance fuel efficiency by reducing the weight of cars, and maintain the refinement and reliability of the engine. 

Recently this trend of engine downsizing was witnessed in the Maruti Suzuki’s lineup. Maruti Suzuki had introduced the new Swift recently with an all-new Z-series which is the same 1.2-litre unit but now a three-cylinder engine. Earlier Maruti Suzuki Swift used to offer a K13B engine, a 1.2-litre four-cylinder unit. This reduction in a cylinder from the engine has resulted in much better fuel efficiency in city driving, returning approximately more than 20 km/l in the city. One of the major cons associated with this downsizing technique is that there is a rise in vibrations from the engine which can affect the overall experience with the vehicle. 

Till now, this downsizing of the engine has been only adopted by Maruti Suzuki, and soon, we can expect this from other leading auto manufacturers as well.