Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Schott
Why do you say this? BMW just introduced a car with more power and greater fuel efficiency than the previous model. Power is not going down, engines are getting smaller, turbos are increasing and efficiency is growing.
|
The 90s and most of the last decade saw truly incredible increases in HP, particularly at the high-end (sports cars). Those increases have dramatically slowed down as new fuel standards begin to take effect.
In the US for example, by 2022, a car the size of the BMW 3-series will have to
average 50 mpg across BMW's entire fleet. There are more efficiency gains to be had, but the laws of physics provide an absolute limit to that efficiency (energy density of gasoline / diesel is fixed, for example) and at some point diminishing returns start to kick in.
At the same time, governments are raising the bar on vehicle safety, which tends to result in increased weight (or at the very least--makes it much harder to cut weight). The new frontal offset crash test is just one example.
I certainly hope I'm wrong, but it's going to be a major challenge for BMW and other manufacturers to raise their fuel efficiency so high in just ten year's time without sacrificing power.
Even if they pull it off, it's likely that the era of expecting each new volume model (like the 328) to contain significantly more HP than the previous generation is likely over.