It’s no secret that automakers’ lineups will have to change over the next several years — thanks to stricter CAFE standards — but it may be surprising to find out just how much those regulations will change the face of the automobile.
Perhaps the biggest indication to how much the automobile will change as we approach the 2020 CAFE deadline will be the Pontiac G8. Pontiac’s newest sports sedan has been on the market for less than a month, but it’s already considered a modern muscle car — thanks to the availability of a V8 engine. But just as Brian Shipman, Product Manager of the G8, told Leftlane, the requirements for a muscle car are changing.
Shipman indicated that future G8s could be powered by a four-cylinder engine and Bob Lutz, General Motors vice chairman, also indicated that this could be the case. “It’s possible that the G8 could be powered by a 1.6L engine without a sacrifice in performance,” Lutz said. “That engine could get the G8′s mileage into the 30 to 31 mpg range.”
Lutz also said that GM is preparing to launch a version of the Buick Park Avenue — essentially a long-wheelbase version of the G8 — in China with the turbo 260 horsepower 2.0L unit from the Saturn Sky Redline and Pontiac Solstice GXP. The move is due to China’s graduated taxation — which drastically increases on engines larger than 2.0L — but despite the engine being in a car that is “seemingly way too big,” Lutz says the engine “felt just great.”
But don’t look for the G8 to switch to a turbocharged four-cylinder engine until the next-generation of automatic transmissions arrives. Because of the engines decreased displacement, more than six gears will be need to keep the engine in its powerband — meaning an eight or nine-speed transmission could be in GM’s future.
