Turin, Italy – General Motors has announced it will introduce two new engines with significant fuel efficiency gains for vehicles marketed in Europe and other regions, starting in 2009. The announcement was made at a GM Powertrain Europe event showcasing its line-up of technologies currently under development.

The engines are a 1.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, which will be used in vehicles worldwide starting in 2010, and a 1.6-litre compressed natural gas (CNG) turbocharged four-cylinder engine that will be introduced in the Opel Zafira in 2009. Both engines are new variants of existing engine families used globally.

“These new engines represent our ongoing approach to replace larger-displacement engines with more compact, highly-charged units for maximum performance and efficiency benefits,” said Dan Hancock, GM Powertrain Vice President, Global Engineering.

The 1.4-litre turbo engine is a new addition to a line-up that ranges from 1.0- to 1.4-litre displacement; it will produce an estimated 120 to 140 hp and deliver approximately eight per cent improvement in fuel consumption, when compared to a higher-displacement, naturally-aspirated engine with similar output. It will be manufactured at GM’s assembly facility in Aspern, Austria.

The 1.6-litre CNG turbo is a new variant in a 1.6-litre engine family that also includes a naturally-aspirated gasoline unit and a CNG unit. The new engine will produce an estimated 150 hp. It will be produced at the GM Powertrain assembly facility in Szentgotthard, Hungary. Italy and Germany are the two major markets for CNG within Europe.