New 1.5 liter, 2.0 liter and 3.0 liter units, both petrol and diesel, will share a common engine block design and many parts
BMW is designing its upcoming new family of engines, both diesels and petrols, to share more standardized parts.
"Our goal is to have 60 percent of components shared between engines based on fuel type, and 40 percent commonality between gasoline and diesel engines," said BMW's head of development for inline engines, Harald Unger, at a press event recently.
Parts and design features to be shared included fuel intake, variable valve timing mechanisms, injectors, turbochargers and exhaust systems as well as mounting points for both longitudinal and transverse configurations.
BMW's new family of engines will also be highly-standardized in terms of displacement, adhering to a paradigm of 500 cc (cubic centimeters) per cylinder with the same standard engine block design.
The new crop of power plants will also feature TwinPower Turbo technology.
The displacements of the engine family will be 1.5 liter (3-cylinder), 2.0 liter (4-cylinder) and 3.0 liters (6-cylinder). That's for both petrol and diesel units. The new standardized paradigm will not apply to the larger engines such as the V8, V10 and V12 units which will continue to have individual characteristics.
