Vauxhall's Adam city car will be made available with a new 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine from next year.
The new 1.0-litre turbocharged unit, known as SGE (small gasoline engine) develops 113bhp and 122lb-ft of torque, making it torquier than the 1.6-litre naturally-aspirated unit fitted to the current Astra.
However, the new engine is claimed to be a full 20 per cent more efficient than the 1.6 and Vauxhall expects the new engine to deliver "impressive" fuel economy and CO2 emissions "significantly lower" than 100g/km.
Key to the engine's performance and efficiency are a number of technologies, including continuously variable valve timing and direct fuel injection. The block is also made from lightweight aluminium and as a result the engine weighs 30 per cent less than its predecessor.
Vauxhall also claims that refinement -- a traditional stumbling block of three-cylinder engines -- has been vastly improved, with the new engine providing noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) figures superior to many four-cylinder units.
"In developing this small engine, we not only set out minimise fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. We also wanted to demonstrate that three cylinders can be just as refined as four or more," said r Matthias Alt, Chief Engineer of Vauxhall's Small Gasoline Engines.
"We tackled at source the balance, noise and vibration issues typical of conventional three-cylinder engines, and we're confident customers will be pleasantly surprised by the results. This is a very lively and refined three-cylinder engine which doesn’t compromise driving fun."
The 1.0-litre is the first engine in what Vauxhall promises to be a complete overhaul of its engine line-up. The Luton firm plans to launch three new engine families and 13 new engines between now and 2016, with a host of new transmissions to match.
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