More Turbo, DI Engines in ’17; 4-cyl. Soars in Cars

Despite increased demand for light trucks in model year ’17, the use of 3-, 4-, 6- and 8-cyl. engines in the U.S. market remained steady, although 4-cyl. use in cars rose sharply, an increase that mainly was offset by a light-truck decline.  

An exclusive Wards Intelligence survey of ’17-model domestic and import light vehicles shows in-line and horizontally opposed 4-cyl. engines again dominated the field with a 54.5% industry share. That compares with 54.8% the prior year and a 6-year average of 51.8%.

The strong showing was led by an 82.7% take rate in cars, the highest penetration in more than 80 years and a significant jump from 77.3% in ’16, although overall car demand fell 3.8% to a 6-year low.

A move to “fours” exclusively in some midsize and luxury models that previously offered a mix of 4- and 6-cyl. powerplants helped boost the engine-type’s car share.

On the other hand, the use of “four-bangers” in light trucks declined to 38.4% from 40.1% in ’16, but nevertheless was the second-highest tally in six years.

Increased 6-cyl. use in pickups accompanied by more robust CUV sales led to the 4-cyl. shortfall and stole share from light-truck V-8s as well.

The light-truck gain to 42.1% from prior-year’s 38.7% helped nudge 6-cyl. use to 31.1% of total LVs in ’17 from prior-year’s 29.9%, although the move to 4-cyl. engines cut the “six’s” take rate in cars to 11.7% from 16.2%, and equaled a 9.8-percentage-point decline from 21.5% five years earlier.

Three-cylinder engines hung onto a miniscule 0.5% industry rate in ’17, the same as in ’16, although it was less than 0.1% in light trucks where it only was installed in the base Mini Cooper Countryman. While that was less than the 0.6% rate achieved in ’15, it was significantly higher than 0.1% back in ’13 when the engine-type was reintroduced in the U.S. after a lengthy absence.

The ’17 downturn was due to the fact three of the four small cars offering 3-cyl. powerplants experienced sales downturns: Ford’s Fiesta and Focus, where it is a turbocharged option, and BMW’s Mini Cooper, where a turbo is the base engine. Sales of the relatively low volume Mitsubishi Mirage, powered only by a naturally aspirated variant, held steady. 

In addition, the “handful” of V-10 and V-12 engines still offered accounted for less than 0.1% of the market.

In the “fuel economy” sector, hybrids and electric vehicles captured 4.0% of the ’17 market, the highest penetration over the last five years, edging the 3.9% garnered in ’13.

While conventional wisdom says hybrids and EVs suffer when consumer attention drifts away from fuel economy, introduction of new and/or revised models pushed light-truck hybrids and EVs to an all-time-high 2.7% in ’17, a dramatic gain from prior-year’s 0.4%.

Hybrid/EV cars rose to 6.3% of the car market from 5.4% in ’16, but posed no threat to the 7.3% earned in ’13.

Increased driving range and the introduction of new models such as the Chevy Bolt helped nudge pure EVs to 0.6% in ’17 from 0.4% in ’16 and ’15. In ’13 EVs accounted for just 0.1% of the market. However, the EV rise left behind several models, including the Mercedes B-Class and Mitsubishi i-MiEV that have been withdrawn for the U.S. market in ’18.   

The industry’s accelerated move to 4-cyl. gasoline engines has been a boon to makers of turbochargers.  Turbos were on a record 25.2% of ’17 models, up from the prior peak of 20.8% the year before. Both cars, up 23.3%, and light trucks, up 26.7%, participated in the rise. 

With Volkswagen having exited the turbodiesel market, oil-burner sales continued a 2-year decline to just 2.8%, with installations mostly in General Motors, Ford and Ram large and midsize pickups.

That was down from the record industry share of 4.3% in ’13, when turbodiesels, led by VW, were installed in 2.3% of cars, a figure that had slipped to barely 0.1% last year. Light-truck diesels also suffered in ’17, but still held onto a 4.3% market share, down from 5.4% the year before. Over the last five years, light-truck diesels reach a penetration high of 6.3% in model year ’15, just ahead of 6.1% in ’13.   

Flex-fuel LVs, which gain automakers extra credit in their CAFE calculations, rose to a peak 14.5% in ’17, from 13.0% the year before, following a modest decline to 10.3% in ’15 from the previous year’s then-record 12.8% in ’14.

Direct-injection engines outnumbered SFI variants in ’17 for the first time, 49.1% to 45.3%. That compared to a 47.1% to 52.6% DI to SFI split in ’16.

Appearing on domestic LVs for the first time, engines with both DI and SFI rose to a record 0.4% market share from 0.3% in ’16. Among domestic LVs the share was 3.8%, almost all of it in the light-truck segment.  The share of imports slid to 0.2% in ’17 due to some models being absent temporarily the market.