Reshared post from +Sam Abuelsamid
That +General Motors would replace the 1.4-liter inline-four cylinder engine in the +Chevrolet Volt sooner rather than later is a given. The replacement almost certainly will not be a 2.0-liter turbocharged four as used in numerous GM vehicles including the Buick Regal GS and Verano T.
When the GM board gave the production go-ahead for the Volt in mid-2007, the engineering team only had three years to get the car off the assembly line. The original concept was specified with a 1.0-liter turbocharged three-cylinder. While such an engine existed on the design screens at GM powertrain, it was nowhere near ready for production in the Volt timeframe.
The best option available was the 1.4-liter since it was already in use and ready to go. It wasn't an optimal solution but given that GM was already well on the slide toward bankruptcy by the end of 2007, and there was so much other work to do, the engineers made the smart decision to work with what they had.
Even before the Volt was approved, R&D boss Larry Burns talked about the possibility of other engines including HCCI http://green.autoblog.com/2007/05/15/chevy-volt-could-end-up-with-radically-different-engine/
and as job 1 approached other options were being considered for the Gen2 Volt http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/26/next-gen-chevrolet-could-use-diesel-two-cylinder-or-rotary-rang/http://rechargingthecar.abuelsamid.com/
The team wants a smaller, lighter and more efficient powerplant in order to better compete with the likes of the +Nissan Leaf and the upcoming +Ford Motor Company Fusion Energi. A 200+ hp turbo 2.0-liter makes absolutely no sense when you only have 161 hp of electrical power. The 2.0-liter is larger, heavier and thirstier than the 1.4 and makes way more power than can be used by the electric drive system.
The 2.0T would only make sense as part of a parallel plug-in hybrid drivetrain in some other vehicle. My guess (and I have no inside information on this, pure educated speculation) would be that they would opt for the new small engine family being co-developed with SAIC http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/17/general-motors-and-saic-to-jointly-develop-small-engine-and-dual/ which starts at 1.0-liter. Those engines could be in production by next year and would be a much better fit.
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Insider: 1.4L Engine Discontinued in 2014 Chevrolet Volt
All we had known for sure about the future of the Chevrolet Volt was that it will be undergoing a powertrain upgrade in about a year's time. That is until now. A source inside the company (who did…
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