It’s not a particularly large surprise, given that BMW has been taking home Engine of the Year awards annually for the past few years. And why shouldn’t they? Their range of TwinPowerTurbo motors have really come into their own, proving to be as smooth as you’d expect from a continental car, while offering copious amounts of power and superlative efficiency.
The BMW i8 was responsible for two of these awards, with it’s hybrid powertrain that effectively redesigned the hybrid market. It comprises of a turbocharged 3-cylinder 1.5-litre motor that pushes out a healthy 231 hp, as well as an electric motor that supplies 131 hp. The engine itself took back a class win, along with a “Best New Engine” award, being it’s debut year for the awards.
The Engine of the Year awards is strange like that, because it doesn’t disregard engines that have been launched in the years before. It’s mostly because there aren’t enough new engines launched year-to-year with manufacturers stretching the lifespan of their engines and life cycles being a little longer than that of a car.
In addition to this, BMW also took back an award for the powerplant in the M3/M4. The transition from a large-capacity V8 to a smaller turbocharged 3.0-litre inline 6 wasn’t met with huge enthusiasm, with a lot of critics saying that it’s lost part of the feel and appeal of naturally aspirated performance.
But it can’t be denied that the engine manages to deliver the power necessary of a performance car like the M3/M4, and it manages to maintain high efficiency as well. The engine is said to be remarkably high revving for a turbocharged engine, although that tends to be a matter of other manufacturers being conservative. Also worth noting is that the inline 3 in the i8 is essentially this inline 6 engine cut in half, as BMW likes to show in their promotional material.
