No 2-cylinder engines for VAG

Volkswagen has rejected the idea of utilising 2-cylinder engines in its forthcoming city-car.

Volkswagen has been the head of down-sizing engines with its 3-cylinder petrol and diesel units. Ulrich Hackenberg, R&D chief executive, thinks downsizing is now on the verge of its limits, despite Fiat�s new 2-cylinder TwinAir engine.

�Improvements can now only be made in performance and economy, not in making the engines any smaller. Instead, the Up will make use of three-cylinder engines that will really advance the technology and make strong use of it�, he said.

�I�ve seen two-cylinder cars running,� he said, �but from a production point of view it�d be very hard.

�Even three-cylinder engines are very expensive as they�re not as smooth or refined as we�d like. But we�re not going to abandon them,� he added