PSA Peugeot Citroën has officially opened the new three-cylinder petrol engine assembly line at its Trémery plant in Moselle, eastern France.
The automaker is renewing its small engine line-up and its new family of three-cylinder engines will be more efficient and cleaner (thanks to their smaller size) while maintaining power and torque, it said.
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More compact and delivering 68 to 82 horsepower, the new I3 engines will reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions by 25% compared with current I4 engines. Fuel consumption is reduced by about 1.5 litres per 100km. The new engines will be available first in the just-announced Peugeot 208, to be launched in first-quarter 2012, with CO2 emissions of just 104g/km for the 1.2-litre VTI 82hp version and 99g/km the its one-litre 68hp variant.
PSA has spent EUR717m on the project, launched in early 2008, of which EUR460m was for research and development. In all, 52 patents have been filed and 1,200 engineers and technicians involved. EUR257m was allocated for capital spending projects in eastern France, mainly at Trémery.
In the start-up phase, begun last September, the new EB engine will be produced only at Trémery. The project has a potential annual production capacity of 640,000 engines and will create 500 jobs. Brought on stream in 1979, Trémery is the world’s leading diesel engine production facility with a total output of 35m units, PSA claims. The plant currently has 3,720 employees.
In a second phase, the new engines designed in France will be produced in Latin America and China to meet local needs.
