Americans are choosing small engines. "Wake up from that romantic dream"
If you regarded the USA as the last bastion of "real" motoring, defined by big engines placed under the hoods of gigantic cars, it's time to wake up from that romantic dream. As the data shows, Americans are following the path of Europeans.
9:21 AM EDT, October 8, 2023
The times when almost every housewife would drive an eight-cylinder shopping car are already history in the U.S. There's no doubt that bigger cars are more popular there than those making a career in Europe, but the differences in engines are becoming less and less noticeable. That's at least what the data from S&P Global Mobility cited by carscoops.com suggests.
As it turns out, currently the most popular in the USA are cars with four-cylinder engines. Their market share is 57.2 percent. The popularity of larger engines is decreasing year on year. For six-cylinder engines, it has gone from 28.6 percent to 26.8 percent, and for eight-cylinder units, it has gone from 11.5 percent to 10.9 percent.
The biggest surprise, however, might be the issue of three-cylinder engines. While before 2019 their share in US car sales was basically 0 percent, in the second quarter of 2023 it reached 5.6 percent, and many indications are that it will be 6.2 percent in the third quarter. As experts point out, the change comes from growing demand for compact and smaller models, characterized by fuel efficiency. The same is true for the declining popularity of "eights." Instead of these, individual manufacturers are increasingly offering supercharged six-cylinder engines, which have similar power but less fuel consumption.
As it turns out, the USA is beginning to follow the path that Europe embarked on long ago. This is happening, of course, under different conditions. However, the fact remains that the prevalence of massive engines is becoming a thing of the past even across the ocean.
