Vauxhall have been very busy behind the scenes with their research and development and have some exciting new improvements to their vehicles to announce. They have developed a new family of engines with the first of thirteen being rolled out currently, and with all of the new engines will be present in vehicles by 2016. The first of the units is already in one of Vauxhalls new models, this being the new Cascada convertible and proves to be a much improved engine to it’s original- of which, Vauxhall received past criticism among their skeptics.
The units are being developed by engineers who have been working hard on giving these engines some quite significant improvements, including noise reduction, vibration reduction and harshness in general. Also on the list of improvements is a better fuel economy and emissions, which are to be rivaled. The CO2 emissions in particular are to be cut by over twenty- seven percent by 2020. This is a considerable amount for both drivers and the environment and equates to millions of tons of CO2 emission savings in the future.
The new engine announcement has come at a time when Vauxhall have also rolled out their 10 year action plan called “Drive 2022”. This plan includes brand new transmissions for both manual and also for automatic engine vehicles. These range from both petrol and diesel and from 1litre up to 2.5 litre.
It appears that customer feedback and criticism from customers is important to the company and the clearly listen to what is being said. They have taken some negative feedback on board and listened to their customers, hence why the action plan and the need to radically improve both their engines and vehicles as a whole. In particular, there was criticism from customers over transmissions and engine noise and this has triggered the company to work on new products, the process originally starting some five years ago now.
The development of diesel engines has been in-house, with the parent company GM taking the lead and collaborating with some other valued car manufacturers including Fiat and Isuzu.
Key to the success of the roll out of the improved engines over the next three years, is the recent alliance with PSA Peugeot Citreon of France which will see an improved technical knowledge and learnings for the company.
Vauxhall are not only releasing their new improved engines but they are also developing a range of new gearboxes with both mid and high torque powerplants, not to mention new clutch transmissions which see a continuously variable and dual clutch in the pipeline. These new gearboxes are reportedly meant to have a much smoother operation, in particular when reversing, and new announcements on these are to follow in the future.