In May 2016, BMW unveiled a brand-new quad-turbo diesel engine that replaced the tri-turbo oil-burner offered in the previous 750d xDrive model. Come August and the German brand released details about a new family of three- and four-cylinder engines that will hit the market in 2017.

Developed as part of BMW's next generation of Efficient Dynamics drivetrains, the new batch of engines includes both gasoline and diesel units, which are said to be more powerful and efficient than any similar BMW engines to date.

The three- and four-cylinder units will be used in a variety of BMW and Mini models. Likely candidates include all Bimmer nameplates from 1 Series to the 5 Series, and the entire Mini lineup except the Countryman. The latter will get them with its next refresh.

Getting down to actual figures, the gasoline engines will receive a boost of seven horsepower and 15 pound-feet of torque. Specifically, the 1.5-liter, three-cylinder unit will now develop 103 and 115 horses. Moving over to the 2.0-liter four-pot, output will range between 149 and 234 horsepower. Despite the power increase, BMW promises that fuel economy will improve by five percent, while CO2 emissions will be reduced by a similar amount. These improvement mainly come from the relocated turbochargers and exhaust manifold, increase fuel pressure, and a redesigned cooling system.

As far as diesels go, BMW had nothing to say about output upgrades, but did mention a five-percent bump in fuel efficiency and revealed that the four-cylinder units will switch to twin-turbo setups, previously reserved for performance-oriented drivetrains only. New features include a revised exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system, an additional selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system, a higher-pressure common-rail injection system, and a "flared" cylinder bore profile.

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Why it Matters

BMW's current three- and four-cylinder engines have a pretty good reputation. They're powerful, reliable, and deliver decent to very good fuel economy depending on specifications. But there's always room for improvement and with more stringent fuel economy and efficiency requirements looming in, BMW has no choice but to redesign all of its powerplants within the next few years. This is good news not only for BMW's carbon print and marketing department, but also for the customers, who will have access to small-displacement engines with far better performance and fuel efficiency. And given the fact that these new units will motivate more than ten different BMW and Mini nameplates, the next-gen family of three- and four-cylinder engines is as important as it gets for the German group.