GM’s $893 million investment will go towards building fuel-efficient V8s

GM announced this morning that it will invest $890 million to build cleaner, more fuel-efficient engines across five plants. The investment will go towards producing cleaner and more efficient next-generation V8 small block engines, the Detroit automaker said.

The current fourth-generation small block engine powers the Chevrolet Corvette, Cadillac CTS-V and the GMC Yukon as well as many other models.

GM said that the Gen IV engines are characterized by refinements and advanced technology such as variable valve timing and Active Fuel Management. Variable valve timing enables improved torque, fuel economy and emissions while Active Fuel Management disables the combustion process of half the engine”s cylinders in certain driving conditions. The latter enables fuel savings of up to 5 percent in trucks and 12 percent in cars.

GM also said that many Gen IV variants can run on gasoline, E85 ethanol or any combination of the two. The new line will also be lighter.

GM is working on the new engines to meet this decade’s federal fuel-economy standards, which require a fleet average of 35.5 mpg in the 2016 model year, compared with 27.3 mpg in 2011.

– By: Omar Rana