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April 27, 2026 — Smaller engines are now producing more power than ever, according to a new analysis from Vehicle Data Global (VDG), an automotive data provider that tracks specifications across global markets. The average new car in the study now makes about 148 horsepower, a 28.9% increase over roughly 20 years, while average engine capacity has declined. The result: an ordinary family car can now deliver the kind of output once reserved for classic sports cars and hot hatchbacks.
VDG compared model-year data from 2005 through 2025 to measure how automakers responded to tightening emission regulations. During that period, average engine size fell from 1,771cc to 1,633cc — a 7.8% reduction. At the same time, average power per liter climbed 42.9%, reaching 69.1 kW per liter, or about 94 horsepower per liter. That is a particularly strong gain in efficiency, because it was achieved while emissions limits were becoming stricter.
The numbers become even more striking when looking at median models. Twenty years ago, the middle of the market was a 1,599cc engine producing roughly 107 hp. Today, the median engine has shrunk to 1,498cc, but median power has risen to 138 hp. Half of all new cars in the dataset now produce more than 138 hp, even though half also have engines below 1.5 liters. Those two facts would have seemed contradictory in the early 2000s.
Technology made the contradiction possible. The most important change, VDG says, has been turbocharging paired with electrical assistance. In the past, automakers chasing more power simply increased cylinder volume. Now, many can make 1.5 liters feel like 2.0 liters by forcing more air into the cylinders and letting an electric motor fill in the gaps at low speed.
Hybrids, however, require a small footnote. In VDG's analysis, power figures for hybrid vehicles combine the combustion engine and electric motor output. That is the correct way to describe what the driver feels, but it also means the combustion part of a hybrid is not always doing all of the work. A compact hybrid with a 1.5-liter petrol engine may show a combined output of 150 hp, while its engine alone might be closer to 100 hp.
There are signs that the downsizing era is leveling off. Average engine capacity has barely changed since 2019, when it was about 1,645cc. In 2025, it stood at 1,633cc. Power, meanwhile, has continued to climb from 105 kW, or about 142 hp, to 111 kW, or about 151 hp, over the same period. In other words, automakers are no longer shrinking engines at the same rate; they are primarily making existing engine sizes more efficient.
Ben Hermer, VDG's Operations Director, says the shift was not simply a compliance exercise. "Car makers faced increasingly stringent regulatory pressures as governments focused on reducing emissions and they responded with a combination of engine downsizing, turbocharging, and the introduction of electrical motor assistance," he said.
The result, Hermer adds, is that displacement has lost its old predictive power. "The old intuitive assumption that a 2.0-liter car is inherently more powerful than a 1.5 is no longer true. Cutting emissions without sacrificing performance was a difficult challenge but they achieved more than that, by achieving major improvements at the same time."
For buyers, the practical lesson is to look beyond engine size. A 1.0-liter turbocharged three-cylinder can be perfectly adequate for a compact crossover, and a 1.5-liter hybrid can out-accelerate a naturally aspirated 2.0-liter from a decade ago. Horsepower is still a useful metric, but torque delivery, gearing, overall weight, and aerodynamics now determine the real-world experience. None of that is visible from a badge on the tailgate.
The U.S. market feels the same pressure now. The EPA's latest light-duty vehicle regulations, finalized for the 2027-2032 model years, require fleet-wide CO2 emissions to fall substantially over that period, pushing automakers to expand electrification. While America still buys a higher share of trucks and SUVs, the powertrain strategy under those vehicles is increasingly similar: smaller displacement, forced induction, and some form of hybridization.
Looking further out, full electrification could make engine-size comparisons even less important. An electric motor produces peak torque instantly and behaves differently from any internal-combustion engine, so figures like displacement and horsepower per liter become less relevant. Yet for the enormous fleet of new cars still wearing combustion and hybrid badges, VDG's data provides the clearest evidence yet that the era of big-engine one-upmanship is over.
Hermer believes that should also mean the end of an old car-world saying. "All of this suggests that it might be time to abandon the old adage that there is no replacement for displacement."
The data does not say that small engines are always fast, nor that big engines have no place. It does say that the relationship between displacement and performance has changed permanently. For shoppers looking for a practical family car, the most powerful takeaway may be that today's "base" engine is rarely a penalty box. It is often stronger than the top engine in a comparable car from twenty years ago.
