I was a bit disappointed in the direct injection portion of the article. I'm not sure why the author chose high-performance vehicles as the poster child for direct injection, because they definitely weren't the first to use it, and definitely not the ones to use it in large numbers.
Some of the earliest uses of direct injection in production cars were Japanese makes in rather pedestrian sedans. VW went all out with direct injection around 2000 in their 2.0T engine, which is available in every car (except the Toureg) they sell in the US, ranging from the Golf, to the Tiguan, to the CC. I would not be surprised if VW sold the greatest number of direct injection engines in the world.
By contrast, Ferrari just started using direct injection in 2009. BMW just started using it in 2006. Despite the image we're sold by performance brands, they often lag behind in technology, simply because they don't have the budgets to do the R&D. They leave that to the big guys, then license the technology once it's been deployed in large numbers.
Some of the earliest uses of direct injection in production cars were Japanese makes in rather pedestrian sedans. VW went all out with direct injection around 2000 in their 2.0T engine, which is available in every car (except the Toureg) they sell in the US, ranging from the Golf, to the Tiguan, to the CC. I would not be surprised if VW sold the greatest number of direct injection engines in the world.
By contrast, Ferrari just started using direct injection in 2009. BMW just started using it in 2006. Despite the image we're sold by performance brands, they often lag behind in technology, simply because they don't have the budgets to do the R&D. They leave that to the big guys, then license the technology once it's been deployed in large numbers.