[Jean H.318TI]

Bloomberg is reporting that BMW NA may be bringing some of its stellar four cylinder powerplants to the US in the future. However we can exclusively report (as we have mentioned previously) that there is no maybe about it. BMW NA has definitely given the go ahead to bring the at least one 4 cylinder power-plant to the US as soon as 2011. Destined for either the E90 3 Series or the a 1 Series model, the power-plant could either be a current engine or one of the two new 1.8L turbos (producing 204 or 240 hp). While there’s an outside chance four cylinder diesels could also make it, we wouldn’t hold our breath unless there are some drastic fuel price shifts

Here’s an excerpt from the Bloomberg piece:

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world’s biggest maker of luxury cars, probably will bring back four-cylinder engines to meet tougher U.S. fuel-economy standards, the company’s top North American engineer said.

The automaker, which hasn’t offered the smaller engines in the U.S. since 1999, wants to boost fuel efficiency without hurting its reputation for performance vehicles, said Tom Baloga, BMW’s vice president of engineering for the U.S.

“The biggest challenge will be maintaining the ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’ performance,” he said in an interview today, referring to the Munich-based company’s marketing motto.