Analysis by data technology specialists Vehicle Data Global (VDG), an industry leading bulk data provider that spans multiple international markets, reveals that today’s average engine power output matches many legendary performance cars of yesteryear.

Engineers have achieved an average power output today of 148 horsepower—a 28.9 percent increase in output in over just 20 years.

It means that an increasingly high proportion of ordinary family cars today match the power output of classic sports cars and hot hatches of the past.

Vehicle Data Global conducted the analysis to illustrate how the engineering ingenuity of turbocharging and hybrid technology squeezed ever more power out of the smaller engines that were necessary to help meet increasingly stringent CO2 target reductions.

They found that since 2005, average engine capacity fell 7.8 percent, from 1,771cc to 1,633cc, while average power per liter rose by 42.9 percent to 69.1 kW per liter (94 horsepower per liter). In the case of hybrid vehicles, reported power figures in VDG’s analysis include the contributions from electric motors, rather than reflecting the combustion engine’s output alone.

Median engine size today (the middle value among all engine capacities) has fallen over 20 years from 1,599cc to 1,498cc, while median power rose from about 107 horsepower to 138 horsepower.

But the downsizing of engines now shows signs of reaching a plateau, with little change in average engine capacity in recent years, even as power outputs continue to rise.

Average capacity was about 1,645cc in 2019 and 1,633cc in 2025, whereas power continued climbing from 105 kW (142 horsepower) to 111 kW (151 horsepower), suggesting that ever more efficiency is being achieved even as engine capacities are no longer reducing at the same rate as before.

Ben Hermer, Operations Director of VDG said: “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.

“In the process, they radically changed the relationship between engine size and performance. 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.

“All of this suggests that it might be time to abandon the old adage that there is no replacement for displacement.”