General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) announced on Wednesday that it plans to have annual production of its Ecotec small-displacement engines ramped up to 2.5 million a year by 2017. How small? Well, 1.0 liters to 1.5 liters in 3- and 4-cylinder engines with horsepower ratings of 75 to 165.

GM will offer 11 different Ecotec engine models beginning with a 1.0-liter 3-cylinder engine for its Opel Adam. The next Chevrolet Cruze, due in 2015, will be one of the first cars marketed in the U.S. to offer an Ecotec engine, but GM did not indicate which of the 11 engine models it would be.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) already offers a 3-cylinder, 1.0 liter option on its Fiesta SE, and Mitsubishi and Smart both offer 3-cylinder cars. GM’s Cruze models for China will include a new 1.4-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine that develops 148 horsepower and a 1.5-liter normally aspirated 4-cylinder engine that develops 113 horsepower. All the Ecotec engines are designed to run on regular unleaded gasoline, and some will support hybrid systems and alternative fuels.

Fuel economy ratings aren’t available for the Ecotec engines yet, but Ford’s Ecoboost 1.0-liter engine gets 32 mpg in the city and 45 on the highway for a combined rating of 37 mpg. GM claims its Ecotec engines will improve on those ratings.

The engines will be manufactured at five plants around the world: Flint Hills, Michigan; Shenyang, China; Szentgotthard, Hungary; Toluca, Mexico; and Changwon, South Korea. The Flint Hills plant will build more 4-cylinder engines, while the other plants build more 3-cylinder models.

While these engine sizes and horsepower ratings may sound underpowered to American ears, auto market researcher LMC Automotive estimates that the industry will be producing 9.8 million 3-cylinder engines by 2018. That’s equal to about 12% of all cars sold globally in 2013.

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