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Honda clains this will be the smallest, lightest and most efficient 1.6-litre diesel engine on the market.

Here's a tip: Among the sleek concepts and alternative-power greenmobiles on the Honda stand at the Geneva motor show in March there will be a small cutaway car engine on a plinth.

A very small engine.

But ignore it at your peril; this 1.6-litre turbodiesel is the first of what Honda says will be a series of ground-breaking new engines using what it calls, with typical Honda understatement, Earth Dreams Technology.

And we're not talking pie in the sky here; it will be on showroom floors in the recently-announced Civic hatch by late 2012 or early 2013.

Honda says it plans to be the world leader in fuel-efficiency within three years and, as ambitious as that sounds, it is putting its engines where its mouth is.

This 1596cc turbodiesel will replace the current 2.2-litre oil-burner, first in the Civic and later in other Hondas.

1.6-litre turbodiesel will replace current 2.2 in Honda Civic.

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Not only that: thanks to a reduced compression ration and a beautifully cast, open-deck aluminium block, an improved cooling system, significantly lower internal friction and a very small, high-efficiency turbo, Honda claims that it will be the smallest, lightest and most efficient 1.6 diesel on the market.

How efficient? Try 88kW at 4000rpm and 300Nm at 2000, at a cost of less than 100g/km of CO2.

The other engines in the programme will be:

A 3.5-litre V6 with 228kW and 360Nm.

A 2.4-litre four with 133kW and 240Nm.

A 1.8-litre four producing 107kW and 180Nm and

A 1.5-litre four with a claimed 93kW and 150Nm, which will first be seen in the next-generation Jazz.

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