Why would engine designers opt to include more cylinders in an engine instead of increasing the displacement?

Question

For example, why would a car manufacturer opt to to use a 2.0L in line six instead of a 2.0L in line four in a vehicle. Are the benefits of including more cylinders in an engine worth the added complexity?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

A smaller cylinder means the piston travels less distance to complete a rotation and the engine can achieve a higher RPM. A higher rpm means more peak HP. In a performance car that’s what you want. You don’t necessarily need to low-end out out you get from larger cylinders because the car is designed to stay in a higher rpm range. So this is why performance cars like Lamborghinis, Aston martins, Ferraris etc run a lot of V10 and V12 engines. But like you said, they do cost more and have smaller more delicate components which is why you won’t see a lot of cheap cars with V10’s