You guys are still under the impression that car companies have any freedom these days to fiddle with engines. Any change to a tune requires a very expensive certification process. The tune (via checksums) must be registered with the gov't and approved for use. If you want to make that tune available to earlier cars, you have to have those certified independently. For example, when Lotus came out with the LSS supercharger for the Elise, they had to get separate certifications for each model year prior to the 2008 cars, which had it as a factory option.
In the US, California basically sets national policy because it's the biggest car market in the US, and it's uneconomical to have CA and non-CA cars (and also difficult because you have to ensure they don't get sold where they're not supposed to). In Europe, I'm less familiar, but I've had dealings with the US regulators and I have a low opinion of them. Zero interest in practicality, zero interest in fun, no understanding of car technologies, and just a mandate to crack down. They will never say "we're done, good enough" because that means less hiring, fewer promotions, and less to brag about with accomplishments.
Modern EFI engines, those designed after the early 2000's, emit cleaner air on a smoggy day than they take in. You can't squeeze blood from that stone, so now they're looking at CO2 levels. Direct injection is a result of reducing CO2 levels because you can be a little more efficient at low load, at the cost of being dirtier at high load. Well, now, the direct injected cars are going to have particulate filters, like diesels, and they'll need urea tanks to help clean the filter, which will harm mileage.
I'm really thankful for the Emira's primitive engine. It's the best "old car" you can buy today. More RPM would be nice, I got accustomed to my Elise screaming up to 8500, but it's also nice to have torque instead.
