The Fiat Pulse makes downsizing seem rather pointless

One of those Fiats developed more specifically to the Brazilian market, the Pulse was released with the GSE/Firefly engine, always in flexfuel trim for Brazil and gasoline-powered for regional export, with a 4-cyl naturally-aspirated 1.3L version as the entry-level engine (and only one available in Mexico) with either a 5-speed manual transmission or a CVT automatic and the 3-cyl turbocharged 1.0L MultiAir III only with a CVT. Later a sporty Abarth trim with a MultiAir III version of the 4-cyl 1.3L was added, with a more conventional 6-speed automatic, but the rather specific profile of a sporty model might not be so unjustifiable for turbocharging. However, for the regular trims, the naturally-aspirated 1.3L ended up with a better fuel-efficiency, even though the 1.0L turbocharged was supposed to be much better and technically superior, with its direct injection rendering unnecessary as a knock-suppression measure an excessive enrichment of the air-fuel ratio under boost which used to be more usual when port-injection was the rule even for turbocharged engines. Sure the 56.25% higher torque rating for the 1.0L MultiAir III might be appealing, not to mention the turbocharged provides some altitude compensation once the turbo-lag is over while the naturally-aspirated engines suffer from a more acute performance decrease on extreme altitudes, and considering FIA racing homologation rules the turbocharged engine with a 25% lower displacement would actually be supposed to equate to a naturally-aspirated engine 27.6% larger in displacement than the one fitted to the Pulse, which technically is quite impressive, but the turbocharged engine ends up not only having a higher fuel consumption but also costs more to make and mantain. It's also worth to notice that some operators such as taxi drivers may also consider to upfit the vehicles with a Compressed Natural Gas alternate fuel setup, to which the port-injection of the 1.3L naturally-aspirated engine is still better suited.