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The market potential for products such as scooters and small motorcycles is already self-sustaining. However, other applications for small engines can be more fragmented with a wide variety of requirements for the engine control unit. Consequently, the engine control unit can be designed to accommodate more features than are necessary for a given application to cover a broader market. The flip side of this approach is to design the engine control unit for a limited application reducing the market size. Neither approach creates a cost efficient product for the producer. It either supplies the market with an electronic control unit that has features not being utilized (wasted costs) or a unit that has limited capabilities reducing the economies of scale (higher costs). When these designs are developed using discrete components these inefficiencies are exacerbated.

The Engine Control Unit (ECU) for small engines is facing challenges with regard to performance, size and cost. In many instances, the customer requirements often contradict each other. Examples include higher performance at lower cost or smaller size, both of which can cause thermal challenges. In order to meet varying performance requirements in a platform approach, the ECU must provide a wide range of functionality. Providing a solution that can meet these flexible requirements will result in an increased component count and larger ECU size. An optimized feature set in the right package can help alleviate these issues. The ECU must be impervious to a wide range of environmental conditions, such as temperature, humidity and vibration. Restricted air flow must also be considered when designing an ECU. Existing approaches often apply the use of large aluminum housings to provide a strong mechanical support with good thermal performance.