58.9 mpg Ford engine will be a global game-changer
Ford has announced that their new 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine has received the 2012 “International Engine of the Year” award along with winning the “Best New Engine” and “Best Engine Under 1.0-Liter” in the awards presented by Engine Technology International magazine. The new engine from Ford combines the latest technology and delivers some incredible fuel-mileage numbers. All the attention and awards are certainly well deserved.
The new 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine from Ford combines the latest technology to achieve an incredible 58.9 mpg. The engine uses a turbocharger, direct injection and variable valve timing to deliver both power and fuel efficiency. There are two versions of the little 1.0-liter engine. The new Focus engine produces 98 horsepower (58.9 mpg) and the larger 125 horsepower engine delivers 56.5 mpg. (Note these mpg estimates are based on European standards and could be slightly less in the U.S.)
The new three-cylinder engine from Ford is being used first in the European Ford Focus and will be offered in the C-MAX and B-MAX in Europe later this year. Ford will be offering the 1.0-liter fuel-efficient engine in Ford models in the U.S. sometime next year. The engine has been wildly accepted in Europe and should be a big hit when it is offered here in North America.
While we see much of the attention on electric and hybrid vehicles, the gasoline engine is alive and well and isn’t going away. “For a three-cylinder to power a vehicle like the Ford Focus with such ease proves the future is very, very bright for the internal combustion engine,” said Slavnich of Engine Technology International. And it’s not over yet, we’ll see even more advances made to the internal combustion engine in the future.
Other 1.0-liter EcoBoost innovations
Amazingly, Ford was able to produce the same amount of power and performance from the new 1.0-liter EcoBoost as they had with the naturally aspirated 1.6-liter engine it is replacing. They were able to accomplish this first by using an exhaust manifold, cast into the cylinder head, which lowers the temperature of exhaust gases to enable the optimum fuel-to-air ratio across a wider rev band.
A unique cast iron block warms the engine more quickly than a conventional aluminum block to cut the amount of “warm-up” energy required by 50 percent, and cut fuel consumption. And two main engine drive belts are immersed in oil to deliver a quieter, more efficient engine. Another energy-saving technology uses an offset engine configuration that unbalances the flywheel and pulley instead of adding energy-draining balancer shafts.
How does it compare to other engines
To give you an idea of what Ford has accomplished with this new EcoBoost 1.0-liter engine, lets compare it to another small engine built by Toyota. The 2012 Scion iQ is powered by a 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine that has even less horsepower at 94. But the naturally aspirated Scion iQ engine gets an EPA estimated 37 mpg highway fuel mileage compared to the Ford EcoBoost at 58.9. Those are the kind of numbers that could be a real global game-changer for Ford. It's no wonder the engine has been so successful in Europe.
The award-winning engine was designed at Ford’s technical centers in Dunton, U.K., and Merkenich, Germany. The engine is built in Ford’s plants in Craiova, Romania, and Cologne, Germany. With the fuel-stingy engine being successfully used in Europe, look for the new 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine in Ford products here in the U.S. sometime next year. This new engine design could have a major impact on engines in the future as Ford applies this technology on their four and six-cylinder powerplants.
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