Ford has announced a new 1.5-litre EcoBoost engine will join its efficiency-focused turbocharged engine line-up, with the new Ford Mondeo the first to benefit from the new powerplant.
The fifth EcoBoost engine made by Ford, the new 1.5-litre four-cylinder unit features direct fuel injection and variable valve timing technology and a design that Ford says promises to make EcoBoost engines even more fuel efficient, powerful and refined.
Incorporating a new computer-controlled clutch for the engine’s belt-drive water pump to further improve efficiency by reducing warming-up time – a first for a Ford engine – the new aluminium-block, twin-cam 1.5-litre also includes an integrated exhaust manifold, which was first introduced on the award-winning 1.0-litre three-cylinder EcoBoost unit confirmed for use in the new Mondeo, new Fiesta hatch and EcoSport sub-compact crossover – the latter two both due locally mid-year – and already in use in the Ford FF1 street-legal single-seat racer.
Ford says the new 1.5-litre engine (pictured above) is expected to deliver similar power and torque figures to Ford’s current 1.6-litre EcoBoost engine, but with better fuel economy and lower emissions. In the soon-to-be-released Ford Kuga, the 1.6-litre EcoBoost unit delivers 110kW, 240Nm, 6.7 litres per 100km and 157 grams of CO2 per kilometre in front-wheel-drive guise and 134kW, 7.7L/100km and 179g/km in all-wheel drive.
Production of the new four-cylinder will start later this month at Ford’s Craiova facility in Romania, with additional manufacturing locations still to be announced, before being introduced into China in the new Mondeo, with North America’s Fusion and Europe’s Mondeo to follow later in the year. Ford says that by the end of 2013, six plants across Europe, Asia and North America will be producing EcoBoost engines.
The car maker also says more than 600,000 EcoBoost-equipped vehicles have been sold globally since the range was first launched in 2009 with the 3.5-litre V6 EcoBoost and that by the end of 2012, nearly 80 per cent of the company’s global nameplates will be available with EcoBoost technology. Locally this currently includes the 149kW/300Nm 2.0-litre four-cylinder Ford Mondeo, 179kW/353Nm 2.0-litre four-cylinder Ford Falcon, and 184kW/360Nm 2.0-litre four-cylinder Ford Focus ST.
With 92kW of power and 170Nm of torque (200Nm with overboost), Ford’s turbocharged 1.0-litre three-cylinder EcoBoost engine, which claimed the title of 2012 International Engine of the Year, will not be part of the initial launch range when the new Mondeo reaches Australia in 2014 but the new 1.5-litre unit should join the line-up post-launch.
