Ford will soon be selling more Ecoboost three-cylinder engines in Europe than any other format, once the new 1.5-litre version, launched in 198bhp form on the new Fiesta ST, spreads through its range.
Ford’s Europe product development chief, Joe Bakaj, has hinted that the engine will go as far up the range as the Ford Mondeo, for which the existing 1.0-litre engine is already used. Although it has been expanded once already, the Ecoboost triple is unlikely to get any bigger, said Bakaj.
“A capacity of 500cc per cylinder is about right for thermal efficiency,” he said. “Besides, we don’t need cars to get more powerful. We need them to get lighter.”
Ford is also about to start selling its new generation of multi-speed automatic transmissions, developed with GM, in Europe. The gearboxes will be used first in the updated Ford Mustang but are coming in the wider range.
The new gearboxes will work especially well in downsized turbocharged engines, Bakaj said. Whereas on step-off a dual-clutch gearbox must depend initially on the nonturbo low-end torque of the engine, the torque converter of the new Ford-GM multispeed gearboxes provides better assistance.
