Ford shows its new 3-cylinder EcoBoost engine for small cars
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DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. showed its 1.0-liter, three-cylinder, direct-injection turbocharged EcoBoost engine today at the Frankfurt auto show.
The engine goes into production in April for sale in Europe.
Ford will build the engine at its assembly plant in Cologne, Germany, and will offer the engine first in the European Focus compact, B-Max and C-Max small vehicles.
Ford will bring the 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine to North America "quickly after the European application," said Derrick Kuzak, Ford's group vice president of global product development. He declined to specify the year in which North America will get the engine or which vehicle will get it.
The 1.0-liter EcoBoost is expected to generate about 120 hp, Kuzak said. But he declined to give a fuel economy target.
'Attention to detail'
"It's the attention to detail" in designing the engine that will enhance its fuel efficiency, not just its small size, Kuzak said.
For example, the 1.0-liter, three-cylinder engine will have twin independent variable camshaft timing to reduce fuel consumption and improve performance.
It also has a split cooling system that enables the cast-iron engine block to warm up separately from the cylinder head. It uses an unbalanced flywheel and pulley to control the vibration of the odd number of pistons. All of those features improve the efficiency of the engine and enable it to deliver four-cylinder smoothness and high fuel economy, Kuzak said.
"Think of all of that technology coming to a 1.0-liter, three-cylinder engine. That'll give you a sense of what kind of fuel economy numbers we might be thinking of when we talk specifically about that engine in a vehicle," Kuzak said.
Fours and sixes
Ford offers several versions of four- and six-cylinder EcoBoost engines, its term for powerplants that combine direct injection and turbocharging to provide extra power in smaller-displacement engines.
It has two versions of the EcoBoost 3.5-liter V-6, one for cars and crossovers and another for the F-150 pickup. It also offers four-cylinder EcoBoost engines in 1.6- and 2.0-liter configurations for cars and SUVs. The 1.0-liter is the first three-cylinder EcoBoost engine.
Ford's EcoBoost engines generally achieve a 20 percent improvement in fuel economy over a naturally aspirated engine.
You can reach Jamie LaReau at jlareau@crain.com. -- Follow Jamie on 
