The emerging automotive market of India is to receive an environmentally friendly lift – with Ford bringing its global EcoBoost powertrain technology to the country for the first time.
It will debut a new three cylinder, 1.0litre EcoBoost engine in the all-new Ford EcoSport. Despite a small capacity the engine delivers performance comparable to that of a 1.6litre petrol engine producing peak torque of 170Nm between 1,300 and 4,500rpm while emitting less than 140g/km of CO2.
There are a number of innovations that help the EcoBoost achieve these remarkable statistics. For example, it comes with an exhaust manifold cast in the cylinder head that lowers exhaust gas temperatures and allows the engine to run with optimal fuel-to-air ratio. It also features a split cooling system that reduces fuel consumption by warming the engine at a faster rate.
Similar to the larger members of the Ford engine family, the 1.0litre EcoBoost uses twin independent variable camshaft timing to boost performance and economy – and it also has an all-new camshaft actuator to speed up its response times.
As for the vehicle itself – the Ford EcoSport – it has been created as the latest One Ford global product and is seen as crucial to the company’s plans on expansion in developing countries such as India and Brazil.
It has been developed on the B-segment platform, which is set to be the basis for a number of small cars in the coming years and was originally launched in South America in 2003. Now Ford hopes to increase worldwide sales by nearly 50 per cent by the middle of the decade to eight million vehicles a year.
