Ford Motor Company’s new 1-litre EcoBoost engine which debuted in the Ford Focus was named the 2012 International Engine of the Year based on votes cast by 76 journalists from 35 countries around the world.
The small, high-tech 3-cylinder engine also hauled in two other awards – Best New Engine and Best Engine Under 1-litre, presented by Engine Technology International magazine.
This is the first time Ford has won International Engine of the Year in the 13-year history of the awards. Moreover, the 1-litre EcoBoost garnered the highest score in the history of the awards.
“We set the bar incredibly high when we set out to design this engine,” says Ford global powertrain vice president Joe Bakaj. “We wanted to deliver fuel economy, performance, quietness and refinement from a very small, 3-cylinder engine.
“The team responded to this seemingly impossible challenge with some really exciting innovation,” says Bakaj. “The result is a game-changer for petrol engines globally.”
Chairman of the awards and editor of Engine Technology International magazine Dean Slavnich said this is a fitting victory for a truly remarkable engine.
The engine, which is small enough to fit on an A4 sheet of paper, was designed at Ford’s technical centres in Dunton, UK, and Merkenich, Germany. The engine is built in Ford’s plants in Craiova, Romania, and Cologne, Germany.
The 1-litre EcoBoost uses low-inertia turbos to deliver power quickly when the throttle is opened from low rpm and deliver high power at speeds of up to 248,000 rpm.
Further innovations include:
- An exhaust manifold, cast into the cylinder head, 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 aluminium block to cut by 50 percent the amount of “warm-up” energy required, and cut fuel consumption.
- Two main engine drive belts are immersed in oil to deliver a quieter, more efficient engine.
- Offsetting the engine configuration by deliberately “unbalancing” the flywheel and pulley instead of adding energy-draining balancer shafts.
The 1-litre EcoBoost debuted this year on the Focus in Europe and will be available in Ford models in the U.S. and in Asia Pacific and Africa next year.
The new Focus 1-litre EcoBoost delivers fuel efficiency of 4.8 l/100 km and CO2 emissions of 109 g/km.
In its first full month of sales across Europe, more than 4,700 customers ordered a Focus 1-litre EcoBoost, accounting for nearly a quarter of all Ford Focus cars ordered in Ford’s 19 European markets.
Ford of Europe plans to triple annual production of vehicles equipped with efficient EcoBoost petrol engines to approximately 480,000 by 2015, from 141,000 in 2011. The company projects that more than 300,000 of those vehicles will be equipped with the 1.0-litre EcoBoost.
The International Engine of the Year award is determined by a panel of 76 automotive journalists from 35 countries around the world. Judges consider drivability, performance, economy, refinement and the successful application of advanced engine technology.
The popularity of the 1-litre EcoBoost with judges saw it receive 28 percent more points than its closest rival and the highest points total of any engine in the competition’s history.
