Ford has revealed the first of a new range of advanced diesel engines that will offer improved fuel efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions.
Building on the award-winning EcoBoost petrol engines, Ford is calling its new range of diesels ‘game-changers’ and they will power the company’s future cars and commercial vehicles.
Labelled ‘EcoBlue’ by the firm, the first of the new engines will be a four-cylinder 2-litre diesel and will make its debut in the Transit and Transit Custom vans. Delivering 20 percent more torque at 1,250rpm compared with the outgoing 2.2-litre TDCi diesel engine, CO2 emissions are reduced by more than 10 percent and fuel economy is improved by 13 percent.
Jim Farley, chairman and CEO of Ford of Europe, said: “Ford’s EcoBoost created a new standard for petrol engines – smaller, more efficient with surprising performance. That same obsession to innovate for the customer is behind our new Ford EcoBlue diesel engine range.”
The all-new engine architecture delivers reduced friction and a more sophisticated after-treatment process for exhaust gasses to enable low emissions that meet with stringent Euro Stage VI standards, which will be introduced in September 2016.
Developed by Ford engineering teams in the UK and Germany, the all-new 2-litre Ford EcoBlue engine will be initially offered with 104bhp, 128bhp and 168bhp in commercial vehicles. Capable of delivering more than 197bhp, the engine will later feature in Ford passenger cars alongside a 1.5‑litre variant.
“We developed the 2-litre Ford EcoBlue engine using feedback from customers around the world,” said Paul Turner, base engine technical leader, Ford of Europe. “The versatile design even allows the same block to be used for front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive applications, and the sophisticated design and technologies deliver future-proofed fuel efficiency and emissions.”
There’s no word on which models the new engines will feature in first following the debut in the Transit and Transit Custom vans, but Ford is expecting to see the new engines join passenger car line-ups as early as 2017.
