AUBURN HILLS — FEV Inc., developers of advanced powertrain and vehicle technologies, announced Wednesday that it is showing the latest Ford EcoBoost engine, the 1.0L I3, at the 2012 SAE World Congress at Cobo Center. FEV provided support to Ford Motor Co. in the early development of the engine, which is representative of an emerging automotive trend that will dominate the market in coming years. Gary Rogers, president and CEO of FEV Inc., made the announcement.
“We have been very fortunate to have supported Ford Motor Co. in the development of this breakthrough powertrain,” said Rogers. “This is a prime example of FEV’s business model, which is designed to integrate its expertise into the development process for customer propulsion systems on an as-needed basis. The EcoBoost engine represents one of the recent trends in the automotive industry, a move towards downsized and highly boosted engines that deliver higher power and better fuel economy than the larger engines they replace. And these engines are capable of doing that with very low exhaust emissions levels.”
The three-cylinder engine is designed for Ford vehicles such as the Focus, the B-MAX and the C-MAX. The engine will initially be offered with power ratings of 73.5 and 92kW (98 and 123HP, respectively), providing the power of the 1.6L four-cylinder, naturally aspirated engine in the Ford Focus. Both versions will deliver 170 Nm (125 lb.-ft.) of torque between 1,300 and 4,500 rpm, which is an improvement over the 1.6L engine.
The smaller power plant also provides an overall weight reduction of approximately 20 lbs. According to Ford, the Focus with the 73.5-kW engine achieves CO2 emissions of 109 g/km.
In the early development stages, FEV provided support in the area of design and CAE, combustion development, and engine build for 36 engines.
