Ford's Counts on EcoBoost to Meet Big Fuel Economy Targets

(MoneyWatch)  Ford has big plans for the little engine that could. Its 3.5-liter EcoBoost powerplant is "the first V-6 direct-injection twin-turbocharged engine produced in North America." The engine will be available this summer in the Lincoln MKS sedan. Later in the year, the fuel-efficient powerplant is scheduled to show up in the Flex, Taurus SHO and Lincoln MKT.

Ford says the twin-turbo, direct injection EcoBoost engine will be on 90 percent of its product line by 2013, and that is likely to eventually include downsized versions for the Ford Focus and Fiesta, and even smaller iterations for new product lines.

I got a chance to experience EcoBoost in person on a fast blast around New York City's suburbs June 24. Ford has the 355-horsepower engine installed in pre-production versions of the crossover MKT, and it proved both strong and quiet on rural highways. The big MKT with the engine gets 16 city/22 highway mpg; in the MKS sedan the numbers are 17/25 mpg.

In taking $5.9 billion from the Department of Energy's advanced technology loan program, Ford committed to improving fuel economy on new models by 25 percent. Its plan to meet that goal includes a suite of technologies: the EcoBoost engine in a variety of displacements, electric-assisted steering, six-speed transmissions and start-stop technology.

At the New York Ford event, Scott Tobin, vehicle line director for North American cars and crossovers, said, "We tend to migrate our innovations across our product lines, and EcoBoost will migrate to democratize fuel economy. We want to bring it to millions." Asked if an EcoBoost engine could be used in a hybrid configuration, he said that no such use was contemplated, but it is possible in the future.