Ford has been late to the party developing fuel-efficient petrol engines — but at least its EcoBoost powerplants are beginning to roll out.
Mainstream companies ranging from Alfa Romeo to Volkswagen have already reached the Australian market with turbocharged, direct-injected engines to power their respective model offerings. Even Ford's former subsidiaries, Mazda and Volvo, have introduced their own version of EcoBoost engines in vehicles sold locally.
The problem lies in Ford being caught on the hop by circumstance, says David Filipe, Ford's Assistant Vehicle Line Director for B cars in Asia. Filipe has been with the company for many years and is relatively new to his current role, which brought him into contact with motoring.com.au during the recent unveiling of the new EcoSport in India. But Filipe has some history with Ford and has worked abroad, in different markets right across the world — and in powertrain development.
"Ford had its challenges, a few years back," he explained, "because we could see fuel prices spike up and we were not well positioned in North America. In a few ways...
"For example, we did not have a 'B ' car; we did not have a Fiesta five or six years ago in North America.
"When gasoline prices hit about $4 a gallon [American]... we couldn't make enough of [the first-generation North American] Focus... so our portfolio was not robust enough to respond to the customer wants. At the time I was responsible for the engine programs, so I had a lot of V8 engines, I had a lot of V6 engines — I even had a V10 engine...
"When the market shifted, we did not have the footprint or the portfolio to go where the market wanted to. I think we lost out to our competitors. They had big cars in the segment; they had fuel-efficient C cars [small]... All they did was adjust the capacity from large displacement to lower displacement or larger vehicles to smaller vehicles. At the time, at Ford we had a lot of big trucks, SUVs, et cetera. We didn't have many B or C cars.
"Now, as we continue to move forward, we have everything available in the line-up for whatever the customer wants."
Ford barely had time even to consider a response to the upward spike in fuel prices before they began to come down again with the onset of the GFC. Even with fuel prices on the way down during the GFC, EcoBoost was imperative. Buyers were now looking for fuel-efficient cars as their income began to dry up, where previously they had been simply concerned with saving money at the pump.
Since then, Filipe says that things have begun to look rosier — for Ford and the buyers. The manufacturer now has engines ranging in capacity from the new 1.0-litre EcoBoost three-cylinder right up to the 6.2-litre 'Boss' V8. While the latter is hardly an economical engine, it does cap a wider range of engines now and will cater to those who don't give a fig about running costs and the environment.
And here in Australia the 2.0-litre four-cylinder EcoBoost engine is scheduled for launch in the locally-built Falcon around the end of the first quarter this year.
Read the latest Carsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at the carsales mobile site