Ford B-Max to get 1.0 litre 3-cylinder EcoBoost

2012 Ford B-Max - will get new 3-pot EcoBoost

Reports of the imminent demise of the internal combustion engine have been greatly exaggerated. There’s plenty of life left in old technology yet, certainly enough to throw a spanner in to the benefits of hybrids and BEVs.

And if an illustration of how the ICE is developing to cope with the needs of economy and emissions in this frugality motivated motoring landscape we now found ourselves inhabiting, we need look no further than the 1.0 litre, 3-pot EcoBoost engine Ford has developed.

The tiny engine – the smallest Ford has ever produced – is said to offer the performance of a four-pot but with improved economy and lower emissions.

Developed at Ford’s Technical Centre at Dunton (just up the road from Cars UK Towers), engineers have focused on improving thermal efficiency and reducing friction, particularly during the warm-up period when emissions are at their highest.

That’s achieved by having a split cooling system that warms the cylinder block before the head, an exhaust manifold cast in to the head which saves weight and allows cooler exhaust gasses, and the tried and tested methods of bolting on a turbo, direct fuel injection and variable camshaft timing.

We’re assuming this is the same 3-pot engine Ford sort of revealed at Beijing back in April when we saw the Ford Start – a global City Car concept – which Ford said had the power of a 1.6 litre four-pot but emits less than 100g/km CO2.

Unfortunately, despite shouting about the new EcoBoost, Ford has managed to give us no performance, emissions or economy figures for their new wonder lump. Which is a bit disappointing.

Still, with the 1.0 litre EcoBoost 3-pot launching at Frankfurt in September in the 2012 B-Max, they’ll need to publish figures soon enough.

We’ll let you know.

Ford's new B-Max gets revealed at Geneva. A gallery of photos.

29 Photos

Ford Start concept is a 1.0 litre 3 Cylinder global city car concept revealed at Beijing. This is a photo gallery.

15 Photos

By Cars UK