Diesel engines have received a lot of attention lately: smaller (1.4 liter) blocks, turbocharged, low consumptions and emissions... No wonder people in Portugal buy, mostly, small turbocharged diesel cars (and diesel is also cheaper than petrol).
However, those of us who are, and will always be in love with petrol engines, there was not much of a choice: either a small, sluggish high compression engine, but somehow easy on fuel consumption (such as "my" VW Polo 1.0 MPI), or a larger petrol engine, which was not so easy on gas mileage...
Finally some motor companies decided to dedicate to petrol engines: Ford was recently awarded with the 2014 International Engine of the Year for its 1.0 EcoBoost engine!
The 3 cylinder, 100, 125 or 140 hp turbocharged EcoBoost engine features low fuel consumption and still keeps a good performance, hence being so popular in Europe (1 in each 5 Fords sold in Europe had this engine), according to Autoblog (article in Portuguese). The turbocharger in this engine is running 1.6 bar, an impressive number if you think about the 1.1 bar value in a 2013 Impreza (source here).
This reminds me of a 180 hp 1.4 liter engine created by FIAT. However, the popularity of this Ford 1.0 might be boosted by the increasing fuel price, and economical crisis in Europe.
Whatever the reason for its popularity is, I hope this engine marks the beginning of an era where turbochargers increase the efficiency of small engines, end the boredom of small slow petrol engines, and brings back the popularity of small petrol engines over diesel ones.
Let the forced induction begin.
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