EcoBoost
-
Used to be that turbos were used in performance cars, from the Saab Turbos of the late Seventies to BMW's current range of twin-turbo sixes. These days, the little air pumps more often make smaller engines perform like bigger ones to give fuel economy. In brief, a turbocharger uses exhaust gases to drive a turbine that pumps more air into the intake manifold, so more gasoline can be burnt for greater power. We write about this engine downsizing theme a lot, and we're hitting it again because our colleague Bengt Halvorson just looked at the 1.4-liter turbocharged four that GM fits to the...
-
Smaller-More-Efficient Engines II: Ford EcoBoost Effort ExpandsWe said it on Friday: Smaller, more efficient engines are going to be the main way we increase gas mileage in the next few years (in that case, a four-cylinder 2010 Buick LaCrosse). This morning, Ford has underlined that theme once more by announcing three new applications of their EcoBoost engines...
John Voelcker -
Fuel Efficient Fours Gain Ground on V-6s, V-8s In New Cars
At December's Los Angeles Auto Show, Hyundai made a big splash by saying it would no longer offer V-6 engines in its Sonata midsize car or its Tucson compact crossover. Instead, it replaced them with higher-performance, more fuel-efficient four-cylinder motors. But Hyundai's just one of many makers...
John Voelcker -
Geneva Motor Show Preview: 2012 Ford Focus Station Wagon
The 2012 Ford Focus four-door sedan and five-door hatchback were probably the most important cars unveiled at January's Detroit Auto Show. And Ford has many more compact vehicles to come, one of which is this striking Ford Focus station wagon, which will be shown at this week's Geneva Motor Show...
John Voelcker -
Higher MPGs From EcoBoost Engine For 2011 Ford Edge Crossover
Continuing the trend of raising gas mileage by using smaller, more powerful engines, Ford is set to launch its first four-cylinder EcoBoost engine in the 2011 Ford Edge, which will be unveiled at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show next week. We've written before about Ford's EcoBoost system, which uses...
John Voelcker -
Will the 2011 Ford Mustang Get An EcoBoost Engine Too?
We always enjoy talking cars with the opinionated Alex Nunez from Autoblog, most recently last week when we both appeared on FoxNews.com's Fox Car Report with dapper host Gary Gastelu. This week's guest was Derrick Kuzak, who heads up global product development for Ford. Meaning he's the guy...
John Voelcker -
We keep saying that one of the ways all cars will get greener and more efficient is for their engines to get smaller and work harder. One of the first production examples of this is Ford's EcoBoost V6 engine, which delivers the power of a V8 with better gas mileage. Now a couple of experimental new engines have appeared on the scene. Neither one will reach showrooms immediately, but they show that, at last, automotive engineers are working as hard on clever engine design as they have on making cars faster and heavier. Mahle: 193 horsepower from 1.2 liters First, the Mahle engine is a...
-
Cute AND Clever: Chrysler's Coming Green Innovations
Chrysler's on the skids right now, no doubt about it. June sales plummeted 42 percent, and some consider its takeover by--errr, sorry, partnership with--Italy's Fiat to be the blind leading the lame. But Fiat is far from the company it was 20 years ago, when it folded its tents and snuck out of the...
John Voelcker
