Friday 11th November 2011

EcoBoost: Is Ford Working on Yet More Power?

145hp electric supercharged version may be in the works

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We might have been moderately impressed yesterday with Ford's new turbocharged 1.0-litre triple, but apparently Ford is also hard at work on an even more powerful version, possibly with up to 145hp.

There had been whispers of a more powerful version bobbing around for a while and, when this story from The Engineer popped up on the thread in yesterday's story, we put two and two together.

So if we're to see a more powerful version of the EcoBoost, then we can almost certainly expect it to be a development of this joint project between Ford, Ricardo, Controlled Powertrain Technologies and Valeo.

In order to get the extra power, the boost on the engine has been turned up, with the VTES (Variable Torque Enhancement System) electric supercharger (CPT's bit) helping to eliminate the turbo lag. The supercharger itself gets its boost from a trick microhybrid system from Valeo that uses regenerative braking as its power source.

All darn clever if you ask us, and the result is a Ford Focus prototype that can muster 145hp and 177lb ft of torque while at the same time emitting just 99g of CO2 per kilometre.

Is any of this officially headed for production? No. Will we see this engine in a Focus sometime soon? We'd put money on it. Will we like it? We hope so...

[DanB7290]

Saw Ricardo mentioned there, IIRC they make the V8 for the MP4-12C. Wonder if they'll be able to work their magic on that so it has ridiculously low CO2?

[thinfourth2]

OH Ford not ebay


They just don't work

[Mr Dave]

That will be pretty outstanding if true, would like to see what other emissions it puts out though.

[Bobley]

There's nowt wrong with E boosting if you have the power management sorted out (i.e. regenerative braking to charge the battery again), think of it a bit like KERS. Its only for a short burst at low rpm once once the turbo's up to speed it knocks off again. Its the same concept as group B rally cars used to use with superchargers for bottom end grunt, except when the Eboost is off you dont motor a supercharger round (or have to declutch).

[ctallchris]

Sounds like a neat piece of work. I will certainly look forward to the 290bhp 2litre v6

[Johnboy Mac]

It sounds like more brilliance from Ford, great stuff.

I wonder how long it will be before a proper electric s/charger kit can be purchased off the shelf to retro fit, 'cause I want one badly.

[mackie1]

DanB7290 said:

Saw Ricardo mentioned there, IIRC they make the V8 for the MP4-12C. Wonder if they'll be able to work their magic on that so it has ridiculously low CO2?

It's already best in class is it not?

[Oddball RS]

Suuuuper, still not going to have much poke though because of the weight and size of the car, Sadly.

[Bobley]

There's nothing "magical" about the mclaren powertrains low CO2. Its just a powerful engine in a light body with an auto box so it can bang up the gears really quickly on the drive cycle test rather than having to run a prescribed shift pattern which a manual box would have to follow.

By comparison a BMW M5 which admittedly is 5% shy on power beats it by 20% yet lugs around 50% more mass?

I'm not knocking the fact that the McLaren is a good car, but it is quite simple under the skin compared to the engineering input which has gone into the Ford or BMW powertrains.

[e8_pack]

this sounds great for new cars, but im wondering how long all that eco setup will last and the cost of maintenance after a few years driving. maintaining the system to pass the MOT every year to achieve the low CO2 rate may become expensive.

[DanB7290]

mackie1 said:

It's already best in class is it not?

Yeah true, wonder if they could use similar tech as the Ford engine to make it even better, just to stick two fingers up to the green loving, super car hating communists.

[Very Dave]

e8_pack said:

this sounds great for new cars, but im wondering how long all that eco setup will last and the cost of maintenance after a few years driving. maintaining the system to pass the MOT every year to achieve the low CO2 rate may become expensive.

To a degree the emissions regulations require that the initial level of performance be maintained but allows a small drop off over time:

(from http://www.dieselnet.com/standards/eu/ld.php)

Euro 5/6 stage—in-service conformity: 100,000 km or 5 years; durability testing of pollution control devices for type approval: 160,000 km or 5 years (whichever occurs first); in lieu of a durability test, manufacturers may use the following deterioration factors:

* Positive ignition: 1.5 for CO; 1.3 for HC; 1.6 for NOx; 1.0 for PM and PN
* Compression ignition, Euro 5: 1.5 for CO; 1.1 for NOx and HC+NOx; 1.0 for PM and PN. Euro 6 deterioration factors to be determined.

Some numbers that show how much stricter each emission stage becomes here if you're into that kinda thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_emission_sta...

I reckon it'll be alright!

[knighty]

thinfourth2 said:

OH Ford not ebay


They just don't work

sorry, yes they do work!.......very well infact, VTES is not to be confused with plastic fans from ebay.

http://www.cpowert.com/news-press/modular-micro-mi...

[MadDog1962]

Sounds really interesting. Although I too have seen the idiotic stuff on eBay and in asian motor accessory shops (together with the fuel line "catalysts" and other nonsense). If the idea is to provide a useful bit of extra grunt for overtaking when you really need (kind of like a nitrous oxide effect :-)) it then it could actually be pretty brilliant for real world driving. I very much doubt it's going to be something we'd see on a real performance car.

[knighty]

MadDog1962 said:

I very much doubt it's going to be something we'd see on a real performance car.

E-boosting works very well on any highly boosted engine, either an aggressivley downsized engine like the hyboost I3 project.......or high performance cars with the same lag issue on almost any sized engine.......if you look hard enough through the interweb, a certain board member from high performance german vehicle manufacturer has already publically said their vehicles will soon be using e-boosting on a series production vehicle in order to assist the existing turbos.