At least on paper, this looks better than the Prius' 43.6 mpg (according to http://www.google.org/recharge/dashboard). I'm wondering what real life gas mileage will be, though.

Good to see someone working on dumping the torque converter, though.

It's nice to see that Ford is planning to come out with some high efficiency diesels. Let's hope this happens soon, and that they make them clean enough to bring to the US.

However, I don't get the comment above, since the Prius is rated at exactly the same 4.3 l/100km (and same MPG). Sure, you can argue about "on paper" MPG vs real world, but the standardized combined fuel economy tests done by government organizations is still the best way to compare efficiencies of different cars, since it eliminates the bias of various posters using whichever anecdotal numbers they can find to support their point.

Also, MPG is becoming less relevant. CO2 is where it's at now. The Prius is rated at 104 g/km (and the VW Polo bluemotion is the best at 99 !).

I would say the next relvant term will be $/mile, such as oil prices go up which one can get you farther per money spent?

Yada, yada, yada...

All I want to know is when can I buy a 1.6l diesel ECOnetic Ford Focus at my local US Ford dealer.

54mpg! That nearly doubles what I'm currently achieving in my gasser Focus.

Anyone? Anyone?

Sorry, DH. EPA and CARB say no can do.

This suggests that regulation (via the Euro 120 gm/km limit) may be more effective than taxation and high prices.
It may seem harsh and arbitrary, but the proposed limit does seem to be having an effect.
[ BMW going stop/start for instance ]
It would be interesting to add stop/start to this and see how far you could push it before the price got too high.

I wonder how much people would be willing to pay for a Focus. I mean, what if they took this motor, added the escape's hybrid system, and maybe a few ammenities? Like some tint and sattelite radio.

This is very efficient, might as well put two efficient things together and get super efficient. Raise the bar.

134hp diesel plus electric motors in a Focus? The individual components are heavy but the total system power would be much greater than needed for a Focus...maybe it would be a Focus RS "green edition".

@ mahonj -

the EU directive is a sword of Damocles over the European auto industry's head right now. Moreover, the proposed changes to London's congestion charge also strongly favor vehicles that come in at 120g/km or under in the NEDC.

However, new models don't happen overnight. I suspect the recent flurry of eco-mania is actually part of a long-planned concerted final push in the context of the ACEA voluntary commitment to reduce fleet average emissions by 25% by MY2008. No-one really expects this to be met, especially because safety regs have also tightened in the interim. Still, the closer the industry gets, the better its case for light rather than heavy-handed regulation. As you point out, pols may indeed decide that it was only the threat of legislation that prompted the very innovations the industry had so long decried as either impossible or liable to produce job cuts.

Numerically, the agreement works out 140g/km CO2, computed as the sales-weighted average of sales by all ACEA members. JAMA, the umbrella organization of Japanese importers and its Korean counterpart KAMA also entered into such voluntary agreements in the hope of staving off formal regulation.

Hi Patrick,

No he is saying use this engine in a Escape HEV.

Could work, but the start/stop thing would need a lot of engineering.

The Prius/Escape drivetrain was developed for the gasoline engine. The synergies between the motors/engines and how they are coupled work for an engine with poor low-end torque. Diesels love to be highly loaded at low RPM. Different animals.

The thing is how much battery does it take to start the diesel. How much fuel? One of the Prius hypermiling tricks is to stay in engine at 60+ mpg for 1/4 mile situations, rather than killing the engine and restarting. Because it uses less fuel to run constant, than the restart battery charge requires and restart fuel burst from the injectors. How hot does the Diesel have to stay to keep starting easily.

I think the synergies need to be reworked for the Diesel HEV car. It may have to wait til electric valve actuation is producable.

"I wonder how much people would be willing to pay for a Focus."

Quite a bit. Go price a Volvo C30 or S40. Underneath the Volvo sheetmetal they're basically european Focii.

Has it occured to anyone here that Ford might never ship that diesel Focus and that ECOwhatever to the states? More grandstanding courtesy of the Big Three.

The Focus in America is one of Fords worst cars. While they updated the euro version two years ago we are still stuck with the older version even for 2008. Ford will probobly not send us the econetic at all.

I was saying put the system in the Focus, an RS green edition sounds great. Fun to drive and green, that's what it's all about.

I didn't realize the focus had missed an update in the US, they are kind of cheap cars here, and this looks way better. I agree that it'll be a while, if ever, before we see a diesel focus in the US, much less a diesel hybrid. I didn't know about the mechanics of such an issue, I thought there were already companies prototyping diesel hybrids.

I believe the reason diesels in the US are less popular is because the fuel costs almost as much as gas, because of low sulfur content processing. Probably much greener than gas, but with less price benefit.

Still I think the focus would be a fun car to have as a hybrid, although it's probably more beneficial from a CO2 standpoint to hybridize the gas guzzlers first.

Ford is starting to get series about hybrids, they are looking to hire a bunch of engineers for their hybrid group within the company.

I just rented a Ford Focus 1.6 liter TDS Diesel Station wagen in Darmstadt and drove it for 806 km before filling up with 38 liters when I returned the car to Hertz in Munich, Germany. The fuel consumption was 4.7 liter/100 km, i.e. 49 miles/gallon. Mostly freeway driving at 120 km/hr ++. The car used a 5 speed stick transmission. Very smooth at 145 km/hr turning about 3000 rpm. Very impressive. Wish Ford would import this car to the US.