Ford 1.0L EcoBoost wins 3rd consecutive Int’l Engine Of The Year; VW 1.4L TSI takes 9th straight win; Tesla the Best Green Engine
26 June 2014
Ford’s 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine (earlier post) was named 2014 International Engine of the Year for the third consecutive year. Available in Ford Fiesta and the upcoming 2015 Focus, the 1.0L EcoBoost was also named Best Engine Under 1.0-Liter for third year in a row. The Best Green Engine Award this year went to the Tesla Model S electric powertrain.
Volkswagen’s 1.4-liter TSI twincharger also won for the ninth time in succession in the 1.0 to 1.4 liter cubic capacity category, making it the most successful engine in the history of this international competition for engine technology.
EcoBoost. The 1.0-liter EcoBoost has now won 13 major awards. In addition to collecting seven International Engine of the Year awards in three years—including Best New Engine in 2012—the 1.0-liter EcoBoost also was awarded the International Paul Pietsch Award 2013 for technological innovation in Germany; the Dewar Trophy from Royal Automobile Club in Great Britain; and the Breakthrough Award from Popular Mechanics in the United States. Ford is the first automaker to win a Ward’s 10 Best Engines trophy for a three-cylinder engine.
Ford vehicles equipped with the 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine are now available in 72 countries worldwide. Later this year, US customers will be able to buy the new Focus 1.0-liter EcoBoost. The Fiesta 1.0-liter EcoBoost is in dealerships now.
More than 200 engineers and designers from Ford research and development centers in Aachen and Merkenich in Germany, and Dagenham and Dunton in the United Kingdom spent 5 million-plus hours developing the 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine.
The engine’s compact, low-inertia turbocharger spins at up to 248,000 rpm—more than 4,000 times per second and almost twice the maximum rpm of the turbochargers powering 2014 Formula 1 race car engines.
With an engine block small enough to fit in the overhead luggage compartment of an airplane, the 1.0-liter features a cylinder head with an integrated and cooled exhaust manifold that lowers exhaust temperatures for optimizing the fuel-to-air ratio. An innovative flywheel and front pulley design delivers improved refinement compared with traditional three-cylinder engine designs.
Engine friction is reduced by specially coated pistons, low-tension piston rings, low-friction crank seals and a cam-belt-in-oil design. A variable-displacement oil pump tailors lubrication to demand and optimizes oil pressure for improved fuel efficiency.
TSI. The TSI engine is currently available in differing cubic capacity classes and levels of power output ranging between 66 kW / 90 PS and 221 kW / 300 PS. The first TSI engine was in 2006 the twincharger, now once again an award winner, which thanks to an additional turbocharger and mechanical compressor has especially high torque and is very efficient.
The TSI twincharger is available in different power levels from 103 kW / 140 PS to 125 kW / 170 PS and continues to be offered for a multitude of models—in the Beetle, Jetta, Eos, Golf Cabriolet, Touran, Tiguan, Passat and Sharan.
With active cylinder management (ACT), Volkswagen has since last year also been offering a technology that enables an additional reduction in fuel consumption by temporarily turning off the second and third cylinder. The 1.4L TSI ACT also took the Best New Engine award in 2013.
The latest addition to the TSI family is the 1.0 liter version delivering 66 kW / 90 PS in the new Polo TSI BlueMotion. This first one-liter, three-cylinder direct injection turbo engine will be making its debut in the second half of the year, featuring fuel consumption of just 4.1 l/100 km (57 mpg US) and thus a CO2 figure of 94 g/km. Its predecessor, delivering an identical 90 PS, consumed 4.9 l/100 km (48 mpg US) (equating to 113 g/km CO2).
Other category awards. For the eighth year in a row, BMW / PSA Peugeot Citroen won the 1.4-liter to 1.8-liter category with their 1.6-liter turbo gasoline engine. This unit features a Twin Scroll turbocharger and gasoline direct injection combined with variable valve control based on the VALVETRONIC principle patented by the BMW Group.
In the 1.8-liter to 2.0-liter category, Mercedes-Benz won with the Mercedes-AMG 2-liter turbo—this engine’s first win. The engine also took the Best New Engine award for 2014.
In the 2.0-liter to 2.5-liter category, Audi won with the 2.5-liter, five-cylinder turbo—its fourth consecutive win.
The 2.5-liter to 3.0-liter category was topped by BMW’s 3-liter twin-power turbo six-cylinder gasoline engine. The McLaren 3.8-liter V8 won the 3.0-liter to 4.0-liter category, and Ferrari’s 4.5-liter V8 won the above 4.0-liter category, and claimed top honors in the Performance Engine category as well.
If Tesla will ever consider a PHEV version, the Ford 1-liter ecoboost engine is ideal for the job. No need tlo sbift gear between 65-mph cruise and 130-mph top speed because the torque will keep on rising to overcome the drag.
Posted by: Roger Pham | 26 June 2014 at 02:36 PM
With continued improvement in EV batteries, will a Tesla PHEV ever be a necessity to satisfy extended range requirements.
To keep it clean and green, a very small 8 to 10 kW FC (instead of a 1,000 cc ICE) could extend the range of the Model S-40 to and above the current model S-85. The size of the FC could be reduced (and/or removed) when 2-2-2 and 3-3-3 batteries become available in 2017 and 2020 respectively.
Posted by: HarveyD | 26 June 2014 at 05:02 PM
I'd have to side with Roger on the range extender, better to use one that takes a readily available fuel than H2 which is a rarity.
Take the s-40 model and add the Ford 1L and you have a car with near infinite range, (as long as it has a large enough fuel tank, say 50L, not the pathetic 15l you see in some range extended cars). The point about the "infinite" range is that you can refuel in 5 minutes at any gas station, not a supercharger.
Problem is that the car gets lot more complex requiring all the ICE stuff (engine, tank, radiator, exhaust etc.).
Also, the results are a bit of a bore, with so many winners several years at their respective tops.
It is all good stuff, just a bit "samey".
Posted by: mahonj | 27 June 2014 at 10:07 AM
Although I like the downsizing that the EcoBoost engine enables, and applaud Ford for that direction, it still seems over-sized for an HEV range extender. Something around half that size would maintain charge at cruise speeds. And a serial HEV version would dump the tranny and save weight and $$$. Wouldn't 2 cylinders be cheaper yet and easier to apply all that high tech to? That gets you into the motorcycle size engines available today. Can't say air cooling is the best way to go though.
Posted by: william g irwin | 29 June 2014 at 04:22 AM