What is 'EcoBoost'? Greener, cleaner, more efficient direct-injection turbo from Ford

September 10, 5:45 AMAuto Review ExaminerJohn Matras

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 EcoBoost is Ford’s term for its own application of a combination of turbocharging and direct injection to its family of gasoline-fueled engines. Although the individual components make an engine more expensive, if for no other reason than that they’re there, Ford claims that EcoBoost is less expensive than diesel engines or hybrids.

Ford intends to apply the concept to a full range of engines from V-6 to inline four—though V-8s are noticeably absent because an EcoBoosted V-6 engine will provide the same performance as a V-8 (although it also suggests the for ultra-high performance applications, EcoBoost could be applied to larger engines with more than six cylinders).

Still, says Derrick Kuzak, Ford veep of global product development, “Ecoboost is meaningful because it can be applied across a wide variety of engine types in a range of vehicles, from small cars to large trucks—and it’s affordable.”

Kuzak claims that the extra cost of an EcoBoost engine, based on their calculations of equivalent fuel prices and driving patterns, is paid off in about 30 months. “A diesel in North America,” he says, “will take an average of seven and one-half years, while the cost of a hybrid will take nearly 12 years to recoup.”

The latter, of course, undercuts its own hybrid Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner.

In a move that’s as much marketing as anything else, for making EcoBoost available on the new 2009 Lincoln MKS sedan. EcoBoost established on Ford Motor Company’s most prestigious model would be sold more easily “downmarket” than up to a Lincoln after it had been used on a Focus.

The MKS is initially available with a conventional 3.7-liter V6 engine rated at 273 horsepower and 270 lb-ft of torque on regular 87 octane fuel and is rated at 17/24 city/highway with front-wheel drive, and 16/23 all-wheel drive. A 3.5-liter EcoBoost available in 2009 will make 340 horsepower and more than 340 lb-ft of torque.

Ford has not released estimated fuel economy numbers, but if the MKS engine matches Ford’s claim of “up to twenty percent better fuel economy,” a front-wheel drive MKS could be rated at 20/29 mpg. That compares to a 158-hp four-cylinder Camry’s 19/25 rating in a smaller, lighter car. The Camry Hybrid has a 34/35 mpg EPA estimate.

By applying the technology to the Ford Flex and additional car models, Ford expects to place more than a half million Eco-Boost on the road annually by 2013.

And incidentally, EcoBoost engines will reduce CO2 emissions, thought by some to be a “greenhouse” gas, by fifteen percent and provide “superior driving performance.”

Cleaner, more fuel efficient and less costly than alternatives—and it feels good too? If it’s as good as Ford says it is, what’s to lose?

Illustration: Ford EcoBoost concept drawing showing fuel injected directly into combustion chamber; courtesy Ford Motor Company.