ROMEO, Mich. – I spent the better part of a day here at Ford’s Michigan Proving Ground sampling some of the automaker’s offerings for 2012.
The news from Ford is that it’s going to continue to push its fuel saving technology that has boosted sales and helped it to carve out a sizable niche as an environmentally friendly manufacturer.
Ford executives gave us a brief overview on how 14 of its models achieved fuel efficiency ratings of at least 30 mpg with four models topping 40 mpg. That same executive updated us on Ford’s electrification plans.
During the next two years, Ford will bring five electrified vehicles to this market. The C-Max Energi utility vehicle, Ford’s first plug-in hybrid, and the C-Max hybrid come to market next year. Both will feature Lithium ion batteries. The Ford Transit Connect and the Focus Electric will hit showrooms soon.
What’s more, Ford says a second generation hybrid electric vehicle is in the pipeline and will arrive in 2012.
I drove the gas sipping Ford Fiesta on a tight twisting road course that was designed to test steering and body torsion strength. I did a fuel comparison test between the Ford Focus and a competitor. Then there was muscle in the form of an acceleration test of the 444 horsepower Ford Mustang Boss 302. I’ll spare you the details but the car did make me look like an expert dragster.
But the real news, I think, comes in the form of the Ford Edge and the Ford Explorer utility vehicles. Both will be the first utility vehicles in North America to receive Ford’s EcoBoost four cylinder engine.
That’s right, two of Ford’s 2012 utility vehicles, with their brawny images, will be powered by four-cylinder engines and I think it’s a flat out brilliant move. Ford is giving consumers what they need versus trying to dictate something that they don’t.
Want proof? Look at the sales results of when Ford put its EcoBoost dual turbocharged V6 into the F150 pickup truck. That EcoBoost V6 accounted for 40 percent of F150 sales the last model year.
For the record, EcoBoost is a smaller displacement engine using one or two turbochargers to boost power while conserving fuel. In the case of the EcoBoost four- cylinder, the numbers are 240 horsepower and 270 pound-feet of torque.
In the Edge, the engine gets 21 mpg in the city and 30 mpg on the highway. In the Explorer the numbers are 20/28 mpg in city and highway driving. Both utilities are mated to six-speed transmissions. The notion may seem farfetched, a four cylinder engine in a utility vehicle. But is it? The original intent of a utility vehicle is long gone, although advertisers and marketers still cling to it.
Southeastern Michigan is so flat that billiard tables seem hilly. Still, the Edge as well as the Explorer got us up and over the manmade inclines of the Michigan Proving Grounds without any trouble.
The EcoBoost four cylinder engine is only available in 2012 front-wheel-drive Ford Edges and Ford Explorers. I’m going to reserve my driving impressions until I have spent more time with one of the other. I’m going to ask for a week-long test drive of a four-cylinder Ford Edge or Explorer, perhaps when there’s some snow on the ground.
Still, my initial impression is, from a marketing standpoint, putting a 240 horsepower turbocharged four cylinder engine into a utility vehicle is a really smart thing to do.
Frank S. Washington is editor of AboutThatCar.com.
