Ford to Triple European Output of EcoBoost Vehicles

Ford Motor Co. says its European operations will increase annual production of vehicles equipped with EcoBoost engines to 480,000 units by 2015 from about 141,000 last year.

Over the same period, Ford will double to 10 the number of models that offer the fuel-efficient system. The company expects more than half the vehicles it sells in Europe to be equipped with EcoBoost engines by 2015.

Ford also intends to increase annual exports of European-made EcoBoost engines to assembly plants outside the region from 90,000 last year to 800,000 units by 2015.

EcoBoost is a system of turbocharging, direct injection and variable valve timing that can improve power and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 15% compared with conventional gasoline engines, according to the company.

Ford began building the three-cylinder 1.0-liter EcoBoost gasoline engine in Cologne, Germany, in November. Annual capacity in Europe for that mill will double to 700,000 units this week when production starts at a factory in Craiova, Romania. Ford predicts the 1.0-liter engine will power 800,000 of the 1.3 million EcoBoost-equipped vehicles it aims to sell in Europe over the next four years.

EcoBoost technology also is available in a four-cylinder 1.6-liter engine produced in the U.K. and a 2.0-liter version made in Spain. The company also makes EcoBoost engines near Cleveland, Ohio.