Ford to Produce Three-Cylinder Engines

With Ford America reporting a net loss of USD$8.7 billion for the second quarter of 2008, it’s safe to say that dramatic changes are necessary to flip this trend.

Ford of Europe’s union boss Dieter Hinkelmann has announced that workers at the Ford engine plant in Cologne, Germany, may have to seek work elsewhere unless production for a new economical three-cylinder engine is promptly underway. At present, the majority of the engines produced at the plants are V6’s along with V8’s and V12’s, with a maximum production of approximately 800,000 engines annually. Ford says the V6 engine takes 3.6hours to build with around 2000 units produced a day.

It will be interesting to see what production levels could be expected if Ford move across to mass produced three cylinder engines at the Cologne plant, Germany.

If this new three-cylinder engine is manufactured, expect it to be fitted into the upcoming all new Ford Ka, which will go head to head against other three-cylinder models such as:

Daihatsu Sirion
Mitsubishi i-Car
Citroen C1 / Peugeot 107 / Toyota Aygo
Skoda Fabia
Smart for-two
Toyota Yaris
Volkwagon Fox
Volkswagon Polo
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t_bone - 7/28/2008 9:23:45 AM

+2 Boost

Actually this wouldn't be a bad powerplant for future, more electric-centric hybrids. But I agree the I3 is an awkward design.

truckmen - 7/29/2008 4:47:58 AM

+1 Boost

Lets see if it works? Maybe this will save Ford? They will still be behind other manufacturers in economy and performance.

Marvinlee - 1/10/2009 9:18:59 PM

+1 Boost

GreenPlease wonders whythe three cylinder engine. Several reasons: Total friction is less, package size is smaller, fuel economy is better, and total cost is less. The one balancer required is half as many as the four cylinder needs. I've used a similar (<1 liter> sized three cylinder diesel engine for years in a commercial mower. It is surprisingly smooth to the point that I am not aware of vibration. Smoothness is also enhanced in cars by growing sophistication of engine mounts, particularly the hydraulic variety. For a technical discussion, see "NVH Aspects of a Downsized Turbocharged Gasoline Powertrain with Direct Injection." It is SAE paper 2003-01-1664 by Ford engineers Harold Stoffels and Markus Schroeer of Ford, Germany. I would say that Ford has done its engineering homework.