Yesterday the automotive blogosphere was inundated with rumors that the Ford Fusion would soon be getting a 1.5 liter, three-cylinder EcoBoost engine option. Well those rumors were half right; the Fusion will indeed get a 1.5 liter EcoBoost engine, but it will have four cylinders, not three, and it will replace the current 1.6 liter engine offering.
This engine is the same engine that is being offered in the Ford Mondeo being sold in China, and will reportedly offer 177 horsepower (at 6000 RPM!), about the same as the 1.6 liter engine. Why is Ford doing this? Good question, one we don’t exactly have an answer for.
Right now the 1.6 liter EcoBoost is the only engine in the Fusion offered with a manual transmission. According to the original rumor-starting post on the Blue Oval Forums, the 1.5 liter engine will come with a six-speed automatic transmission only, and the 1.6 liter engine would be offered alongside it. We’ve since come to learn that the 1.5 liter will replace the 1.6 in the Fusion, though the 1.6 liter EcoBoost will continue to be offered in other models.
While Ford’s EcoBoost engines have proven popular with consumers, some outlets have found the engines falling short on promised performance and fuel economy. Ford already offers a 1.0 liter 3-cylinder EcoBoost engine in Europe, and will make it available for sale in America soon. Other automakers the world over are working to downsize their engines, but are Americans really ready to embrace buzzy, tiny engines? Ford thinks so, but what do you think?
Source: Road & Track
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