Vehicles equipped with a three cylinder 1,0-litre engine might have always been the realm of budget minded buyers, swapping asking price for small interiors and frugal petrol usage, but this will change when Ford releases their entry into the odd-cylinder block market.
The lump in question is their 1,0-litre Ecoboost; an engine that is not only frugal but also quite powerful, due to the attached turbocharger, allowing the most powerful version of this engine to produce 91 kW and 170 Nm of torque.
Frugality is still top of mind as that same engine will be able to sweep through the kilometers while only sipping 5,0 l/100 km, which is excellent news since the vehicles themselves will be anything but money saving.
The current UK price schedule has the entry level 74 kW turbocharged 1,0-litre costing a nudge more than the 1,6-litre base model while the 5-door version will add a slight premium on top of that or the extra versatility.
The prices aren’t unreasonably higher (the 5-door has a 5% attached premium) but there might still be some resistance amongst people who have only known 1,0-litre cars as the puny Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1, both of which are more student car-esque in their ways compared to the corporate fleet Focus.
A local release is very unsure at this point, due to fuel quality and maintenance costs, but this is actually an engine layout that should do very well in South Africa, especially Johannesburg. Up in the Highveld the elevated altitude tends to sap the power from any small naturally aspirated engine, meaning that this turbocharged focus will be a lot of fun to drive.
