Ford’s EcoBoost – is it Eco or is it Boost?

The Drive

The average fuel economy on the car log computer showed about 7.5kmpl as we set out from office. We had a highway run of about 550kms to our destination and as we fuelled her up, our target was set – get the average FE number to at least 15 before we reach Goa. With the fact that it is just a litre engine, we were pretty confident of exceeding our targets. Driving just for the sake of economy would have got us the numbers easily but we had a shoot schedule in place and we wanted to ensure at least a couple of hours of sleep. Also, we wanted to enact a real world scenario and drive like a young level-headed enthusiast driver – the ones most likely to buy the EcoBoost EcoSport.  As we joined the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the speedometer needle settled about the 100kmph mark. The fuel economy number was rising steadily and we were well over 10kmpl when we stopped to pick up our ace photographer from the PowerDrift HQ in Pune.

We carried similar pace ahead and as the kilometers went by, the improvement in the FE numbers started slowing down. The engine always had enough grunt and overtaking those big long cross country trailers was a breeze. To drive in the mountain roads though, you had to keep the engine on boil and hold those revs above 2000rpm for the car to carry its pace. Being used to driving diesel cars most of the time, keeping the car in the turbo range wasn’t much difficult for our team, but for someone who has always driven petrol cars, such driving would take a little bit of time to get used to. What we were really happy  about  is the NVH and refinement of this engine. You could hardly hear the engine rev unless you were just off the blocks and revving the engine close to its red-line in the first two gears. 

As we left the NH4 at Nipani and took the Amboli Ghat on our way to Goa, it was becoming slightly difficult to hold the car in the performing rev range and at the same time keeping the economy figures from moving upwards. The sharp corners and randomly strewn potholes kept on slowing the car down on that narrow road and getting it back to the economy zone used up more amount of fuel. When we finally reached Goa, the multi-function display was stuck at 11.7kmpl. We tanked up the car again the next morning. We had covered a total of 618kms from the last full tank and used 46.7 litres of fuel, which takes the economy figure to 13.25kmpl. Someone with a lighter foot on the accelerator can certainly extract about 15kmpl from the EcoBoost, but being on a tight schedule, we had to push it a little bit. 

Eco or Boost?

The EcoBoost is a gem of an engine – it revs cleanly to the red-line and develops power right till the end like a petrol and punches you in the back like a diesel as the turbo spools up. The engine is refined with minimum amount of noise and vibrations, making the car a lot of fun to drive – especially when the turbo blows off with its typical whistle. The EcoBoost can be compared directly with Fiat’s 1.4 T-Jet delivering 120PS and the VW 1.2 TSI delivering 105PS power. While the 1.2 TSI is slightly more fuel efficient, the EcoBoost develops more power and torque than others despite its lesser displacement. 

The Indian car market is changing and the best -selling cars of today are compact sedans and crossovers as compared to the hatchbacks of the days gone by. People are now conscious about environment and technology and the EcoBoost ticks all the right boxes here. The engine is EuroV compliant with the potential to comply with the stricter norms to be enforced in the future. The team at CarWale was impressed by its performance throughout the journey. If you gauge the EcoBoost by American/European standards, it may be just ‘Eco’. In India though, where performance has always been given last priority, the Ecoboost is certainly ’Boost’ with the right amount of ‘Eco’ in it.