Ford‘s been at the recent forefront of developing petrol technology, with 2.0- and 1.6-litre versions of its Ecoboost engines offering lower capacity turbocharged units with the power of larger engines but the efficiency of smaller ones.
However, it has now slotted a 1.0-litre petrol engine into the Focus, which, for staff accustomed to the larger-capacity models, might not seem so appealing.
But once over the obvious mental block of a 999cc Focus, the rest of the figures make a lot more sense. It offers 125hp, comparable with the 1.6 already offered by Ford, and 56.5mpg plus 114g/km of CO2.
With the 3% surcharge on diesel engines, that puts this Focus in the same BIK band as sub-100g/km diesels. There’s also a 100hp 1.0 Ecoboost under 110g/km.
The 125hp Ecoboost 1.0 comes in all the trim levels bar the basic Edge (that goes with the 100hp version), and we sampled it in the newest Zetec S trim that gets a sportier bodykit and sports suspension that noticeably firms up the ride quality.
You have to change gear more often with the Ecoboost engine – it’s easy to be caught in the wrong gear and have to go hunting for another one – but at medium revs it performs well. In general, it’s entirely unremarkable to drive, which is probably a compliment, and if you put someone in the car without telling them what it is, they won’t believe it’s a 1.0-litre engine.
RVs don’t stray far from the rest of the range, being in the low-30% region, so there’s no worry on that score with the smaller engine.
This latest downsizing development is another big step forward in bringing petrol back to the consciousness of the corporate market, and is particularly relevant for those drivers not covering the big miles that warrant a diesel.
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