Ford plans to have a four-cylinder engine available on every car it sells by 2013.

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Ford plans to have a four-cylinder engine available on every car it sells by 2013. By RICHARD BLACKBURN.

The Ford Falcon and Territory will be sold with four-cylinder engines within four years as part of a wide-ranging plan by the Blue Oval to reduce its environmental footprint.

Ford’s global product boss Derek Kuzak has told US-based trade publication Automotive News that the company intends to have a four-cylinder engine available in every car in its line-up by 2013.

Kuzak told the publication that even the company’s hulking F-150 pick-up truck and Mustang sports car could be in line for the smaller, more efficient engines.

Ford plans to rely heavily on turbocharged, smaller-capacity engines, matched to dual-clutch transmissions, to reduce its fleet’s average fuel consumption in coming years.

For trucks and sports cars, that is likely to mean the twin-turbo V6 that was originally planned for the Falcon but scrapped recently in favour of retaining the Geelong-built in-line six-cylinder.

But for everything else, it will mean a turbocharged four-cylinder.

Ford claims the turbo four can produce the power of a normal V6 with four-cylinder fuel consumption, while the V6 can match V8 performance while delivering V6-rivalling consumption.

Ford plans to sell 500,000 four-cylinder turbos and 250,000 twin-turbo sixes a year by 2013.

“We’re all about the smaller displacement as a way to drive significant fuel economy without sacrificing performance,” Kuzak told Automotive News.

Ford spokeswoman Sinead McAlary says the local operation is looking at a number of alternative engine options for its locally produced vehicles.

“There are lots of things we are looking at. These smaller (turbo) engines deliver similar power and performance to six-cylinder engines, so they’re obviously an attractive option, but we’re looking at a number of alternatives,” she says.

However, Ford Australia is likely to come under increasing pressure to fall into line with Detroit, as Ford boss Alan Mulally has made it clear he wants to build global products.


That makes the future less than rosy for the Falcon and Territory, whose rear-wheel-drive underpinnings and dated straight-six engines have little in common with the rest of the Ford line-up.

Mulally has already flagged that the next Falcon could be front-wheel drive, and with Kuzak confirming the four-cylinder engine plans, it seems that the post-2013 Falcon and Territory will be very different beasts to their 2009 predecessors, if they exist at all.

McAlary dismisses suggestions the four-cylinder push is another nail in the Falcon’s coffin.

“It isn’t past its use-by date yet,” she says.