Ford of Europe to Triple Output of EcoBoost Vehicles

Ford of Europe plans to triple production of light vehicles equipped with direct-injected turbocharged EcoBoost engines by 2015.

The move will boost output to about 480,000 units in 2015, up from 141,000 last year.

More than 300,000 units of the total will be vehicles equipped with the 1.0L 3-cyl. EcoBoost, now beginning production at Ford’s new plant in Craiova, Romania.

The auto maker says it plans to build 800,000 vehicles equipped with the 1.0L mill for Europe between 2012-2015 in Romania and its sister plant in Cologne, Germany, where production of the engine began in November 2011.

A total of 1.3 million EcoBoost engines of all displacements will be built for European cars over the time period, Ford says.

The number of European Ford models available with EcoBoost engines will double to 10 by 2015 when the powerplants will be in more than half of all Ford’s European gas-powered vehicles.