Ford Launches 3-Cyl. EcoBoost Engine Production in Germany

COLOGNE, Germany – Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally joins European management for the celebration of the volume-production start of the new 1.0L 3-cyl. EcoBoost gasoline engine at the auto maker’s plant here.

The Cologne engine facility is seeing a significant change in its production program. The first serial 1.0L powerplant left the plant Wednesday and the last 4.0L V-6 engine was built Thursday.

Ford says new 1.0L engine delivers power and performance of traditional 1.6L.

The new 1.0L engine is Ford’s smallest gasoline powerplant. The turbocharged direct- injection mill will deliver 125 hp with 114 g/km carbon-dioxide emissions, while the 100-hp variant will produce 109 g/km CO2.

The 125-hp has a combined gasoline-fuel economy of 56.5 mpg (4.2 L/100 km) in the all-new Focus, Ford says. The new small engine will debut in the European Focus in early 2012. It subsequently will be offered in the Ford C-Max and new B-Max in Europe, with further global applications to be announced later.

Ford invested €134 million ($200 million) to develop a special high-tech line in Cologne to build the engine. Currently, the plant has 870 employees.

“Ford's commitment to Germany as a high-tech manufacturing location is significant,” Mulally says. “Nowhere outside of the U.S. do we have a stronger design engineering and manufacturing presence than we do here in Germany."

The auto maker will build up to 350,000 units a year with three shifts in Cologne. At full capacity, the plant will produce 520 engines in one shift, Dirk Heller, manufacturing director- Powertrain Operations Europe, tells WardsAuto.

Ford’s European production capacity will increase up to 700,000 units annually as the 1.0L output at Cologne is joined by the auto maker’s new engine plant in Craiova, Romania, in early 2012.

“We will launch volume production in Craiova in about four and half months,” Heller says, who notes the level of automation at the German plant is significantly greater than in Romania because of higher labor costs.

Heller says the Cologne facility will build the engines for German-made Ford Focus and Fiesta models, while the Craiova facility mainly will manufacture powerplants for the new B-Max that will be built at the same site starting next spring.

Both factories will supply engines destined for the C-Max to Ford’s factory in Valencia, Spain.

The production facility in Cologne was designed by Ford’s manufacturing engineering team based in Dunton, U.K., using the auto maker’s virtual manufacturing laboratory to provide maximum flexibility and efficiency. Nearly 100 new machining units and a 1,903-ft. (580-m) purpose-built assembly line have been installed.

Fifty-five automated and 14 semi-automated processes are used, alongside 90 workstations.

Ford adapted production equipment worth E18 million ($25 million), which previously was used in the 4.0L engine production, for the new powerplant.

New manufacturing techniques were introduced that reduce the volume of coolant required when machining aluminum engine parts to just 4-5 millilitres (about a teaspoon) per component, from a previous requirement of up to 2.0L (about half an oz), a reduction of more than 99% that contributes to a smaller environmental manufacturing footprint.

New “cold testing” technology allows completed engines to be tested without being started, cutting fuel usage and CO2 emissions from the process by 66%, while 100% of the remaining energy required to run the plant comes from renewable sources.

Total electricity use has been reduced by 66% with production of the 4.0LV-6 engine at the plant.

Ford anticipates production of the new engine to expand beyond Europe. Current plans call for non-European output of up to 500,000 units a year, but the auto maker declines to provide details on additional production sites.

The new engine was developed by Ford’s Dunton Technical Centre, U.K., European Research and Advanced Engineering Centre in Aachen, Germany, and the engineering center in Cologne-Merkenich.

Prior to the production of the 1.0L engine, the Cologne-made 4.0L V-6 engines were destined mainly for North America. A small portion was shipped to Land Rover as well.

“We have manufactured about 9 million 4.0L engines since the start of production in the late 1980s,” Plant Manager Theo Streit tells WardsAuto. In its peak years of 2000 and 2001, Cologne built up to 2,800 4.0L engines a day.