Ford has been working hard to bring the new EcoBoost V6 engine to nearly its entire lineup. Balancing efficiency and power, the EcoBoost engine will be heavily relied upon to help lower Ford’s fleet-wide fuel economy, while also giving their lineup the power that consumers desire. The Ford EcoBoost is aided by direct injection and turbo-charging technology. But the latest engine under development at Ford also includes an ethanol injection system.
Enabling the engine to operate at a high compression while detonation is also decreased, the Bobcat V8 engine can run on gasoline while maintaining the fuel economy of a diesel engine. The downside according to Kansas City Used Cars, is that the car requires a separate tank for ethanol fuel. However, the engine would consumer such a sparse amount of ethanol that the driver wouldn’t need to add ethanol regularly.
Ford is collaborating with Ethanol Boosting Systems to develop this new Bobcat engine. The system, which will be named Direct Injection Octane Boost, is said to increase the octane of gasoline, helping one of these V8s produce upwards of 500 horsepower. The engine is still in early stages of development and the release date is not yet available but Commercial Trucks Richmond believes it will make its way into a F-Series test mule soon.
Volvo Dives into Plug-in Hybrid Technology
Volvo has been struggling amid slumping global sales, but that hasn’t stopped the automaker from diving into research and development. One such as product of its R&D efforts is a new plug-in hybrid that will be due by 2012. Volvo has committed itself to producing a high mileage diesel-electric plug-in hybrid, but it has yet to confirm its plans to sell the vehicle in the U.S.
Lexus ES Still Critical to Luxury Brand Lineup
As one Lexus’ most popular models, there will be plenty of drivers that will be happy to see a revamped Lexus ES 350 coming to showrooms later this month. While it may not be a full redesign, the updating certainly brings needed enhancements.
Euro Civic Type-R Teases U.S. Consumers
In the U.S., Honda is mostly known for producing somewhat conservative, economical cars. However, the image of Honda outside of the States is far more performance oriented. This is attributed to a range of models that can be had overseas, but remain unavailable here.
