Ford will put the next-generation Focus on a crash diet. Executives are working on ways to shed up to 200kg – the equivalent of transporting the average-sized family – to take the weight to around 1,100kg.
The company will achieve this by making the new model almost entirely out of aluminium alloy, instead of steel. Powertrain director Andrew Fraser told Auto Express: “If Ford is to meet the EU target of a 95g/km CO2 average across the range by 2020, we have to take up to 200kg out of the car.
“The sole way to do that is with an all-alloy construction. At the moment, only some suspension parts are made from alloy – the rest is steel.”
He said that Ford can call on the expertise of former Premier Automotive Group partner Jaguar-Land Rover, which employs an all-alloy construction in the XJ and will do in the new Range Rover, due this year.
“The move would let us have smaller engines, fuel tanks and cooling systems,” said Fraser, the expert behind Ford’s EcoBoost range of downsized turbo engines.
“I don’t think you’ll see an engine smaller than the 1.0-litre three-cylinder. But the power we get from downsized engines will increase. We have worked with [UK engineering expert] Ricardo on a modified 1.0 EcoBoost, which features a larger turbo but also an electric supercharger to improve low-rev response. This can produce up to 160bhp with very low emissions. Such engines are cheaper, and crucially lighter, than hybrids.”
Expect 80mpg and 85g/km of CO2 from a regular petrol Focus – at present, the only model to achieve that is the super-frugal 1.6-litre diesel ECOnetic. The new MkIV Focus is likely to go on sale in 2018.
Updated: This article was updated with the full details on 21 March 2012
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so that means the present ''class leader''??? is, er, slightly flabby, ugly, underperforming, overpriced & outdated in its first year? well done ford. good god its only out & they're releasing details of replacement already. i'm sure all new owners are really overjoyed...pity the poor souls who bought the metallic urine versions..they should be worth their weight in Gold come trade in time !
I understand that car makers want to excite existing and future customers, but the "new" Focus has only just hit the road. All manufactures tell us that the new car is better, faster, lighter, more economical, etc. I get that, but it makes the car I've just bought, old fashioned, obsolete even. I then feel bad, stupid, cheap, or any number of negative feelings. This seems a stick and carrot way of treating customers. Counter intuitive even.
That's it really, I don't see the point of your piece, other than an oddly placed advert for Ford.
Come on people - let's not forget that car companies are always being directed to make vehicles safer, more economical, contain more equipment and less environmentally damaging. What Mr Fraser is saying is that Ford is investing significantly to make the NEXT Focus for 2018 calendar year even better than the model just launched. This should be applauded not scoffed at.
Your new Focus (incidentally I have one too - Titanium X 2,0D 163PS) is not old fashioned or obsolete and you've not been hard done by. Conversely you would be hard done by if the profits gained by sales of the current vehicle were not invested in future product to make it better than the current one.
Look at the Apple model. The iPhone 4S wasn't an iPhone 4 in a party frock, it was significantly better performing with new features.Imagine shelling out for your new phone to find out it's no different from the one you had used for the last 2 years. You would feel really cheated then.
The new car is 6 years away for heavens sake. Your car won't be the "old model" until then. Enjoy it, you bought a wonderful car.
Lightweight or heavyweight, if the new Focus looks anything like the pig ugly current one, I'll not be troubling the dealer!
If Ford is true to form we shall soon start to hear rumours about an RS version with 350bhp, 65mpg and 4WD due 2022 or just before the next, next model. Or if pajbse is right just another fat ugly pig with some flashy bits, straight line speed and a ton of torque steer. When the first Escort was announced the twin-cam was right there at launch. So come on Ford deliver us a 2018 Focus Cosworth this time!
Ford's current Fiesta just seems to be getting bigger all the time so why doesn't Ford just do sporty 3 door versions of the Focus, drop the new Kuga on low suspension for those after the smaller Focus estate? The saloon version has never been popular and could be a U.S version imported.
I agree with flyboy and would imagine the story is purely a result of Andrew Fraser comments regarding how the company will achieve the (unjust) EU CO2 targets. If anyone reading this has purchased a new mainstream car believing the exact same model will still be on sale unaltered 6 years hence then more fool them. I think Rover showed us what happens to manufacturers that try this! Whatever next, people complaining that their new car is safer, more economical, quieter and better built than their last one? As for the Focus being 'pig ugly'... Really? Hasn't prevented it from topping the sales charts in February....
the only reason cars in this class have such big sales is from massive fleet sales incentives, not from looks, 200kg weight loss is not ''altering'', so you really cant back up that excuse for leading people up the garden path.. fools & their money are.....
brendan dude go pat your self in the ass man. Nowhere in the article said anything about looks flubby or whatever.
So autoexpress is doing what again is news fishing.
ANY car company that wants to have a future is bound to go to similar paths. Competition, co2 whatever. You want the lighter which will mean faster and more economical and when materials and methods of construction allow it, cheaper.
For sale charts? Who gives a fuck.
The focus is the benchmark of the class. Every other car tries to nail it. It is its positioning that makes it comparable to almost any other car in the class. Hyundai and kia want a share from the ford (and renault and opel whatever) pie, VAG wants too (because the golf is overpriced in most eu markets and bumps on better cars from better manufacturers-even audi, remember the cheapening on the mark V compared on the mark IV production line...), everybody does.
It has to be better than i30s, astras etc it has to be as good or better than the golf etc and more value for money at the same time...
It usually does.
The way things are going with the cost of motoring, perhaps NO ONE will be able to afford a car by 2018 - and the roads will be in such a terrible state of disrepair that we will not be able to drive on them anyway.
What kind of misery is here! Idiot full of complexes, which spit at Ford, but you do not have money to buy it and drive. Yes, Ford is the best in all classes in which he performs. For those who know. I have a brain. How pathetic! Auto Express has indeed reason to be ashamed of their "fans".