A new report out of the United Kingdom suggests that Ford will ditch the Focus ST’s current 2,0-litre turbocharged engine in favour of a 1,5-litre four-cylinder mill when the next-generation hot hatch debuts late in 2018.
The move seems entirely plausible, considering the Blue Oval brand earlier this year confirmed that its new Fiesta ST would be powered by a three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine of the same capacity.
According to Autocar, the powerplant that is likely to be used in the next-gen Focus ST will feature four cylinders (as opposed to the Fiesta ST’s three), with a peak power output of up to 205 kW. The current Focus ST, of course, makes 184 kW, while the range-topping, all-wheel-drive Focus RS boasts 257 kW.
As the British publication points out, extracting more than 200 kW from a hot version of the automaker’s comparatively small-capacity 1,5-litre four-pot would be no mean feat, requiring a specific output higher than that achieved by the 2,3-litre EcoBoost unit in the RS.
But Autocar reports that Ford is “believed to be looking at” twin-scroll turbocharging, direct injection and the sort of cylinder deactivation technology that debuted in the new Fiesta in order to achieve this, along with the requisite improvement in claimed fuel consumption.
The new Focus – complete with a longer wheelbase and more space inside, both in the cabin and in the luggage compartment – is expected to be revealed either at the end of this year, or early in 2018, with the ST model scheduled to arrive towards the end of next year.
