The Ford Fiesta has been a popular model for Ford, the Fiesta represented a change of direction for Ford China and showed that the company was serious about its small car range in the PRC. The previous Fiesta came in a saloon only mode and was a dumpy, small vehicle that hardly impressed, the current Fiesta changed everything thanks to its sporty appearance and unusually good looking sedan variant.
To keep sales momentum going into 2013 and beyond Ford are planning to pair the Ford Ecosport’s 1.0T engine with the Fiesta to give it more omph with a smaller unit. The 1.0T may sound tiny, but it produces 125bhp which is more than capable of taking the Fiesta around town, remember that in developing worlds the name of the game is torque when you zip from traffic light to traffic light at 4000RPM. The 1.3L Fiesta is apparently being dumped in favor of an all new 1.5i-VCT engine.
Ford have yet to officially announce the 1.0T Fiesta, but the text accompanying these spy shots indicate that this is the future 1.0T with the Powershift gearbox and updated grill that will bring the Fiesta inline with the new Focus. An end of year launch, or perhaps early 2013 launch is more than likely for this little car.
A cool car is about to get a whole lot cooler……….
YES, Ford – THANK YOU. This is the future – small engines with great fuel economy AND great performance for it’s size. Now, imagine if you fill up this car with biofuel (you know, fuel created from things like corn, algae or other naturally growing sources) – I would call that environmentally friendly! I don’t know if we can ever eliminate pollution completely in society, but this is the right step towards MINIMIZING it as much as possible. The next step……….I hope we can see ALL manufacturers offering engines like this in ALL of their models around the world. V-8′s simply are NOT needed in the everyday car anymore (yes, certain vehicles designed for certain applications need that kind of power – but soccer moms and daily commuters DO NOT), and the sooner society gets used to that idea, the better off we will be. Am I a “anti-power/anti-performance” kind of guy? No, not at all – I’m just a “anti-needless wasting of fuel” guy!
Fiesta – with a 1.5 engine? Ford do 1.4 or 1.6′s, not 1.5′s, is this a Mazda design?
I wonder, will we see the Ford Focus or Mondeo wagon next in China? Over here we get it…
In China the Fiesta uses the Mazda 1.3L and 1.5L (I have the 1.5L).
Just having the Powershift will make a big difference – the 4-speed auto is the weakest part of the current package.