The EcoBoost has become ubiquitous since Ford launched this line of turbocharged engines. And this week, the company announced that it has just manufactured its five millionth EcoBoost-powered vehicle, as a Ford Focus with a 1.0-liter turbo engine rolled off the assembly lines in Wayne, Michigan.
The Ford EcoBoost debuted in 2009, which means it took just six years for Ford to manufacture five million cars, trucks, and SUVs with these turbo engines under the hood. Most of the activity, however, took place in the last two to three years, as it took three years for Ford to reach the 500,000-engine milestone and four years to reach the two million mark.
That said, the fact that most of those EcoBoost engines were likely manufactured between 2013 and 2015 underscores how automakers around the world, Ford included, are prioritizing fuel economy more than ever before, but not in a way that necessarily takes away from a car’s performance. The Ford EcoBoost line comes with direct fuel injection, and since these engines are smaller than the naturally aspirated V6 and V8 power plants of old, they use less fuel when idling or at cruise speeds.
These days, EcoBoost engines can be found on all of Ford’s U.S. offerings, even the Mustang pony car and F-150 full-size pickup, two models that have traditionally relied on six- and or eight-cylinder engines in the past.