Coming soon: All new 1.2 litre engine for new Ford Figo & Aspire

Ford recently launched the new EcoSport that saw the debut of all-new 1.5-litre petrol engine named as Dragon. Ford will now bring the 1.2-litre iteration of the 1.5-litre Dragon engine and will be offered with new Figo and the sedan version, the Aspire. However, before that, Ford will introduce the engine with on a new Figo based vehicle that is yet to named as per ACI. We believe that it can be the Figo Cross, which has been spied testing in India.

The 1.2-litre Dragon engine will share the same architecture with the 1.5-litre engine. It will be an all-aluminium, three-cylinder, twin-cam engine that shares the same block as the 1.5-litre unit. The cubic capacity has been scaled down to 1,194cc by using smaller pistons. The 1.5-litre Dragon engine gets a balancer shaft that keeps the vibrations under control; the smaller engine will miss on that.

The 1.2-litre Dragon engine will have the highest benchmark for an engine of its class. The naturally aspirated 1.2-litre engine will churn out a maximum of 95 Bhp and 115 Nm, which is best in the segment. The second best is the Honda’s 1.2-litre i-VTEC producing 90 Bhp and Maruti Suzuki’s 1.2-litre K-Series that produces a maximum of 83 Bhp.

The report also says that that the all-new engine will also get a new transmission that has been codenamed MX65. The new 5-speed manual transmission will replace the current IB5 unit. It is much lighter and has precise gearshifts than the current version. The new transmission may also come in an AMT version, but it has not been confirmed yet.

Ford is expected to launch the cross version of the Figo in coming times. It will be based on the facelift of the Figo and will have higher ground clearance and heavier body cladding. The car will compete with the likes of Hyundai Active i10. The new Figo has also been spied with a number of changes on the body, and it will be launched later in the year.