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What I've read about the 1.5 is that its a 4 cylinder version of the 1.0 with an aluminum block, designed for lower taxes in China market cars and generally made to increase capacity of small 4 cylinder Ecoboost engines globally instead of totally replace the 1.6.

I bet its going to be a good engine.

If the Mazda Speed 3 2.3 was the Ecoboost 0.9, the 3.5 v6 1.0, the 1.6 and 2.0 would be 1.1, the 1.0 would be 1.2 and the 1.5 1.21, not a new generation but hopefully a good revision.

I haven't really dug in to my 1.6 yet but I don't think it has an integrated exhaust manifold which would make turbo upgrades more simple.

Stock I think they will be essentially even but modified one will pull ahead.

I think there might be a crank that can stretch the 1.6 to 1.7l so that means the 1.5 might have to be 13% better to keep up.

 

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Ford is never going to "run out" of 1.6s before they discontinue the motor. Their European (English?) plant just can't supply 100% of the global demand. Ford needed another plant any way so they designed a new engine to take advantage of a Chinese tax break.

Honestly I think you would see a 1.5 Ecoboost in a Focus before they change the engine of the Fiesta ST. It makes more sense to redesign a high sales volume car than a low selling niche vehicle, even if demand out-strips supply.

 

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Its not the same thing because the 6.2 was designed as a truck engine and they were always going to make it fit that truck.

The 1.5 is designed for Fusion, Escape and maybe Focus sized vehicles.

In the Fiesta the 1.0 is more equivalent, its an upgrade to the stock 1.6, was designed for Fiesta size vehicles and will sell a lot.

The Ecoboost 1.6 and 1.5 will probably never sell a lot in the Fiesta because its a $7,000 or so option in a $15,000 car instead of a $5,500 option in a $32,000++ truck (F150 XLT extended cab is the cheapest option). The total sales volume of the F-150 is a lot higher than North America Fiesta sales too.

They just are not similar situations and if you believe "one world Ford", its not going to happen until they switch European cars to the 1.5 which I don't think there is any motivation to do.

The 1.5 is certainly more of a lateral move and it might not be better than a 1.6 Ecoboost so if anything, if there is a change, early cars with the 1.6 may command a premium rather than take a depreciation hit like a 5.4 Raptor.

 

[wash]

The only way the 1.5 could be better is if the cylinder head or piston design somehow works out to be incredibly detonation resistant and the block/crank/rods are stout enough to crank the boost a lot. A turbo swap would be required to realize that potential but the cast in to the cylinder head exhaust manifold might not work for that.

The worry is that Ford will create an orphan, fracture the tuner support and maybe even leave us with a car that does not have as much potential.

Its all wild speculation and like I said, unlikely to effect niche market products because there isn't a whole lot of return on the same amount of development compared to putting it in a Fusion or something.