Ford set to attract downsizers with new diesel engine

Ford's fleet chief is expecting the Mondeo's new low-CO2 diesel engine to attract attention from drivers currently using larger engined cars.

Now on sale, the Mondeo 1.6 TDCi produces 115bhp and uses stop-start technology to produce CO2 emissions of 114g/km.

Kevin Griffin, Ford fleet director, suggests about a third of drivers currently in a 2.0-litre diesel could be considering downsizing to the smaller engine.

"It's still early days," he told Fleet News, "But demand has been really good."

"There might be a psychological barrier for some of them given the smaller size of the engine, so we don't know if that proportion will be converted into sales, but the performance of the engine isn't an issue."

The car's power output is the same as the 2.0 TDCi Econetic model discontinued in 2010, although the CO2 emissions of the new model are 25g/km lower.