Ford Transit Van to Offer Twin-Turbo EcoBoost V-6 Engine

We hope you have lots of tie-down straps. Ford announced today that its upcoming Transit van will offer an optional twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 engine. The same engine, when installed in the F-150, makes 365 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque. Not to be confused with Ford's compact Transit Connect van on sale now, the Transit is a full-size van and will replace (mostly) the E-series vans that have been in service for decades. Although the Transit's platform is versatile enough to handle rear-, front-, or all-wheel-drive powertrains, ours will most likely eschew the front-wheel-drive setup. Ford says that the 3.5-liter V-6 will be available in the rear-wheel-drive Transit; if an all-wheel-drive Transit is offered, it'll make do with a naturally aspirated engine. We do expect a 3.7-liter V-6 to be offered, and a 5.0-liter V-8 is a possibility, too. The availability of the EcoBoost V-6 in the Transit is, for lack of a more precise word, cool. The Transit's future competitor, the Nissan NV, can be ordered with a 5.6-liter V-8, which delivers 317 hp and 385 lb-ft of torque. Being loaded up with cargo and having a trailer hooked to the back, these big vans really benefit from the available power. In the F-150, Ford has shown that its turbocharged V-6 can deliver when it comes to truckish responsibilities, and we have no reason to doubt those will translate to the Transit, too. Our experiences with EcoBoost-powered F-150s have not shown them to be especially fuel efficient versus equivalent V-8 models. Still, Ford is boasting that the Transit van will deliver 25-percent better fuel economy than its predecessors did. The Transit hits the market in 2013. from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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