New Focus RS to up ante with hybrid tech

Electrification will make Ford’s 2020 hot hatch punch harder and emit less pollution

Ford is planning an even faster, more powerful and more efficient Focus RS for the 2020 model year and will use it to showcase a suite of 48V mild-hybrid technologies the company is introducing across its global mediumand large-car ranges. With the combination of its combustion and electric motors, the car’s power output is expected to exceed 400hp, rivalling nextgeneration offerings from Mercedes-AMG and Audi.

While improving the RS’s already impressive acceleration times and driving characteristics, the model’s new-tech features should dramatically cut both CO2 and toxic emissions to meet rapidly tightening world demands. European regulations require car makers to meet a 95g/km CO2 fleet average by 2021 – a little more than half the outgoing Focus RS’s 175g/km figure.

The new RS is part of a 40-model Ford electrification offensive announced at the Detroit show last month. At a stroke, the company doubled its spending commitment to 400 billion baht by 2022 and said it would spend the money both on all-new electric-only models and platforms (such as the new Mustang-based Mach 1) and on updating many of its existing models to 48V hybrids from 2019.

Ford’s president of global markets, Jim Farley, is also one of the main architects of the Ford Performance division the firm now regards as a major asset. He revealed a new Ford plan to enhance the credibility of future electrification technologies by applying them first to its most iconic models, such as the Focus RS.

The next Focus RS, whose launch is likely to follow the April 2018 debut of new mainstream Focus models by at least two years, is tipped to use the outgoing model’s 2.3-litre turbocharged fourcylinder petrol engine. This motor now produces 370bhp and 510Nm of torque following a recent round of Mountune upgrades, thanks to a highflow induction kit, an uprated turbo recirculating valve and calibration changes. Ford has a history of adopting Mountune ‘tweaks’ for later models.

The new Focus RS engine’s output of 370hp is likely to be augmented by a contribution of 25-30hp – and, more important, around 80-100Nm of start-up torque – from a 48V integrated starter/ generator (ISG). Its effortless restarting will save fuel and reduce CO2 by allowing longer engine-off periods, will more efficiently collect regenerated energy from braking and will sharpen the car’s low-speed accelerator response by contributing extra torque from standstill. This will both improve acceleration times and allow the engine to operate more often in its most efficient power bands, a means of reducing emissions, especially NOx.

The total combined power and torque – an estimated 400hp and 600Nm – should allow the forthcoming Focus RS to match and possibly beat the new wave of top-end hot hatches from Germany. It should also enable Ford to cut the Focus RS’s 0-100kph time from today’s 4.6sec to the 4.2sec of the class-leading Mercedes-AMG A45.

Even more important than outright pace in a difficult era for high-performance cars are the impressive cuts in exhaust pollutants offered by the new ISG set-up. It’s unlikely that the new Focus RS will use an electrically driven turbocharger – as recently showcased by Audi – although Ford is known to have been experimenting with these for at least four years. Recent estimates suggest that an ISG-equipped next-generation Focus RS should return cuts of 20-30g/km in its CO2 output, a vital contribution to reducing the fleet average.

All Focus RS editions so far have had six-speed manual gearboxes, but the fourth-generation version could offer a dual-clutch automatic option. This would take advantage of the ISG’s ability to provide ‘torque pulses’ to smooth gearchanges. The availability of a self-shifter could also strengthen much needed demand for the car in China and US markets where automatic transmissions appeal.

The extra space required to house a shoe-box-sized 48V battery (probably under the rear seat) is likely to have been hard-won: the new Focus sits on a modified version of the outgoing Focus C2 platform with a 50mm-longer wheelbase and a slightly increased 4.4m body length.

As with the current model, the next Focus RS will be a five-door hatchback. Three-door hatches are nowadays seen as unnecessarily costly because they sell poorly in cheaper guises.

Family-oriented versions of the next Focus are tipped to be around 50kg lighter, model for model, but the RS’s extra battery and electric hardware are likely to eat up the difference. Acceleration (and circuit lap times) should nevertheless benefit from the car’s better power-to-weight ratio and especially its quicker low-speed responses.

The new Focus RS’s hardware similarity to its predecessor makes it almost certain that nextgeneration production will resume at the Saarlouis plant in Germany, where the current car has been made.

The new Focus’s cabin and trim are being redesigned along new Fiesta lines to simplify the control layout, increase interior space and improve visibility. There has also been special attention paid to quality enhancements across the Focus range. Ford is majoring on further improvements to switchgear and materials, and a better integrated central touchscreen.

Although Ford continues to regard an affordable RS as vital to its everyman self-image, the next generation of the fastest Focus is almost certain to take a price hike to help pay for its more sophisticated electrical hardware.

By the time it reaches launch, the 48V car is likely to hit the four million baht level in Thailand at which it will still undercut the Germans and look decent value given the new-found ‘green’ power and performance.