Ford announced today that it has commenced production of the new Fiesta ECOnetic. Available in Europe, the ECOnetic is powered by a 1.6-liter diesel engine with an output of 94hp (95PS) and a peak torque of 205Nm (105.2 lb-ft).

What makes this Fiesta special is that it returns an average fuel consumption of just 3.3 lt/100 km (equal to 85.6mpg UK and 71.3 mpg US) according to the European Fuel Economy standards, while emitting only 87g of CO2 per km.

The low fuel consumption and CO2 emission figures were achieved thanks to a series of modifications that include the special calibration of the diesel engine, the optimization of the gear ratios, lowered suspension, low resistance and improved aerodynamics.

Additionally, the Fiesta ECOnetic, which was unveiled at last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, features an auto start-stop system, smart regenerative charging, a shift indicator mode and an Eco mode.

“The Fiesta is already hugely successful across Europe and the ECOnetic Technology model takes its fuel efficiency and low-CO2 offering to another level”, said Stephen Odell, CEO and chairman, Ford of Europe. “Customers can be assured these significant gains have been achieved without compromising the great driving quality for which Ford is famous.”

The Blue Oval’s plan is for half of its cars sold in the European market this year to be ECOnetic models. This percentage will increase to two/thirds in 2013 in order to achieve the carmaker’s target of lowering total CO2 emissions by 30 percent between 2006 and 2020.

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