Made In Romania: 58 mpg Ford B-Max

I always said small diesel automobiles are the future...not hybrids, not electric cars. With his new model B-Max manufactured in Craiova - Romania, Ford is now the leader of the PRACTICAL fuel efficient automobile manufacturers. I wrote "PRACTICAL" in capital letters in order to emphasize the fact that this vehicle has no need to be plugged in an electrical outlet, it doesn't catch fire because of its on-board batteries, has an effective range of 370+ miles on a tank of fuel and doesn't need expensive Li-Ion battery exchanges every couple of years.

...."manufacturing will be handled by Automobile Craiova, which became Ford’s Eastern European subsidiary in 2008 after three turbulent decades under Romanian, French and Korean ownership. This is how Europeans outsource: Expensive Western European plants are increasingly running under capacity as work is transferred to factories in Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

Because the B-Max is a car you’ll actually be able to buy this year, it has a turbocharged engine as opposed to batteries, fuel cells and fairy dust. Ford’s 1.0-liter three-cylinder turbo EcoBoost is a compact, clever unit not unlike what we saw in the Sumo. Ford says it’s good for 118 horsepower and 57.6 mpg on the European cycle. This being Europe, there are of course two diesels to choose from as well, along with a smaller, or larger, gasoline engine." (Source)