There's an Affordable International Engine of the Year Winner, If You Can Find It

If you want to own one of the world’s best engines (as ranked by a panel of multi-national auto journos), you don’t necessarily have to find a higher paying job or buy a plane ticket to Europe.

Most categories at the recently announced 2016 International Engine of the Year Awards were won by high-end powerplants and European mills you won’t find in North America — except for one entry dominated by Ford.

Winning the sub 1-liter class for the fifth year in a row was Ford’s 1.0-liter EcoBoost three-cylinder, an engine available in the Fiesta and Focus, but rarely talked about on these shores. (Unless you’re TTAC’s managing editor).

That tiny mill was lauded for its technology and power-to-displacement ratio. The automaker uses the 1.0-liter EcoBoost in a slew of European models, with one in five new Ford vehicles featuring the engine last year, according to the company.

The North American take up rate? Ever so drastically less.

In a wildly unshocking move, Tesla Motors won the “green engine” category for the lineup of drivetrains offered in the Model S and X.

Other winners available to drivers on this side of the Atlantic were BMW’s 1.5-liter three-cylinder hybrid powerplant, which powers the pricey i8 sportscar, and the turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder in the Mercedes-AMG CLA45 and GLA45.

Going up the displacement scale, Audi’s turbocharged 2.5-liter five-cylinder (bound for the U.S. in the 2017 RS3) grabbed a top prize, as did Porsche’s turbocharged 3.0-liter flat six.

Winner of four categories, including the top “engine of the year” spot, “performance engine” and “new engine,” was Ferrari’s 3.9-liter biturbo V8, offered in the 488 GTB. After going gaga over small-displacement motors for the past several years, the panel went with a block that has more than four holes in it.