- Ford secured the Ecobeast name for a future powertrain with a trademark
- Ecobeast might be a high-output turbocharged powertrain
- It's unclear if Ecobeast will be a crate motor or in a production vehicle
A new Ford trademark filing hints at a higher-performance version of the automaker's Ecoboost engines.
Ford filed a trademark application for the name Ecobeast with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on June 12. The application applies to "electric motors and engines for automobiles; powertrains for automobiles; turbochargers for automobile engines."
While electric motors are mentioned, Ecobeast is an obvious play on the Ecoboost name applied to a family of turbocharged gasoline engines. In Ford's current lineup, the Ecoboost name is applied to engines ranging from the 180-hp 1.5-liter turbo-3 used in the Escape to the F-150 Raptor's 450-hp 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6. The engine used in the last Ford GT supercar also had Ecoboost branding.
An F-150 Raptor with an Ecobeast engine does seem like a thematically appropriate combination, although the existence of the V-8-powered Raptor R makes a more-powerful Ecoboost/Ecobeast F-150 Raptor redundant. The wordplay would also work with the Bronco Raptor or Mustang Ecoboost, though, and there's additional room for more variants of those models.
Another possibility is a crate engine. Ford in 2021 announced an electric crate motor called the Eluminator, and also demonstrated the restomodding possibilities of this motor with an Eluminator-powered 1978 F-100 pickup truck shown at that year's SEMA show. Ford is likely to remain committed to gasoline crate engines as well, leaving room for a turbocharged Ecoboost engine that could wear the Ecobeast name.
Given the closeness of the Ecobeast name to Ecoboost, it's also possible that Ford is preemptively trademarking the name to prevent others from using it. Automakers do sometimes trademark names or versions of names just to have control of the intellectual property—even if they don't have plans to use it.