The Ford Fiesta with its new 1.0-liter EcoBoost will deliver up to 45 mpg on the highway.

Ford will offer one of the smallest engines on the market for its 2014 Fiesta – but the 1.0-liter EcoBoost model will have a bigger claim to fame as the most fuel-efficient, non-hybrid gasoline vehicle in the U.S.

With the 3-cylinder, turbocharged engine under the hood, the 2014 Ford Fiesta will deliver an EPA-rated 45 miles per gallon on the highway – a full 1 mpg better than the 2014 Honda Insight hybrid’s 44 mpg rating, and 3 mpg better than that of the Volkswagen Golf diesel with a manual transmission.

“We’re pushing into fuel economy numbers only seen on hybrids and diesels,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s President of the Americas. “Coupled with the new Fiesta ST, Fiesta covers the performance-efficiency continuum in the subcompact segment better than any other nameplate in the market.”

The 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine has already been offered by Ford in Europe but is just making its way into the American market. It was named International Engine of the Year in June – an award it has nabbed for two consecutive years.

“Who’d have believed it? A 1.0-litre engine that has it all, powerful, fuel efficient, clean and lightweight,” said Peter Lyon, a British juror and freelance journalist. “This is a masterpiece.”

(Click Here for that story.)

Three-cylinder powertrains have been rare in the States, however and typically have traded off good mileage for poor performance. But Ford has used a number of tricks – including turbocharging and high-pressure fuel injection – to boost power without sacrificing mileage.  Small enough that the basic engine block can fit inside a carry-on suitcase, the EcoBoost derivative produced a reasonably peppy 123-horsepower and 125 pound-feet of torque. The 1.0-liter also has an overboost function that will boost output to 145 lb-ft for up to 15 seconds when extra muscle is needed.

The 1.0-liter powerplant is the latest in an expanding line-up of so-called EcoBoost engines – all using the same basic technologies to boost both mileage and power – that Ford has introduced over the last several years. The engine family is now offered in everything from the big F-Series pickups down to Ford’s smallest U.S. model, the Fiesta.

(Click Here to check out an experimental engine that could deliver sports car performance and econobox mileage.)

Even though fuel prices have leveled off in recent months, mileage remains a critical factor for buyers in the small car segment, and Ford notes that the 1.0-liter package will yield a significant advantage over competitors like the popular Honda Fit which gets a maximum 35 mpg on the highway, according to the EPA, 28 in the city and 31 combined.

The 1.0-liter EcoBoost version of the Fiesta’s 45 mpg highway rating is paired with a 32 mpg city number and 37 mpg combined.

(TheDetroitBureau.com gets an early drive of the Fiesta with the 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine. Click Here  to find out more.)

The engine will be offered one of the powertrain options for the 2014 Ford Fiesta, at $16,740 including destination charges. That’s about $2,000 over the price of the base-model Fiesta. The engine will be available in both sedan and hatchback versions of the subcompact.

While Ford has received kudos for the EcoBoost technology it has also been hammered by some motorists who have complained about transmission roughness and mileage falling short of expectations. The transmission issue was cited by Consumer Reports magazine officials as one reason Ford ranked below average in the annual automotive reliability survey released this week.

(Click Here to see the complete results from the annual Consumer Reports survey.)

As for mileage disparities, Ford contends that, as with hybrids, the fuel economy of a turbo engine can vary widely depending upon driver behavior and driving conditions.