On Monday, Ford unveiled its EcoBoost 1-liter 3-cylinder engine to the US market, and said that the updated 2014 model of the company's subcompact Fiesta - the smallest Ford car - will get the new engine next year.

The new three-cylinder turbocharged engine is Ford's smallest powerplant, which the automaker has been offering in the European version of Ford Focus since March this year. The engine - to be available in the 2014 Ford Fiesta - is capable of generating 123 horsepower and 148 pound-feet torque.

The 1-liter 3-cylinder engine - the first-ever three-banger from Ford - chiefly combines 1.6-liter and 2-liter 4-cylinder engines, and a 3.5-liter V-6 in Ford's EcoBoost engine range. The 2014 Fiesta will be the first and perhaps the only US vehicle, for now, to get Ford's 3-cylinder turbocharged engine.

With the standard, non-turbo, 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine of the Ford Fiesta generating 120 hp and 112 pound-feet torque, it is evident that the 3-banger option will give the subcompact enough energy to push it around.

Noting that the 3-banger option on the 2014 Ford fiesta will pleasantly surprise the customers "at what the smallest member of the EcoBoost engine family can do," Joe Bakaj - Ford"s VP of powertrain engineering - said: "Most customers are not going to be thinking about the number of cylinders under the hood when they drive the new 1-liter EcoBoost Fiesta."