The Ford Focus RS has been a staple in today's era of hyper hot hatches, but with the new Focus upon which its based landing this year things have been relatively quiet on the rumour front.
That's perhaps until now. Fresh speculation has surfaced around the RS's potential powertrain, with UK press reporting that it could feature a mild hybrid system.
Read more: Ford Focus wins AA Driven New Zealand Car of the Year award
Car Magazine has reported that the RS will retain its familiar 2.3-litre turbocharged four but with a kick of electrification. There's no word yet on how powerful it will be, but expect it to be somewhere in the ballpark of the upcoming Mercedes-AMG A45 S's 310kW/510Nm.
The core benefit of adding a mild hybrid system to a hot hatch like the Focus RS is the ability for it to fill vacancies in the car's power band caused by things like turbo lag. A hybrid system can instantaneously send a jolt of power to the wheels early in the rev range to make up for any delays elsewhere. It can also naturally improve emissions and economy figures.
The Focus RS replacement is also reportedly set to take on a new rear-mounted GKN 'eTwinster' all-wheel drive and torque vectoring system to help it tame whatever power output it has in store for blue-oval faithful.
The new Focus RS hasn't yet been confirmed for the Kiwi market (or been revealed, for that matter). But those rubbing their hands together should be optimistic, given that both of its siblings — the Focus ST and Fiesta ST — are heading our way in 2020.
For what it's worth, the upcoming Focus ST's 2.3-litre turbo four makes 206kW/420Nm and will be priced at $58,990 when it lands, undercutting the Honda Civic Type R by $1000.
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