A 4 cylinder F-150 has been mentioned as a possible addition to the F Series lineup as soon as 2013, according to sources at Ford. The four-cylinder would be powered by Ford’s EcoBoost technology and answer consumer demand for more gas friendly vehicles as gas prices continue to spiral out of control. Ford is hoping to produce up to 500,000 vehicles that take advantage of EcoBoost by 2012 giving them plenty of time to produce a capable engine for the 2013 Ford F-150.

Ford EcoBoost engines use high-pressure direct gas injection and turbocharging to get better performance and up to 20 percent better fuel economy compared to larger displacement engines. V-6 engines are said to perform like V-8s, and four-cylinder engines are said to perform as if they had six cylinders.

In an appearance before the Motor Press Guild, Dan Kapp, Ford’s director of powertrain research and advanced engineering, told journalists that “in probably the most extreme cases (using EcoBoost engines), we’re going to be downsizing on the order of 40, 50 percent. That would take, for example, a three-liter V6 down to a two-liter 4-cylinder engine. A 2.5-liter 4-cylinder could be something on the order of 1.5-liters.”

Kapp also said, “With these factors (smaller displacement and turbocharging) in the equation, an EcoBoost 6-cylinder engine can produce like an 8-cylinder and a 4-cylinder engine like a 6.”

No other information such as displacement of the engine is available at this time.