Earlier this year, Ford unveiled its brand new EcoBlue diesel engine with fanfare of efficiency facts and savings stats. Now, the carmaker has revealed that the engine isn't just efficient to run, but to produce too, with the new production line at its Dagenham Diesel Centre said to cut energy and water use by 50 percent.

Based in the UK, the Dagenham Diesel Centre is Ford's largest diesel engine production facility around the globe and, prior to the EcoBlue diesel, was being used to build its 1.8-l TDCi diesel engine. A newly installed "state-of-the-art" production line, however, has begun knocking out 350,000 of the new EcoBlue engines, with that figure set to rise to 500,000 when a second phase of production begins next year.

According to Ford, the amount of water used per engine at the plant will be among the lowest at any of its facilities worldwide, with 17.5 million liters (3.9 million gallons) less used per year than in 2011. Almost 16 million liters (3.6 million gallons) of that will be down to the "minimum quantity lubrication" (MQL) machining tools being used on the new line.