Ford is not as in your face about their green initiatives as other large car makers. Of course, that’s due in part to not taking a leadership position on the green end of the market.

SUVs and pick-ups have become Ford’s bread and butter in recent years. Ford has hybrid models, but didn’t trail blaze like Toyota and Honda or produce a hybrid version of almost all their models like GM.

They are not making much noise about electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), either. Then again, GM seems to be the only major carmaker pushing PHEVs in the short-term.

Keeping with the industry wide trend, Ford does have the environment and fuel efficiency in mind. Some of Ford’s eco-friendly initiative are of the less-than-flashy variety, but should deliver strong results nonetheless.

Compacts and efficient gasoline engines don’t capture the imagination the way hot new technologies do. However, they show us the direction that both Ford and automobile consumers worldwide are headed… and let’s just say there’s a hint of green on the horizon.

Here are two big announcements Ford made last week at the Frankfurt Auto Show:

EcoBoost

On the Ecomii car blog we mostly cover exciting new technologies with game-changing potential: EVs, PHEVs, hybrids, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles etc. Most cars being bought today, though, are of the traditional, gasoline powered variety.

Creating a more efficient fleet of cars is as much about boosting the efficiency of traditional cars as developing the environmentally sustainable technologies of tomorrow, or next decade in some cases.

Ford’s new EcoBoost engines utilize turbocharging and direct fuel injection technology to run more efficiently. These engines can cut CO2 emissions by 15% and increase fuel economy by 20%. By 2013 1.3 million vehicles are expected to be sold with EcoBoost engines annually.

C-cars

Besides more efficient engines, smaller cars are another no-brainer way to increase fuel efficiency. Ford unveiled a new model, the C-MAX, which is part of a larger line of cars to be released over the next few years. This line is being called C-cars, and will include the next generation Ford Focus.

The C-MAX sounds like a bit of a contradiction: a 7-seat compact (also available as a 5-seater). This is accomplished through an innovative design: a folding middle seat in the second row creates an aisle to access the third row. The car will be available in North America in late 2011. The new Focus will proceed the C-MAX, launching late next year.

This effort comes in response to growing U.S. demand for compacts. In 2004 they made up only 14% of industry sales, compared to 22% so far this year.

Of course, it would have been nice for Ford to have been ahead of the curve with a fuel efficient line-up in place to take advantage of this trend as it developed.