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Thursday, May 14, 2009
Hybrid Vehicles- Ford Motor Company: First in a series of seven
Have you heard the following phrase being tossed around the office, school or even your own house?
“Hybrid Vehicle.”
More importantly, do you understand what on earth it means? It took me much time to research the exact definition, but I’ll make it short and sweet for you folks. A hybrid vehicle means a vehicle that runs on two forms of fuel for propulsion, or to move the car. This usually makes the car more fuel efficient or creates less pollution, which benefits our environment and earth. Right now, the most popular type of hybrid vehicle is the electric/gasoline hybrid. There are a wide variety of ways that electric/gasoline hybrids work. Some can completely run on electric or gasoline, while some simply have the electric motor as help for the gasoline motor. In the future, car companies will offer hydrogen hybrids and diesel hybrids for even better performance, and fuel efficiency.
In this series of hybrid vehicles, we will take a look at all of the auto manufacturers that offer hybrid vehicles in their 2009 lineup. We’ll also have a quick overview of the individual vehicles. Today’s article is about one of the world’s oldest automakers, Ford. I hope you enjoy!
You may know that the American company Ford released the very
first hybrid SUV to the world markets with their Ford Escape Hybrid. Now, here
in
From the outside, a quick glance at the Ford Escape hybrid would easily be mistaken for just another compact SUV. One must take a much closer look at the car to find the “Hybrid” badges on the sides of the vehicle and on the rear trunk lid. It is a normal, five-seat Ford Escape except for its gasoline/electric hybrid engine that can run on electric power only for a short time, upon which the gasoline engine starts again. Fuel economy numbers are literally that of a compact car, with 5.8 L/ 100km in city driving, and the car boasts 6.4 L/ 100km on the highway. The Ford Escape is still quite unique five years since its release onto the consumer market and is still showing impressive sales figures despite a slumping economy.
Especially important to the Ford lineup this year is the Ford Fusion hybrid. The original Fusion that debuted in 2006 proved to be a worthy successor to the out-going Ford Taurus, (which is actually back in a much larger size) collecting generally favorable reviews and some excellent reliability ratings. Hopefully this carries through to the four-door sedan’s new hybrid persona. Much like the Escape hybrid, the Ford Fusion Hybrid will have to be looked at very closely to notice any differences from the gasoline powered version. The mid-size sedan has just a few badges on it to recognize its fuel-saving status. This also means that regular Ford Fusion features such as air conditioning, power locks and windows, seating for five, leather wrapped steering wheel and other features comparable to the SEL trim line. However, the important part is the impressive fuel economy figures. It gets a very good 4.6L/100km in the city and 5.4L/100km during highway driving. Just like the Escape hybrid, the Fusion Hybrid can go on only electric power up to a speed of 47 km/h.
At the moment, the economy is still in nervous mode, people
can’t buy cars, financing is at a near standstill and tougher fuel economy
standards are coming very, very soon. Ford, along with the other American
automakers, is struggling, but not to the extent of Chrysler and General Motors.
Ford appears to have a well-set, green future with a possible Ford Focus hybrid
and Ford Edge hybrid. It also has a small, fuel-miserly car called the “Fiesta”
ready to come to