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2013 Ford fusion hybrid 47 mpg http://t.co/MppVFlCu
At 47 MPG, 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid is America’s Most Efficient Midsize Sedan « 2013 Ford Fusion Story
The all-new Ford Fusion Hybrid is officially certified as America’s most fuel efficient midsize sedan with EPA estimates of 47 mpg city, 47 mpg highway and 47 mpg combined! That’s 4 mpg better than th…
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Reshared post from +Motor Trend Magazine
We test the 2013 +Ford Motor Company C-Max hybrid. Would you take this over the Prius v? http://bit.ly/P7Cz3t
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Out in Monterrey, California today, Ford board member Edsel Ford II, marketing chief Jim Farley and Shelby American president John Luft took the wraps off a one-off 2013 Shelby GT500 built as a tribute to the late Carroll Shelby. The car, built by “Friends of Carroll” has been dubbed the Shelby GT500 Cobra and is painted in the traditional Guardsman Blue with Wimbledon White stripes that graced many of the original Cobras of the 1960s.
It’s not the just the paint that sets this particular car apart from run-of-the-mill GT500s, that is if you can call a 662 hp Mustang run-of-the-mill! This car’s rear haunches are several inches wider than any standard Mustang that rolls out of the Flat Rock Assembly Plant.
Within those swollen wheel arches are 20-inch wheels that measure 10-inches wide in front and 13-inches wide at the back. Those back wheels are wrapped in 345-section rubber to help put the output of the engine to the road.
Speaking of the engine, the GT500’s already stout 5.8-liter V8 has had it’s normal 2.3-liter Eaton supercharger replaced with a 4.0-liter Whipple blower from the Ford Racing catalog.
The GT500 Cobra will be on display at the Ford pavilion at the Rolex Historics this weekend where the original Cobra is the featured marque this year. It will then go on tour throughout the fall before it gets put to an as yet undisclosed special purpose according to Jim Farley.
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The debut of the C-Max Energi comes more than 4 years after Ford first began testing a fleet of plug-in Escapes. I had a chance to drive one of those prototypes way back in March 2008 http://green.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/abg-first-impression-ford-escape-plug-in-hybrid-w-video/
2013 Ford C-Max Energi Priced at $33,745, Cheaper Than Prius Plug-In
It’s official: not only does the 2013 Ford C-Max Energi Plug-in hybrid travel further in all-electric mode than the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in hybrid, but it will cost less too. As Ford detailed last n…
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Electrification of cars is happening all over. From basic auto start-stop systems like the one on the 2013 Ford Fusion to the plug-in hybrids and battery electrics, electric motors taking up the workload from internal combustion engines.
Even Ferrari has acknowledged the need for electrification at some level to reduce fuel consumption. They recently filed an update to a patent application that’s been floating around the European patent office for a couple of years http://bit.ly/HRtV18. Apparently they still take time to consider patents for actual tangible devices unlike software patents that seem to get rubber-stamped willy-nilly; but that’s another story.
Ferrari has been working on mild hybrid kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS) for it’s Formula One cars for a several years. This application looks like it might be an outgrowth of that work. It consists of two motor/generators to provide propulsion and regenerative braking. One motor is connected to the rear mounted transmission to propel the vehicle much like the F1 layout.
The second motor is where things get interesting. In most strong hybrid vehicles, manufacturers have adopted electrically driven air conditioning compressors and power steering so that they can still function while the engine is off either during EV mode or stop-start.
The layout described by Ferrari retains the belt driven accessories powered by the engine. The second motor/generator is driven by the same belt. When the engine is off, a freewheel mechanism on the engine drive pulley allows the motor to continue turning the accessories using power from the battery. When the accessory loads are low, the engine can also drive the motor/generator to charge the battery. This differs from the KERS system Ferrari used on its F1 cars which only had one motor. Since the F1 cars never shutoff the engine, there was no need to drive the accessories (namely the alternator and power steering) electrically.
This setup looks like it can have a couple of potential advantages despite the added mechanical complexity. Ferrari can use the same accessories it uses on non-hybrid versions of the car. That means they can stay with a hydraulic power steering pump which many enthusiasts prefer for enhanced steering feel.
The downside is that the accessories continue to be driven all the time unlike the on-demand electric versions on other hybrids. That means that parasitic losses are reduced but not by nearly as much. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out for high-performance manufacturers like Ferrari, Aston Martin and Lamborghini.
Update: I wanted to clarify that there is an error in the C&D story and most of the other posts it spawned. Ferrari did not ever race a flywheel-based KERS system. The Ferrari system used a battery and motor like most production hybrids. Only Williams produced a flywheel system for F1. This system has since been lincensed to Porsche and Audi for the 911 GT3R hybrid and the R18 e-Tron quattro.
via: Car and Driver and European Patent Office
James Treece does an excellent compare and contrast of the impacts of Derrick Kuzak and Bob Lutz on Ford and General Motors in the latest Automotive News.
As much as I admire Lutz, if you look back over his history at and then at GM, it seems that products that emerged during his tenures were largely the result of his shear force of will rather than changing the culture of the organization.
Following Lutz’s “retirement” from Chrysler in the wake of the DaimlerChrysler merger, the products quickly returned to a level of mediocrity that drove customers away. The problem of course was not at the engineering and design levels, but in the upper reaches of management. Without a commitment to product excellence above all else, the product will always devolve to that lowest common denominator level.
Even his tenure at GM was something of a mixed bag, with excellent products like the Cadillac CTS, C6 Corvette and Buick LaCrosse mixed with misses like the two-mode and mild hybrids, Hummer H3 and Solstice/Sky. As much as I loved the idea of the Pontiac Solstice, it was not well executed and probably should not have made it to production.
The soft-spoken Kuzak on the other hand had 100% support from Alan Mulally and Bill Ford in his efforts to focus the Ford product development process. The Focus has recently started to pick up steam in the US market and new Fusion has the potential to be a huge win for Ford. Even the Flex deserves credit. Despite being a weak seller, it was beautifully executed and remains one of my favorite crossovers.
Having spent time at both companies I remain unconvinced that GM’s future products will retain the level of excellence found in the products released in the last few years. Because of the lead times involved, the vehicles coming in the next 2-3 years will still exhibit the Lutz effect but beyond 2015 it’s hard to say. The engineering and design ranks can obviously execute, but whether they will be allowed to is unclear.
It’s too early to tell about Ford either, but I have a feeling that when 2015 rolls around we won’t be as concerned about Dearborn’s product direction.
#ford #gm #derrickkuzak #boblutz
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