http://media.ford.com/newsroom/feature_dis...m?release=24579 (there's a photo) EARBORN, Jan. 24, 2007 - Ford Motor Company has unveiled a hydrogen-fuel cell, battery-powered plug-in vehicle at the 2007 Washington (D.C.) Auto Show. And this vehicle is no pie-in-the-sky concept car - it's a Ford Edge that's currently being driven on Michigan roads as a test vehicle for exploring alternative powertrains. Unveiling the hybrid Edge in Washington, D.C., helps Ford showcase the vehicle and its technology in front of leading government officials and legislators, an important audience as Congress begins working under new leadership. "Besides the public, the audience in Washington includes the people in charge of energy and clean air policy so this is very much a showplace for exhibiting what Ford technology can do in the future," said Scott Staley, Ford's chief engineer for hybrid and fuel cell technology development. Developed under contract from the U.S. Department of Energy, the plug-in hybrid Edge is being used to demonstrate the reliability, lifetime, range and freezing-weather operating performance of such a vehicle. The Edge is powered by the HySeries Driveâ„¢, a hybrid-electric propulsion system that uses the fuel-cell power unit as a charger for the 336-volt lithium-ion battery pack. The vehicle operates in battery-only mode for the first 25 miles at speeds of up to 85 mph. When the battery is depleted to 40 percent of its charge, the fuel cell automatically kicks in to recharge the battery, giving the car a range of 225 miles. Using the combination electric-and-hydrogen system is also important because it stretches out the time between hydrogen fill-ups, said Staley. The technology gives the vehicle the equivalent of a combined city/highway fuel economy rating of 41 mpg. The vehicle's battery pack can also be recharged overnight by plugging it into a standard electrical outlet. Another advantage of the HySeries Drive is its fuel and engine flexibility. "The architecture of the vehicle is flexible so we could take the fuel cell power system out and replace it with a down-sized diesel or ethanol engine connected to a small electric generator to make electricity like the fuel cell does now," said Staley. Known inside Ford as the TDV7 (the seventh in a series of Technology Demonstration Vehicles), the Edge uses a real-world version of the powerplant envisioned in the Ford Airstream concept unveiled earlier this month at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Showing the hybrid powerplant in a vehicle like the Edge was important, said Staley. "We wanted to take what was in a 'gee whiz' vehicle like the Airstream and connect it with something people are driving on the road today, something that wasn't just a futuristic concept vehicle," he said. For those who do get inside and buckle up, the most obvious difference between the hybrid and a regular production Edge is the hybrid's bigger center tunnel between the seats. The slightly-larger tunnel houses the vehicle's protected hydrogen tank. In the future, Staley said he hopes such hybrids would be designed to be built on common assembly lines with regular and alternative powerplants being added as easily as other components. According to a 2006 Wall Street Journal poll, one-third of American auto buyers are likely to seriously consider a vehicle employing alternative fuel. Automakers today offer 46 models of advanced technology vehicles and more than 100 that reach at least 30 m.p.g. on the highway, according to The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a group that advocates for safer, and more fuel-efficient cars. The Washington Auto Show runs from Jan. 24-28 at the Washington Convention Center. It will feature more than 700 new vehicles from more than 42 domestic and import automakers. Featured exhibits include Technology Highway and Alternative Fuel Alley. For more info, log on to washingtonautoshow.com or call (800) WASH-AUTO. For information on all Ford vehicles, go to Fordvehicles.com
It may have a gee-whiz powertrain, but I'll be that its build quality still won't be quite good enough. And, like most "brand new" Fords, I fear that the production vehicle will have body styling elements which appear about three or more years behind the times.
Although a step in the right direction, and an interesting(but not new) concept, I have serious doubts about the Ford Edge plug-in hydrogen hybrid. Given the unrealistic costs of hydrogen and the lack of fueling infrastructure/range provided by the fuel, a pure electric LiIon/LiP would have been a better alternative and use of energy. Why they chose a 6000+lb crossover for the advanced technology system is also a mystery to me when the Prius, which weighs less than half that, has just as much interior room and storage. A lighter car with the same 300+ volt Lithium battery system would have an impressive performance and range (300 miles per charge in the LiIon Tesla Roadster) and get unlimited miles per gallon. I am so sick of the hydrogen lies promised by the oil companies. They don't want you to plug it in, they want you to fill it up, and they want to fill it with hydrogen derived from their dirty fossil fuels. What a joke!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(clintd555 @ Jan 26 2007, 02:21 PM) [snapback]381224[/snapback]</div> When a hydrongen-fuel cell vehicle can be built for under a MILLION ... mabe ... just maybe then, can it not be called, pie-in-the-sky. Heck, the U.S. can probably build a flying saucer. Doesn't mean they'll be bringing it to market anytime soon. News flash yesterday: How much cash did they bleed last year ... according the the newspaper? Wasn't it in the neighborhood of $25,000,000 ??? Let me guess, if they built another 2 dozen hydrogen based cars, they'd double their losses.
Aren't there some pretty serious losses when you charge a battery? Doesn't that mean that they could possible double the range if they used the fuel cell to directly run the motors instead of charging the battery? Oh, and of course this is totally ignores the lack of efficient sources of hydrogen.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(narf @ Jan 27 2007, 09:10 AM) [snapback]381656[/snapback]</div> The losses incurred while charging a battery are minimal when compared to using electricty (or fossil fuels) to make hydrogen, running the hydrogen through a fuel cell (or burning it in a generator) to create electricity again. It is overly complicated for no reason.
My wife and I went to the DC auto show on Friday, and saw the Edge HySeries. Not sure if this is the wave of the future or not, but we enjoyed seeing more than one type of alternative fuel vehicle at the show. I've never been a big fan of Fords ('cept the Mustang), but who knows, maybe this thing will work. But the car the knocked our socks off was the Chevy Volt concept car - WOW!!!
