US: Ford to expand NAFTA markets hybrid vehicle range
Wednesday, June 13, 2007, AutomotiveWorld.com
Ford says it will expand its range of full hybrid vehicles beyond the Escape and Mercury Mariner, according to a Reuters report. Both these Mazda Tribute-based SUVs are sold in NAFTA markets.
Nancy Gioia, Ford's director of hybrid vehicle programmes, says that the OEM is studying the feasibility of building plug-in hybrid vehicles but major engineering problems have to be overcome before their introduction.
Gioia said that to build a plug-in hybrid car with a minimum range of 40 miles on battery power and a maximum speed of over 60mph, the battery pack will have to be double or triple the size of existing units, making the vehicle heavy and expensive, the report states.
According to sales data released by the OEM, the combined sales of the Ford Escape and Mariner hybrids in the US market increased by 8% to just under 11,000 units in the first five months of 2007. In the same period, sales of the Toyota Prius hybrid have almost doubled to near 77,000 units.
Ford's rival General Motors displayed its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid concept at the Detroit auto show in January 2007 and has set an internal target of production in 2010.
In May, Bill Ford Jr, executive chairman of Ford, regretted Ford's delay in developing cleaner automotive technologies and thus surrendering the initial market lead to rival OEMs.
Published on Wednesday, June 13, 2007
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