The C-MAX Hybrid will go on sale in 2012 and be part of a dedicated family of electrified vehicles along with the C-MAX Energi Plug-in Hybrid.
Ford Motor Company today said that its plan to introduce a gasoline-fueled version of the 7-passenger C-Max minivan has been canceled. In its place will be smaller, five-passenger C-Max hybrids in both conventional and plug-in hybrid sold as 2013 models. It’s really just a hatchback Focus.
The C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid and C-MAX hybrid will be followed by another next-generation hybrid in 2012, presumably an updated hybrid version of the Ford Fusion, which in its gasoline form remains the best selling car at the Number Two U.S. automaker. The smaller C-Max size is important for getting higher fuel economy ratings for government CAFE credits biased towards plug-ins, as well as marketing and publicity reasons in a segment that because of its premium pricing remains tiny.
Ford is clearly lagging Toyota in hybrids, given Toyota’s 60% share of the U.S. hybrid market. Ford is also on a global basis trailing Nissan and Renault in electric vehicles. So it’s not surprising that Ford is in the process of expanding its line of alternative fuel vehicles, thus far mostly by press releases. Five of what Ford calls “electrified vehicles” of sorts are now planned for North America by 2012 – including the Transit Connect Electric, on sale now, and Focus Electric later this year.
Ford currently sells approximately 35,000 hybrid vehicles a year, led by the Fusion Hybrid and Escape Hybrid – the most fuel-efficient mid-size sedan in the U.S. and, arguably, the most fuel-efficient SUV in the world, respectively, although vagaries in different test cycles make it impossible to make direct comparisons.
Toyota Motor Sales announced in April the one-millionth sale of the Toyota Prius in the United States. Prius was the world’s first mass-produced hybrid gas-electric vehicle, and in its third generation is unquestionably the most successful hybrid, which continues to give Toyota a halo reputation as an environmentally responsible company.
The new Ford C-MAX hybrid is targeted to deliver better mpg than Fusion hybrid and is the first of two new Ford hybrids to use lithium ion battery technology. Lithium-ion batteries can be up to 50% lighter and 25% smaller than current nickel-metal-hydride batteries used in the Prius and increase the amount of energy available to extend the vehicle’s driving distance and boost fuel economy the way the government calculates it.
Both the C-MAX Hybrid and C-MAX Energi models will be assembled alongside the all-new 2012 Ford Focus and Focus Electric at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan. Employees at the Rawsonville Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan will assemble the lithium-ion battery packs for C-MAX Hybrid. Ford also confirmed today that the larger lithium-ion battery packs for the Energi plug in also will be produced at Rawsonville. Originally it was sourced in Mexico.
