2013 Ford C-Max Energi is Dearborn’s Answer To Volt And Prius

This story originally appeared at Green Car Reports

Toyota has managed to make its Prius family iconic, instantly identified by its unique silhouettes and body styles, and almost synonymous with ‘hybrid’; and this past year, GM’s Chevrolet Volt, as well as the Nissan Leaf have gone on sale with distinct shapes identifying them as being among the greenest vehicles.

Now, Ford Motor Co. is poised to do the same. At launch, sometime
next year, the C-Max will be offered only in Hybrid and Energi (plug-in
hybrid) versions, the company confirme.

And the automaker clearly
has high-volume plans for this all-electrified vehicle. “We’re not
really electrifying a certain vehicle as a science project,” said Ford’s
global marketing chief, Jim Farley. “We’re electrifying an entire
platform.”

A plug-in with 500-mile driving range

The 2013 Ford C-Max Energi will have a two-motor hybrid system, with one traction
motor and the other that doubles as a generator system. The C-Max Energi
will provide electric-only operation at lower speeds. It’s obviously a
much larger battery, but Ford hadn’t yet released its capacity, the
model’s range, or whether it will fully provide high-speed operation in
electric-only mode. In any case, the automaker confirmed that it will
provide a total driving range of 500 miles, including that initial
battery-only range.

For the C-Max Hybrid, Ford confirmed that it
will be raising the speed at which the system can operate in
electric-only mode, from about 47 mph in the current Fusion Hybrid.

This
also marks Ford’s first deployment of lithium-ion battery technology in
a hybrid. Lithium-ion designs are 25 to 30 percent smaller and 50
percent lighter for a comparable power profile, Ford says. The C-Max
Hybrid will be the first Ford model to get a so-called third-generation
version of Ford’s hybrid system, including the new batteries and all
certified to the AT-PZEV emissions standard.

In the C-Max Hybrid, a
reworked version of MyFord Touch will also be featured, as well as a
version of the automaker’s class-leading Active Park Assist
system–making the C-Max models especially well-suited to urban driving.

Faster charging time than Volt?

Recharge
time for the C-Max Energi will be faster than the Chevrolet Volt,
according to Ford–just under three hours with hardware available through
Best Buy and supported by the retail chain’s Geek Squad. The model can
also be recharged “easily overnight” using a standard 110-volt household
plug.

Ford is already comparing and contrasting the C-Max to the
Volt. Chief engineer John Davis, responding to a question after the
announcement, said that in full electric mode, you’ll see a degree of
similarity in performance and range to the Volt, yet the C-Max will have
seating for five as opposed to the Volt’s four-passenger capacity.

And
as a sidenote, in the interest of focusing on a single unique body
style, the roomier, seven-passenger Grand C-Max design that Ford had
previously said was also in the pipeline for North America won’t be
coming to these shores at all.

Ford to triple electrified vehicle production by 2013

Ford
plans to triple its production capacity of electrified vehicles by
2013, from a current total of about 35,000 today (all hybrids). To date,
Ford has about 140,000 hybrids on U.S. roads–which pales in comparison
to Toyota, which passed cumulative one million Prius models sold in the
U.S. a few months ago. But it is the number-one domestic producer of
hybrids.

Both the 2013 Ford C-Max Energi and C-Max Hybrid models
will be built in Southeastern Michigan, Ford confirmed, and alongside
the upcoming 2012. Also, Ford is planning to keep all core-powertrain
aspects in-house, in Michigan, for the C-Max. It’s already readying for
increased production at its Van Dyke transmission plant, and the larger
plug-in battery for the Energi model will be brought to the automaker’s
Rawsonville plant.

Ford will begin producing the new hybrid
transmission later this year and will be starting production early next
year on the new C-Max models. The 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid is set to
arrive in the first half of the year, with the C-Max Energi to follow
later in the year.