Cars! Cars! Cars! (“A Car Blog. Only Angrier”) sees a paradox in a recent statement by Allan Mulallay: that getting a plug-in hybrid to market will take 5-10 years.
Problem is that most of the world also understands that Ford may well be dead well before that time. Read the full article: http://carscarscars.blogs.com/index/2007/07/ford-sees-plug-.html
Background: a plug-in hybrid is one that relies on stored electrical power (battery) rather than gas engine-generated electrical power. A plug-in hybrid would be plugged into your home overnight to charge it for the next day. The gas engine would only be used as an absolute last resort. Un-said is that the electric engine would need to be usable at higher speeds and across a broader range of driving conditions than the typical hybrid of today. If you drive an Escaqpe hybrid today, brisk acceleration can result in a switch back to the gas engine, along with certain road speeds, running the full “max” air conditioner, and more. People are finding in the Escape and in other hybrids that they are spending less time on the electric engine that they would have hoped (and therefore getting worse fuel economy). I’ve said it before: I’d be happy to have an Escape Hybrid for a daily driver if it wasn’t for these limitations. In the heat of a Texas summer, we require MAX aircon. I’d like to see what “version 2” of this system looks like… it’s known that a hybrid Fusion is coming and perhaps that will have some evolution in the powertrain.
Cars! Cars! Cars! is always a good read. I see a kindred soul there… somebody who enjoys telling it the way it is, but also has the knowledge to back it up.