As it aims to lower fuel consumption in combustion engine vehicles and extend the range of electric vehicles, Ford sees reducing weight as a key enabling technology.
The company made a huge impact at the North American International Auto Show with the introduction of a broad spectrum of new products including the all-new Ford Focus and the Ford C-MAX Energi. A fundamental theme throughout its new vehicles however, is that lighter is better with Ford’s vice president Barb Samardzich commenting that the more weight that can be taken out of vehicles the better. He believes this will allow Ford to further downsize engines with the aim of still providing customers with the package they are accustomed to.
For example, the 2011 Ford Explorer uses an array of lightweight materials including an aluminium engine, bonnet and wheels, helping it to 20 per cent better fuel economy than the previous model. It will also soon be available with an advanced 2.0litre EcoBoost I-4 engine that should deliver 30 per cent better fuel economy than the 2010 model.
Ford is looking into different material approaches to produce lighter vehicles. These include aluminium-intensive vehicles and carbon fibre as well as high strength steels that can be made much thinner than some existing steels to balance the cost and performance aspects.
It was even noted that removing some weight from electric vehicles can allow for smaller and lower weight battery packs to be used – or a longer range for the same size vehicle. Even though Ford’s planned plug-in passenger vehicles are built on the C platform, there is no size limit to its battery electric vehicles going forward.
