Think of the Ford F-Series Super Duty product line and you wouldn’t normally think green – however, that may all be about to change after an agreement was reached with Azure Dynamics Corporation.
The company has entered an agreement with Ford to integrate its plug-in hybrid vehicle technology into the product line. It will start with the Ford F-Series Super Duty cab and chassis, the F-550, which will be available from early 2013. The agreement will then allow Azure to perform hybrid powertrain conversions on other Super Duty platforms such as the F-350 and the F-450.
According to Azure, roughly two-thirds of the engineered parallel plug-in hybrid system will be applicable to all Super Duty powertrain configurations, while a third will need to be powertrain specific.
At the moment the Ford F-Series Super Duty has more than a 50 per cent share in the North American market and supports approximately 100,000 vehicles per year.
Now the plug-in hybrid F-Series programme will expand on the existing Azure/Ford business relationship – they originally teamed up in 2009 to bring the Transit Connect Electric to market in just 13months.
