| As part of a roll out of a series of alternative powertrain demonstrators, Ford unveiled a hydrogen fuel cell variant of its Explorer SUV at the Los Angeles Motor Show. Ford claims that it can travel further than any other fuel cell vehicle – up to 350 miles – on a single fill up and that this Explorer has also taken the record for the greatest distance over 24 hours, clocking up 1556 miles. So far this year, the Explorer has covered more than 17,000 miles. The company says it will unveil the next technology demonstrator vehicle at the 2007 Detroit Motor Show.
The Explorer is part of a program part-funded by the US department of energy to establish an alternative fuel source to oil and that has a reduced environmental impact to current powertrain technologies.
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No detroit iron under the hood |
The fuel cell replaces the four litre six or 4.6 litre eight cylinder engines that would normally be found under the bonnet and the hydrogen tank is located where the six speed automatic transmission would be, allowing engineers to maximise tank volume which contributes to the extended range.
A 60kW Ballard fuel cell and a 50kW battery give the 2560kg SUV 35mpg capability.
Ford stresses that the vehicle retains the four wheel drive traction, six passenger practicality and cargo carrying capacity of the standard model.
It sees hybrid vehicles as one of the near-term approaches to reducing dependence on fossil fuels, with hydrogen fuel cells to be considered a long-term option.
“We believe hydrogen may become a viable motor fuel in the long-term,” said Gerhard Schmidt, vice president, research & advanced engineering, Ford Motor Company. “With these technology demonstration vehicles, Ford continues to lead the way in the development of hydrogen technology.”
Ford has a fleet of 30 Focus fuel cell cars which it says have amassed more than 300,000 real world test miles throughout several cities. In July this year Ford started production of the 6.8 litre supercharged V10 hydrogen IC engine for use in the E-450 shuttle bus. |
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