Ford’s been open about the fact that it intends to build 10 new cars off the global C-car platform (Focus), but they’ve stayed coy about exactly which models. MT has been digging to find out what they all are.
We know about the Focus sedan, hatchback, and wagon, plus the C-Max (five-seat), and Grand C-Max (seven-seat) minivans. There will also be a crossover replacing the Escape in the U.S. and the Kuga in Europe. That makes six. North America will get the sedan, hatchback, Grand C-Max, and the Escape replacement.
The Focus EV will be counted as a separate model. Its body will be somewhat differentiated from the gasoline sedan’s. A C-Max hybrid and a C-Max plug-in hybrid will be made in Europe and exported to the U.S. It’s likely that the bigger hybrid in the U.S. will be on the crossover body. That takes us to 10. The last of these will be available by calendar 2013. After that, Ford will begin studying other body styles, perhaps including a sport coupe, but insiders insist no decision has been made.
The C-car architecture has been protected from the start for the electric and hybrid powertrains. All use the same engine-mount points as the gasoline and diesel versions, and the body rigidity, resonances, and crash performance are designed for the differing placement of the masses in these various systems.
The EV Focus will have a range of 100 miles under European combined cycle conditions. The price will be similar to the PHEV, which has a 30-mile EV range. That’s because the cost of its extra 70 miles’ worth of batteries is approximately equal to the cost of the PHEV’s gasoline engine and hybrid transmission.
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